Charops electrinus, Vas, 2020

Vas, Zoltán, 2020, New Species And Records Of Charops Holmgren, 1859 (Hymenoptera: Ichneumonidae: Campopleginae), Acta Zoologica Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae 66 (3), pp. 247-264 : 253-255

Charops electrinus sp. n.

( Figs 4–6 )

Type material – Holotype: female, Uganda, Mujenje, VIII.1913, leg. [K.] Katona [= K. Kittenberger]; specimen card-mounted, Id. No. HNHM-HYM 153213 . – The holotype specimen is deposited in the Hymenoptera Collection of HNHM (Budapest, Hungary).

Diagnosis – Charops electrinus sp. n. could be easily identified by its colouration (tegula pale yellow, fore and middle legs except coxae ivory, hind femur brown, hind tibia brown with distinct basal yellowish spot, metasoma including apical tergites amber yellow with rather narrow brownish dorsal patches), apically strongly curved distal abscissa of Rs, basally developed propodeal carination, and small size.

Description – Female ( Figs 4–6 ). Body length ca. 7 mm, fore wing length ca. 4 mm.

Head: Antenna with 32 flagellomeres; first flagellomere ca. 2.7× as long as apically wide; preapical flagellomeres little longer than wide. Head lenticular, matt, its anterior surface rugose-punctate, posterior surface granulate with indistinct punctures, and with dense, moderately long, greyish hairs. Ocular-ocellar distance 0.3× as long as ocellus diameter, posterior ocellar distance about as long as ocellus diameter. Inner eye orbits strongly indented and weakly convergent ventrally. Malar space very short, ca. 0.25× as long as basal width of mandible. Face conspicuously narrow, weakly convex in profile, narrowed ventrally, minimal width of face ca. 0.5× as long as eye length. Clypeus very weakly separated from face, convex in profile, its apical margin convex, rather sharp. Mandible short, high, lower margin of mandible with rather wide flange from teeth toward base, flange abruptly narrowed at teeth, mandibular teeth of equal length.

Mesosoma: Mesosoma with dense, moderately long, greyish hairs. Pronotum finely granulate with strong transverse wrinkles, its upper edge and posterior corner rugose; epomia distinct. Mesoscutum coarsely rugose, weakly convex in profile, little shorter than wide, notaulus not developed. Scuto-scutellar groove very narrow. Scutellum coarsely rugose, wide, flat, medially widely impressed, concave, lateral carina indistinct. Mesopleuron coarsely rugose with short transverse wrinkles along posterior margin; mesopleural suture not impressed. Epicnemial carina complete, pleural part bent to anterior margin of mesopleuron reaching it about its middle height, transversal part (i.e. part at the level of sternaulus running through the epicnemium to the ventral edge of pronotum) developed but relatively weak, ventral part (behind fore coxae) complete, slightly elevated. Sternaulus indistinct. Posterior transverse carina of mesosternum complete, medially excised, submedially developed into a pair of tooth-like, triangular processes. Metanotum rugose, short, about 0.25× as long as scutellum. Metapleuron coarsely rugose; juxtacoxal carinae distinct, strong; submetapleural carina complete, strong. Pleural carina of propodeum strong; propodeal spiracle elongate, narrow, separated from pleural carina by about twothird of its length, connected to pleural carina by a distinct ridge. Propodeum coarsely rugose with transverse and irregular wrinkles, long, its apex reaching little beyond middle length of hind coxa. Lateromedian longitudinal carinae distinct on basal half of propodeum, costula distinct, propodeal carinae on apical half of propodeum obsolescent. Fore wing without areolet, 3 rs-m missing; pterostigma long and narrow; second recurrent vein (2 m-cu) distal to intercubitus (2 rs-m) by about 0.8× length of intercubitus; distal abscissa of Rs straight, its distal part strongly curved toward wing margin; nervulus (cu-a) postfurcal by about its width; postnervulus (abscissa of Cu 1 between 1 m-cu and Cu 1a + Cu 1b) intercepted distinctly above middle by Cu 1a. Hind wing with nervellus (cu-a + abscissa of Cu 1 between M and cu-a) reclivous, intercepted by discoidella (distal abscissa of Cu 1) little above its middle; discoidella spectral, proximally connected to nervellus. Coxae granulate with superficial, weak punctures. Hind femur long and slender, about 6.5× as long as high. Inner spur of hind tibia about 0.7× as long as first tarsomere of hind tarsus. Tarsal claws small and short, little longer than arolium, basal half with small but distinct pecten.

Metasoma: Metasoma strongly compressed, very finely granulate with short greyish to whitish hairs. First tergite very long and slender, upcurved, more than 7× as long as width of its apical margin, 1.25× as long as second tergite, without glymma; dorsomedian carina of first tergite missing; postpetiolus bulging. Second tergite long and slender, ca. 5× as long as its apical width; thyridium oval, its distance from basal margin of tergite about 3× as long as its length. Posterior margins of third and following tergites medially weakly and widely concave, posterior margin of seventh tergite strongly excised. Ovipositor sheath short, subequal to apical depth of metasoma; ovipositor strong, compressed, dorsal preapical notch distinct, lower valve abruptly narrowed before apex.

Colour: Antenna dark brown to brown, scapus and pedicellus brown with somewhat paler, rather narrow apical margins. Head black, basal half of mandible blackish, apical half yellowish with reddish brown teeth, palpi ivory. Mesosoma black except tegula pale yellow. Metasoma including apical tergites predominantly amber yellow with rather narrow brownish dorsal patches; petiolus yellowish, at extreme basal part blackish, postpetiolus amber yellow; second tergite with narrow dark brown apical margin. Wings subhyaline, wing veins and pterostigma light brown. Fore leg: coxa predominantly blackish to dark brown, apically narrowly yellowish; rest of leg ivory, apical tarsomeres yellowish brown. Middle leg: coxa blackish to dark brown; rest of leg ivory, apical tarsomeres yellowish brown. Hind leg: coxa blackish to dark brown; trochanter yellow, basally brownish yellow; trochantellus ivory; femur brown; tibia brown with distinct basal pale yellow spot; tarsus brown.

Male: Unknown.

Distribution – Currently known from Uganda.

Etymology – The specific epithet electrinus is the masculine form of the Latin adjective electrinus , -a, -um meaning amber-coloured; it refers to the colouration of metasoma of the new species.

Remarks – Among the Afrotropical species of the genus the new species is somewhat similar to Charops spinitarsis Cameron, 1905 ; however, this species could be distinguished from the new species by its distinctly reddish hind femur and hind tibia, predominantly rusty reddish metasoma, apically at most slightly curved distal abscissa of Rs, and larger size (ca. 10 mm). Due to its light colouration and small size Charops electrinus sp. n. is superficially similar to the East Asian-Australian species Charops bicolor ( Szépligeti, 1906) ; however, this species could be readily distinguished from the new species by its predominantly yellowish fore and middle coxae, yellowish brown hind femur and tibia, ventrally bright yellow scapus and pedicellus, and different, faint propodeal carination. See Discussion for the identification key of Afrotropical Charops species.

Figures

Figs 4–6. Charops electrinus sp. n., holotype: 4 = lateral habitus, 5 = head, frontal view, 6 = fore wing, distal abscissa of Rs (scale bar on Fig. 4 = 1 mm)