Methocha formosana Williams, 1919

Narita, Keisuke & Mita, Toshiharu, 2021, A review of the subfamily Methochinae from Taiwan (Hymenoptera: Tiphiidae) with description of a new species and redescription of the known species, Zootaxa 4964 (2), pp. 303-329 : 314-316

6. Methocha formosana Williams, 1919

Figs 52–58

Methoca (sic!) formosana Williams, 1919: 37 . Type locality: Taipei. Fig 8 .

Methocha formosana: Lin, 1966: 183 , 199.

Material examined. Type material. Type specimen not examined. Non-type materials. 2♀, N22. 2468. E120.8281, Alt. 390m, Shouka, Shizi , Pingtung, 3.iv.2017, K. Narita leg. [ ELKU]; 5♀, N22.6467. E120.9573 , Alt. 1100m, Mt. Kinchen-shan, Jinfeng , Taitung, 11.v.2017, T. Mita leg. [ ELKU] .

Diagnosis. This species can be distinguished from other Asian Methocha species by a combination of the following characters: the coarsely punctate frons; absence of the frontal tubercles; the subtruncate clypeal apex; the fused mesoscutum with the mesoscutellum and the mesepisternum; the black mesosoma; the basally swollen apical tooth and the triangular basal tooth on the tarsal claws.

Redescription. Female.

Head ( Figs 56, 57 ). Head 0.9 times as long as wide in frontal view; temple weakly rounded in dorsal view; ocelli forming acute triangle, POL:AOL:DAO = 0.9:1.0:0.3–0.4; vertex sparsely punctate; frons coarsely punctate: punctures larger and denser on vertex, 0.5–5.0 puncture diameters apart, frontal tubercles absent; frontal line or median depression present around narrowest part, posterior surface coriaceous; gena sparsely punctate, moderately narrowed downwardly laterally; clypeus coriaceous, covered with large punctures above rugulae, surface around anterior margin rugulose, clypeal apex subtruncate or faintly incurved; mandible not distally narrowed, lower tooth longer than upper one; maxillary palpus slightly shorter than pronotal disc, ratio of length to width of palpomeres II–VI: 2.5–3:3–7:7–12:7–11:10; ratio of length to width of flagellomeres I–III: 1.7–2.5:1.3–2.2:1.1–2.2.

Mesosoma ( Figs 54, 55 ). Collar of pronotum distinctly costate dorsally; pronotal disc smooth; mesoscutum elongated, anterior surface longitudinally striated, posterior surface smooth; mesoscutellum smooth, elevated, rounded in profile, postero-lateral corner with deep notch; suture between mesoscutum and mesoscutellum or mesepisternum absent, completely fused; tegula present; mesepisternum convex, smooth, lower surface rugose; metanotum with anterior crescentic depression; propodeum trapezoidal, smooth.

Legs. All tarsal claws ( Fig 58 ) strongly curved in apical half, tridentate, apical tooth sharp, basally swollen, subapical one truncate, shorter than apical one, basal one triangular, almost half subapical one.

Metasoma. Oval, polished, sparsely punctate by minute punctures; petiole longitudinally rugose, with coriaceous interspaces, surface on ventral sides coriaceous, sometimes bearing weak transversal irregular carinae.

Color. Black, except apical four-fifth of mandible testaceous, maxillary palpus pale yellow, scape largely brown and other part testaceous or pale yellow, pedicel testaceous or pale yellow, flagellomeres brown or flagellomere I pale yellow, mid coxae and hind coxae dark brown, trochanters testaceous, femora and tibiae dark brown, tarsi testaceous.

Measurements. BL 3.4–5.5 mm, HL 0.7–1.1 mm, HW 0.7–1.2 mm, WF 0.3–0.5 mm, EL 0.5–0.8 mm, ML 1.2–2.4 mm, MW 0.4–0.7 mm.

Male. Unknown.

Distribution. Northern and southern Taiwan.

Figures

FIGURES 52–55. Methocha formosana Williams, 1919, individual, female. 52 Dorsal habitus, 53 lateral habitus, 54 mesosoma, dorsal view, 55 mesosoma, lateral view.

FIGURES 56–58. Methocha formosana Williams, 1919, individual, female. 56 Head, frontal view, 57 head, lateral view, 58 hind tarsal claw. Scale bars are given in mm.

FIGURES 4–11. Methocha alutacea Lin, 1966, individual, male. 4 Head, frontal view, 5 head, lateral view, 6 propodeum, 7 hind tarsal claw, 8 T1, dorsal view, 9 right paramere, lateral view (right side is dorsal), 10 aedeagus, dorsal view, arrow indicating median membranous lobe, 11 aedeagus, lateral view. Scale bars are given in mm.