Melalophacharops persicus Vas

Vas, Zoltán, Rezaei, Shoreh, Fallahzadeh, Majid, Mohammadi-Khoramabadi, Abbas, Saghaei, Nazila & Ljubomirov, Toskho, 2022, Contributions to the taxonomy, identification, and biogeography of Palaearctic Campopleginae (Hymenoptera: Ichneumonidae), with the descriptions of four new species from Iran, Zootaxa 5134 (2), pp. 261-274 : 270-273

Melalophacharops persicus Vas , sp. nov.

Figs 13–16

Type material. Holotype: female, Iran, Fars, Darab, Layzangan, Dasht-e-Gol , 28°42’15”N, 54°54’14”E, 2641m, 2019.7.2 –15, leg. A. Mohammadi, Malaise trap, specimen card-mounted, Id. No. HNHM-HYM 155258 . Paratype: female, same locality and collector, 2019.6.9 –7.2. The holotype and paratype specimens are card-mounted, the holotype is deposited in HNHM, the paratype in the Insect Collection of College of Agriculture and Natural Resources of Darab, Shiraz University .

Diagnosis. The new species can be reliably identified by the following character states in combination: ocularocellar distance 0.7× as long as ocellus diameter; face rugose; malar space 0.6× as long as basal width of mandible; scutellum strongly but almost evenly convex in profile, lateral carinae developed only on basal half; dorsal half of mesopleuron rugose with fine punctures and with diagonal wrinkles anterior to speculum, ventral half of mesopleuron punctate on coriaceous background; ventral part of epicnemial carina little elevated; propodeum rugose, propodeal carinae distinctly developed on anterior third, obsolescent on posterior two-third; area superomedia as long as wide, parallel behind costulae, posteriorly opened; glymma small; scapus and pedicellus ventrally yellowish orange; tegula pale yellow; metasoma orange, except basal 0.7 of first segment black and apical margin of second tergite laterally narrowly blackish; hind femur and tibia reddish orange, tibia with a pale basal spot.

Description. Female ( Figs 13–16 ). Body length ca. 7 mm, fore wing length ca. 5 mm.

Head: Antenna long and slender, with 35 flagellomeres; first flagellomere ca. 4× as long as its apical width; preapical flagellomeres slightly longer than wide. Head with relatively long hairs, transverse, matt; vertex, frons, face, clypeus and malar space rugose; gena and occiput coriaceous with small, weak punctures; occiput distinctly impressed. Ocular-ocellar distance 0.7× as long as ocellus diameter, distance between lateral ocelli 2× as long as ocellus diameter. Inner eye orbits distinctly indented, about parallel ( Fig. 14 ). Gena short, in dorsal view 0.4× as long as eye width, very strongly, linearly narrowed behind eyes ( Fig. 15 ). Occipital carina complete, reaching hypostomal carina distinctly before base of mandible; both carinae slightly elevated. Frons flat, slightly impressed above toruli, median longitudinal carina absent. Face slightly convex, clypeus almost flat in profile. Clypeus very weakly separated from face, small, its apical margin weakly convex, sharp. Malar space 0.6× as long as basal width of mandible. Mandible short, lower margin with wide flange from base towards teeth, flange gradually narrowed before teeth; upper mandibular tooth slightly longer than lower tooth.

Mesosoma: Mesosoma conspicuously stout, its maximum length ca. 1.2× as long as its maximum depth in profile; matt to subpolished with short, dense hairs. Pronotum finely rugose-punctate, with strong transverse and diagonal wrinkles on ventral two-third, epomia strong. Mesoscutum coarsely rugose-punctate, as long as wide, convex in profile; notaulus not developed. Scuto-scutellar groove wide and moderately deep. Scutellum coarsely rugose, strongly but almost evenly convex in profile, lateral carinae developed only on basal half. Dorsal half of mesopleuron rugose with fine punctures and with diagonal wrinkles anterior to speculum; speculum smooth, polished; ventral half of mesopleuron punctate on coriaceous background. Epicnemial carina rather strong, pleural part bent to anterior margin of mesopleuron reaching it above its middle height, transversal part (i.e., the part at the level of sternaulus running through the epicnemium to the ventral edge of pronotum) not developed, ventral part (i.e., behind fore coxae) little elevated. Sternaulus indistinct. Posterior transverse carina of mesosternum complete, little elevated, medially not excised. Metanotum rugose, 0.4× as long as scutellum. Metapleuron rugose with weak, superficial punctures; basal section of juxtacoxal carina discernible; submetapleural carina complete, elevated. Pleural carina of propodeum apically weak; propodeal spiracle strongly elongate, separated from pleural carina by about its length, connected to pleural carina by a distinct ridge. Propodeum ( Fig. 16 ) rather short, in profile convex and flattened from behind, coarsely rugose, basally with weak, indistinct punctures. Propodeal carinae distinctly developed on anterior third (i.e., costulae, carinae bordering area basalis, and area superomedia except apically), obsolescent on posterior two-third except lateral sections of posterior transverse carina; median section of posterior transverse carina absent. Area basalis trapezoidal, distinctly shorter than its basal width. Area superomedia hexagonal, as long as wide, parallel behind costulae, posteriorly opened, costulae slightly before its middle. Area petiolaris rather wide, confluent with area superomedia, their junction discernible. Fore wing without areolet, 3 rs-m absent, second recurrent vein (2 m-cu) postfurcal, intercubitus (2 rs-m) 1.4× as long as abscissa of M between 2 rs-m and 2 m-cu; distal abscissa of Rs almost straight, at extreme apex slightly curved towards wing margin; nervulus (cu-a) postfurcal by ca. 0.3× its length, inclivous; postnervulus (abscissa of Cu 1 between 1 m-cu and Cu 1a + Cu 1b) intercepted slightly above its middle by Cu 1a; lower external angle of second discal cell acute. Hind wing with distinct axillus vein; nervellus (cu-a + abscissa of Cu 1 between M and cu-a) weakly inclivous, not broken, not intercepted by discoidella (Cu 1); discoidella spectral, proximally not connected to nervellus. Coxae finely coriaceous with weak, indistinct punctures. Hind femur slender, ca. 6× as long as high. Spurs of middle tibia rather uneven, inner spur ca. 2× as long as outer spur. Inner spur of hind tibia ca. 0.7× as long as first tarsomere of hind tarsus. Hind basitarsus with a midventral row of closely spaced, short hairs. Tarsal claws longer than arolium, basal two-third with distinct, long and strong pectinae.

Metasoma: Metasoma weakly compressed, finely coriaceous to shagreened, punctures indistinct, with moderately dense, short hairs. First tergite ca. 3× as long as width of its apical margin; glymma small; dorsomedian carinae of first tergite indistinctly weak. Second tergite as long as its apical width; thyridium subcircular, its distance from basal margin of tergite shorter than its length. Posterior margins of apical tergites not excised. Ovipositor sheath shorter than apical depth of metasoma; ovipositor straight, moderately compressed, dorsal preapical notch deep.

Colour: Antenna brown, except scapus and pedicellus ventrally yellowish orange. Head black, except palpi and mandible pale yellowish, mandibular teeth reddish brown. Mesosoma black, except tegula pale yellow. Metasoma orange, except basal 0.7 of first segment black and apical margin of second tergite laterally narrowly blackish; ovipositor sheath dark brown. Wings hyaline, wing veins brown, pterostigma somewhat lighter brown. Fore and middle legs: coxae blackish, suffused with dark reddish brown; trochanters and trochantelli pale yellowish to ivory, middle trochanter ventrally brownish; femora orange, basally and apically narrowly ivory; tibiae dorsally ivory, ventrally yellowish orange; tarsi ivory, distalmost tarsomeres more or less brownish. Hind leg: coxa black, apically narrowly dark reddish brown; trochanter and trochantellus predominantly dark brown, apically narrowly yellowish; femur reddish orange; tibia reddish orange with a basal pale yellowish spot, apically not darkened; tarsus brown. Hairs greyish.

Male: Unknown.

Distribution. Iran.

Etymology. The specific epithet persicus is the masculine form of the Latin adjective persicus , -a, -um, meaning Persian; it refers to the type locality of the new species.

Remarks on generic placement. The new species is included in Melalophacharops ; the presence of the axillus vein of hind wing and the strongly convex, not entirely carinate scutellum clearly separates it from the otherwise rather similar Microcharops Roman , which genus is characterized by the absence of the axillus vein of hind wing and by flat (at most weakly convex), fully carinate scutellum ( Townes 1970, Gupta 1987).

Remarks on identification. Melalophacharops is a rather small genus, prior to this paper only four valid species were known from the Eastern Palaearctic and Oriental regions ( Yu et al. 2016). The new species is not quite similar to any known species of the genus (cf. Ashmead 1905; Uchida 1928; 1932; 1957; Sonan 1930; Kusigemati 1987). Among the known species, due to its less extensive dark colouration, the Oriental species M. balajensis Kusigemati is somewhat similar to the new species. However, this species can be readily distinguished from the new species by its granulose face, rather differently sculptured and shaped propodeal areae (cf. Kusigemati (1987: fig. 2)), absent glymma (replaced by short longitudinal striae), darker metasoma (predominantly ferruginous with extensive brown patches) and legs (hind tibia darkened apically, without distinct basal pale spot).

Figures

FIGURES 13–16. Melalophacharops persicus Vas, sp. nov. 13, holotype female, lateral habitus, scale bar = 1 mm; 14, head, frontal view; 15, head, dorsal view; 16, propodeum, dorsal view.