Campoletis rubella 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 : 262-264

Campoletis rubella Vas , sp. nov.

Figs 1–4

Type material. Holotype:female, Iran, Shiraz , 29°36’52.373”N, 52°28’9.147”E, 2018.07.31 –08.06., leg. Sh. Rezaei, No. 80, Id. No. HNHM-HYM 155250 . Paratypes: female, same locality but 2018.07.18 –07.23., leg. Sh. Rezaei, No. 70, Id. No. HNHM-HYM 155251 ; male, Iran, Shiraz (Zafar Abad), 29°24’6.492”N, 52°35’1.453”E, 2019.06.01 – 09., leg. Sh. Rezaei, No. 124, Id. No. HNHM-HYM 155252 ; male, Iran, Dalin , 30°02’15.0”N, 52°07’54.7”E, 2019.06.08 –18., leg. Sh. Rezaei, No. 118, Id. No. HNHM-HYM 155253 . The holotype and the paratype specimens are card-mounted, and are deposited in HNHM .

Diagnosis. The new species can be reliably identified by the following character states in combination: apical margin of clypeus with a distinct, triangular median tooth; gena in dorsal view 0.4× as long as eye width, strongly narrowed behind eyes; malar space 0.6× as long as basal width of mandible; ventral part of epicnemial carina little elevated; longitudinal carinae of propodeum complete, costulae obsolescent; area superomedia hexagonal, 1.0–1.1× as long as wide, subparallel behind costulae, posteriorly very weakly, indistinctly closed; nervulus postfurcal by about its width; lower external angle of second discal cell ca. 80°; second tergite in female 1.2–1.3×, in male 1.3–1.4× as long as its apical width; ovipositor sheath 0.5–0.6× as long as hind tibia; antenna brown, apical third orange-brown; tegula pale yellow; metasoma reddish orange to orange, except basal half of first tergite blackish; legs, including coxae, predominantly orange, femora and tibiae without darkened parts, entirely orange in female, partly yellowish in male.

Description. Female ( Figs 1–4 ). Body length ca. 5.0– 5.5 mm, fore wing length ca. 4.0– 4.5 mm.

Head: Antenna short, with 27 flagellomeres; first flagellomere ca. 3× as long as its apical width; preapical flagellomeres quadrate to slightly wider than long. Head transverse, matt, granulate, with moderately short hairs. Ocelli small, ocular-ocellar distance and distance between lateral ocelli as long as ocellus diameter. Inner eye orbits weakly indented, subparallel, slightly convergent ventrad ( Fig. 2 ). Gena short, in dorsal view 0.4× as long as eye width, strongly narrowed behind eyes ( Fig. 3 ). Occipital carina complete, reaching hypostomal carina slightly before base of mandible; hypostomal carina slightly elevated. Frons flat, impressed above toruli, without median longitudinal carina. Face and clypeus almost flat in profile. Clypeus very weakly separated from face, its apical margin subtruncate with distinct, triangular median tooth. Malar space 0.6× as long as basal width of mandible. Mandible strong, lower margin with relatively narrow flange from base towards teeth, flange gradually narrowed before teeth; upper mandibular tooth slightly longer than lower tooth.

Mesosoma: Mesosoma matt, granulate, without punctures, and with short, dense hairs. Pronotum with weak, transverse and diagonal wrinkles on ventral half, epomia relatively weak. Mesoscutum about as long as wide, convex in profile; notaulus not developed. Scuto-scutellar groove wide and deep. Scutellum convex in profile, without lateral carinae. Mesopleuron without punctures; speculum finely coriaceous to smooth, subpolished to polished. Epicnemial carina strong, pleural part bent to anterior margin of mesopleuron reaching it below 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, medially not excised. Metanotum 0.4–0.5× as long as scutellum. Metapleuron without juxtacoxal carina; submetapleural carina complete, elevated. Pleural carina of propodeum complete; propodeal spiracle small, subcircular, separated from pleural carina by about its length or little less, connected to pleural carina by a distinct ridge. Propodeum ( Fig. 4 ) granulate with transverse wrinkles on posterior half, convex in profile. Lateromedian and lateral longitudinal carinae of propodeum complete, posteriorly slightly weakened; costulae obsolescent. Area basalis trapezoidal, slightly shorter than its basal width. Area superomedia hexagonal, 1.0–1.1× as long as wide, subparallel behind costulae, posteriorly very weakly, indistinctly closed, its junction with area petiolaris discernible, costulae slightly behind its middle. Area petiolaris relatively wide, medially slightly impressed. Fore wing with petiolate, rectangular areolet, 3 rs-m present, second recurrent vein (2 m-cu) distinctly proximal to middle of areolet; distal abscissa of Rs almost straight; nervulus (cu-a) postfurcal by about its width, inclivous; postnervulus (abscissa of Cu 1 between 1 m-cu and Cu 1a + Cu 1b) intercepted distinctly below its middle by Cu 1a; lower external angle of second discal cell weakly acute (ca. 80°). Hind wing with nervellus (cu-a + abscissa of Cu 1 between M and cu-a) vertical to slightly reclivous, weakly broken, intercepted by discoidella (Cu 1) at about its posterior 0.3; discoidella spectral, proximally connected to nervellus. Coxae granulate. Fore tibia stout, 4.6–4.9× as long as high. Hind femur ca. 5× as long as high. Inner spur of hind tibia ca. 0.55× as long as first tarsomere of hind tarsus. Tarsal claws small, little longer than arolium, basally distinctly pectinate.

Metasoma: Metasoma moderately compressed, finely coriaceous to shagreened, and with dense, short hairs. First tergite ca. 2.5× as long as width of its apical margin; glymma weak; dorsomedian carinae of first tergite distinct. Second tergite 1.2–1.3× as long as its apical width; thyridium oval, its distance from basal margin of tergite about as long as its length. Posterior margins of apical tergites strongly excised. Ovipositor sheath short, 0.8–0.9× as long as first tergite, 0.5–0.6× as long as hind tibia; ovipositor compressed, apically slightly upcurved, dorsal preapical notch deep.

Colour: Antenna, including scapus and pedicellus, brown, apical third distinctly lighter, orange-brown. Head black, except palpi and mandible yellowish, mandibular teeth dark. Mesosoma black, except tegula pale yellow. Metasoma reddish orange to orange, except basal half of first tergite blackish; ovipositor sheath dark brown. Wings subhyaline, wing veins brown, pterostigma brown to light brown. Fore and middle legs, including coxae, orange, except trochanters, trochantelli and tibial spurs yellowish. Hind leg, including coxa, orange, except trochantellus and tibial spurs yellowish, femur and tibia entirely orange, without darkened parts. Hairs silvery to greyish.

Male: Similar to female in all characters described above, except: antenna longer and slenderer, with 30 flagellomeres, preapical flagellomeres longer than wide; mesoscutum slightly longer than wide; area superomedia slightly narrowed behind costulae; fore tibia 5.5–5.8× as long as high; second tergite 1.3–1.4× as long as its apical width; posterior margins of apical tergites not excised; fore and middle coxae apically, fore and middle tibiae externally, hind externo-medially yellowish, hind tarsus brownish, claspers brown.

Distribution. Iran.

Etymology. The specific epithet rubella is the feminine form of the Latin adjective rubellus, -a, -um meaning reddish; it refers to the colouration of metasoma and legs of the new species.

Remarks on identification. The new species is somewhat similar to C. cognata (Tschek) , a widely distributed Palaearctic species. By using the identification key in Riedel (2017), the new species runs to couplet 32, then, depending on the choice (as the range of length per width ratio of second tergite of the new species partly overlaps with the ranges given in both halves of couplet 32), it might key out either with C. raptor (Zetterstedt) at couplet 32, or with C. cognata at couplet 34. Both of these species can be easily distinguished from the new species by their less extensively orange-coloured metasoma (at least basal and apical tergites predominantly dark) and legs (all coxae of females dark, or at least hind coxae of males dark), longer gena (gena in dorsal view 0.6–0.8× as long as eye width), weakly to distinctly punctate mesopleuron, fully developed costulae, and strong glymma; and, additionally, C. raptor by its longer and distinctly upcurved ovipositor (ovipositor sheath 1.15–1.25× as long as first tergite), while C. cognata by its basally and apically distinctly darkened hind tibia. Campoletis deserticola Sheng & Zhou , a somewhat similar species recently described from China ( Wei et al. 2020), can be readily distinguished by its dark coxae and trochanters, apically dark metasoma, strong glymma, and transverse second tergite.

Figures

FIGURES 1–4. Campoletis rubella Vas, sp. nov. 1, holotype female, lateral habitus, scale bar = 1 mm; 2, head, frontal view; 3, head, dorsal view; 4, propodeum, dorsal view.