Aleiodes (Hemigyroneuron) ugandaensis Butcher and Quicke, 2011

Areekul-Butcher, Buntika & Quicke, Donald L. J., 2011, Revision of Aleiodes (Hemigyroneuron) parasitic wasps (Hymenoptera: Braconidae: Rogadinae) with reappraisal of subgeneric limits, descriptions of new species and phylogenetic analysis, Journal of Natural History 45 (21 - 24), pp. 1403-1476 : 1466-1469

Aleiodes (Hemigyroneuron) ugandaensis Butcher and Quicke sp. nov.

( Figures 34 , 35 )

Material examined

Holotype. Female , “ Uganda, Serere, 8.viii.36 – 22.viii.1936, A. M. Gwynn; puparium on Hibiscus calycinus ” (BMNH) . Specimen mounted on same pin as heavily tanned, mummified geometrid larva with mid-dorsal, posterior parasitoid emergence hole.

Morphology

Length of body 8 mm, and of fore wing 7.9 mm.

Head. Antenna with 65 flagellomeres; terminal flagellomere acuminate; transverse, 1.66 times wider than maximally long in dorsal view; width of head 2.75 times shortest distance between eyes; height of eye 1.77 times shortest distance between eyes; frons shiny with weak aciculate sculpture, with distinct mid-longitudinal sulcus and with fine striation behind antennal sockets; without pit in front of anterior ocellus; posterior ocellar line: transverse diameter of posterior ocellus: shortest distance between posterior ocellus and eye = 1.8: 4.5: 1.0; occiput coriaceous with distinct transverse rugae medially; occipital carina broadly obliterated medially.

Metasoma. Mesoscutum coriaceous-rugulose and densely short-setose; notauli weakly indicated by lines of somewhat coarser sculpture; mesopleuron shiny with dense puncturation, without depressed precoxal suture; prepectal carina complete; (scutellar sulcus obliterated by pin); scutellum strongly sculptured, longitudinally striate-rugulose medially, more coarsely rugose laterally; median area of metanotum finely coriaceous; propodeum rugulose anteriorly becoming foveate-rugose posteriorly, with a complete mid-longitudinal carina, without tubercles.

Fore wing. Subbasal cell moderately setose basally, largely glabrous distally; vein M+CU with a short posterior spur demarking slightly oval, posterior part of subbasal cell which contains a single, oval, yellow sclerome with dense cluster of setae ventrally, and with small patch of setae in membrane anterior to sclerome; vein 1-CU1 2.25 times length of 2-CU1; vein cu-a weakly curved and strongly swollen posteriorly; length of veins r: 3-SR: SR1 = 1.0: 2.2: 5.3; vein m-cu 1.4 times length of 2-SR+M, forming an angle of.110 ◦ with vein 3-CU1; vein 2-M 3.0 times length of r-m.

Hind wing. Vein M+CU 1.25 times length of vein 1-M; vein 2-SC+R short longitudinal; basal, subbasal and discal+subdiscal cells more or less evenly setose.

Claws. With long, colourless pecten spines extending just beyond middle of basal lobe.

Metasoma. Tergites 1 and 2 with strong longitudinal striation and with ill-defined punctures between striae; basal 0.7 of 3rd tergite striate; 2nd tergite 1.35 times wider posteriorly than long, 1.2 times longer than 3rd.

Colouration

Body pale brown-yellow, antennae and stemmaticum black. Wings largely clear with apical 0.25 very pale infuscate and a pale infuscate band, somewhat darker anteriorly at level of parastigma. Fore wing veins 1-M, 1-SR and basal part of 1-SR+M darker brown.

Description of male tergal gland anatomy of A. (H.)subscleroma

Light microscopic examination of the gland openings in all but one species for which males are known show that there are a cluster of setae within each pore ( Figure 16F ), though when the pore is small these can be very hard to see. Following potassium hydroxide dissolution of non-chitinous tissue and staining of non-sclerotized chitin of the metasoma of a male A. (H.) subscleroma with chlorazol black, the external opening can be seen to lead to a parallel-sided duct running anteriorly just under the surface of the tergum, and originating in a large bilobed internal reservoir ( Figures 36A, B ). In some species, the duct can be seen clearly through the dorsal cuticle of the tergum e.g. roborti sp. nov., ( Figure 27B ).

Phylogeny of Aleiodes (Hemigyroneuron)

Species of Aleiodes (Hemigyroneuron) are rarely collected and therefore molecular phylogenetics is not currently a viable approach to understanding the biogeography of the included species. The morphological phylogenies presented here ( Figure 37 ), using a variety of approaches and assumptions about character state transitions, all show broadly similar topologies, with (1) A. (H.) certum forming the sister group to all other species; (2) a monophyletic group comprising all non-Afrotropical species with A. (H.) nigricans from China being basal in that clade and (3) a clade comprising the Afrotopical species plurivena sp. nov., ugandaensis sp. nov., amoretae sp. nov., elgon sp. nov., faddenae sp. nov., fenwickae sp. nov., meruensis sp. nov. and pappi sp. nov. Rather surprisingly the three species with a well-developed spur from fore wing vein M+CU clearly demarking an oval distal part of the subbasal cell ( glandularis sp. nov., plurivena sp. nov., sharkeyi sp. nov) never form a clade. Within the East Palaearctic ( China) and Asian clade, the three species with a sclerome in the subbasal cell are always widely dispersed on the trees, indicating the homoplastic nature of the presence/absence of this feature and its inadequacy for defining genera.

Figures

Figure 16. Aleiodes (Hemigyroneuron) glandularis sp. nov., CellD® light micrographs. (A) Head, frontal aspect; (B) head, dorsal aspect; (C) head and mesosoma, lateral aspect; (D) hind claw showing extensive pecten; (E) basal half of fore wing; (F) metasomal tergites 2–6 showing large medial gland pores on tergites 4–6 in broader depression.

Figure 27. Aleiodes (Hemigyroneuron) roberti sp. nov., CellD® light micrographs. (A) Metasoma, dorsal aspect; (B) metasomal tergites 4–6, detail showing pore openings (arrows) and internal glandular ducts visible through cuticle.

Figure 34. Aleiodes (Hemigyroneuron) ugandaensis sp. nov., CellD® light micrographs. (A) Habitus lateral aspect and associated mummified geometrid host remains; (B) head and mesosoma, dorsal aspect; (C) head, lateral aspect; (D) postero-ventral aspect of head showing occipital carina curving towards and joining hypostomal carina.

Figure 35. Aleiodes (Hemigyroneuron) ugandaensis sp. nov., CellD® light micrographs. (A) Basal part of fore wing; (B) detail of fore wing subbasal cell, with single sclerome and associated setae, and hind wing.

Figure 36. Features of male tergal gland light micrographs. (A, B) Aleiodes (Hemigyroneuron) subscleroma, metasomal tergites 4 and 5 respectively, following maceration in potassium hydroxide and staining with chlorazol black, showing setae inside duct behind pore (arrows) and chitinous intima of large bilobed gland reservoir; (C) Aleiodes (Hemigyroneuron) dubiosus (Fullaway), posterior metasomal tergites showing peribasal concavities and specialised setal arrangement.

Figure 37. (A) Strict consensus of 100 trees from analysis of characters treated as unordered (length = 145, RI = 0.618); (B) single successive approximations weighting tree from analysis of unordered characters (score = 79.96); (C) strict consensus of three trees from implied weighting analysis of unordered characters (score 25.964); (D) strict consensus of nine most parsimonious trees’ characters all treated as ordered (length = 159, RI = 0.919); (E) single successive approximations weighting tree from analysis of ordered characters (score = 86.804); (F) strict consensus of three trees from implied weighting analysis of ordered characters (score 25.226).