Scelio tristis Nixon

Yoder, Matthew J., Valerio, Alejandro A., Polaszek, Andrew, Noort, Simon van, Masner, Lubomir & Johnson, Norman F., 2014, Monograph of the Afrotropical species of Scelio Latreille (Hymenoptera, Platygastridae), egg parasitoids of acridid grasshoppers (Orthoptera, Acrididae), ZooKeys 380, pp. 1-188 : 95-97

Scelio tristis Nixon Figures 217-220; Morphbank 51

Scelio tristis Nixon, 1958: 314 (original Description. Keyed); Masner, 1965: 95 (type information).

Description.

Female body length: 4.10 mm (n=1). Color of pilosity of dorsal head in female: golden to brown. Occipital carina in female: percurrent. Color of pilosity of the frons below the anterior ocellus in female: predominantly golden to brown. Pilosity of eye in female: absent. Medial keel on interantennal process: absent. Width of lower gena in lateral view: wide, posterior margin of lower half of gena parallel to posterior orbit. Genal carina: absent. Color of genal pilosity: brown. Color of scape in female: brown to dark brown throughout. Surface of the pronotal nucha in female: predominantly sculptured. Color of pilosity of pronotal shoulder in female: golden to dark brown, concolorous with that of mesoscutum. Sculpture of medial mesoscutum in female: predominantly angular reticulate to rugulose. Color of pilosity of mesoscutum in female: predominantly light brown to brown. Notaulus in female: indicated by a row of cells. Form of axillular carina in female: small, not particularly expanded or projected from the lateral edge of the mesoscutellum. Pilosity of propodeal nucha: present. Pilosity of netrion: absent. Surface of mesopleural depression in female: sculptured throughout. Form of ventral margin of villus in female: bent ventrally in posterior, obviously not straight throughout. Color of coxae in female: brown. Color of hind femur: dark brown throughout. Color of hind tibia: brown throughout. Fore wing length in female: apex between anterior margin of T5 and posterior margin of T6. Color of metasoma: entirely black. Sculpture of laterotergites in female: predominantly smooth. Pilosity of laterotergites in female: absent. Sculpture of medial T1 in female: most prominent elements predominantly longitudinal. Sculpture of medial T2 in female: most prominent elements predominantly longitudinal. Pattern of sculpture on T3-T5 in female: predominantly longitudinally striate. Color of pilosity on lateral T3-T5 in female: predominantly golden to brown. Lateral profile of T6 in female: more or less horizontal. Sculpture of T6 in female: predominantly rugulose to reticulate. Sculpture of lateral metasomal sternal bar in female: predominantly smooth to slightly irregularly rugose. Distribution of felt fields: 2 pairs present (S2, S3).

Diagnosis.

Differing from other brown subgroup species by the combination of the uniformly brown scape and tibiae, and the distinct notauli with thickened medial margins.

Link to distribution map.

http://hol.osu.edu/map-large.html?id=5348

Material examined.

Holotype, female: UGANDA: Rwenzori (Ruwenzori) Mountains, 6000ft, VIII-1940, T. H. C. Taylor, B.M. TYPE HYM. 9.539 (deposited in BMNH).

Comments.

Nixon (1958) recorded the unique holotype as collected in 1941, but the label data clearly read 1940. The holotype was earlier dissected with the parts mounted separately on a single card point. It resembles the Madagascan Scelio ructo , differing in the broader gena, more elongate metasoma and several aspects of color and sculpture.