Messatoporus townesi Alayo & Tzankov 1974

Santos, Bernardo F. & Aguiar, Alexandre P., 2013, <strong> Phylogeny and revision of <em> Messatoporus </ em> Cushman (Hymenoptera, Ichneumonidae, Cryptinae), with descriptions of sixty five new species </ strong>, Zootaxa 3634 (1), pp. 1-284 : 193-194

Messatoporus townesi Alayo & Tzankov 1974

( Figs 115–116 , 271 , 369 )

* Messatoporus townesi Alayo & Tzankov 1974: 8 , 15. Description, distribution, figure. Holotype ♀ (IESC, examined). Type data: CUBA, Santiago , 6.IV.1973, GTzankov.

Messatoporus townesi: Yu & Horstmann 1997:274 . Listed.

Messatoporus townesi: Yu et al. 2005 . Listed.

Female. Fore wing 7.68 mm. HEAD: Mandible with moderately sparse and long hairs; MLW 1.79; MWW 0.39; dorsal tooth in front view projected upwards, long, ventral tooth distinct only as a very short lobe. MSM 0.34. Clypeus basally evenly convex, apically gradually flattened, centrally concave; CHW 2.12; CWW 2.47; apical area medially concave, laterally with distinct triangular lobes, its margin very sharp, raised. Flagellum strongly flattened and compressed on apical 0.3. Supra-antennal area shiny, impunctate, distinctly striate near antennal sockets, ventrally and around ocelli slightly concave, medially with a distinct depression but without a distinct line. Occipital carina dorsally acuminate, fading out at distance shorter than basal width of mandible from the hypostomal carina. Temple and gena moderately wide, gena somewhat swollen and projected (as in Fig. 261 ).

THORAX: Pronotum centrally glabrate, sparsely pilose at dorsal margin, shiny, mostly impunctate, centrally very weakly coriarious, ventrally with strong wrinkles; epomia moderately strong, complete, short, ending far from dorsal margin of pronotum, after diverging from pronotal collar distinctly curved. Mesoscutum strongly and uniformly convex, ovoid, 1.36 × as long as wide, anteriorly sparsely pilose, posteriorly glabrate, shiny, anteriorly scarcely punctate, posteriorly almost impunctate, coriarious at center of each lobe; notaulus reaching about 0.74 of mesoscutum length, moderately impressed, surface over notaulus with weak and short transverse wrinkles; scutoscutellar groove moderately deep, with distinct longitudinal wrinkles. Subalar ridge weakly projected; epicnemial carina reaching about 0.6 of distance to subalar ridge, irregular; sternaulus complete and strong, wider on posterior apex, strongly sinuous, with weak vertical wrinkles; scrobe moderately deep; mesopleural suture with strong longitudinal wrinkles along entire length. Mesosternum medially with a longitudinal series of depressions; median portion of posterior transverse carina of the mesothoracic venter moderately long, slightly arched forwards. Transverse sulcus at base of propodeum very wide, about 0.62 × as long as anterior area of propodeum, medially with very weak transverse striation; metapleuron scarcely punctate, without transverse wrinkles, sparsely pilose; juxtacoxal carina represented by very short ridges. Fore tibia distinctly swollen. Mesal lobe of t4 with a distinct cluster of stout bristles. Hind coxa with moderately strong punctures separated by more than their own diameter.

PROPODEUM: 1.1 × as long as wide, shiny, moderately pilose; anterior area scarcely punctate; spiracle elongate, SWL 3.75; anterior transverse carina medially slightly arched forwards. Propodeal wrinkles anteriorly faint, posteriorly strong, closely spaced, mostly complete, oblique and approximately straight; posterior transverse carina entirely absent.

WINGS: Fore wing vein 1-Rs+M distinctly sinuous, with bulla placed on basal 0.25; crossvein 1m-cu more or less uniformly curved, limit between 1m-cu and 1-Rs+M more or less traceable; vein 1M+Rs entirely irregular; fore wing crossvein 1 cu-a basad of 1M+Rs by 0.47 of its own length; vein 2Cua 0.46 × as long as crossvein 2cu-a; bulla of crossvein 2m-cu placed on midlength; cell 1+2Rs small, APH 0.54, subquadratic, about as high as wide, AWH 0.91; crossvein 3r-m fully spectral, 2r-m and 3r-m parallel, about same length; vein 3-M distinctly shorter than 2-M; 4-Rs very weakly sinuous; 4-M tubular, apically nebulous, slightly curved backwards. Hind wing vein 1- M forming distinctly obtuse angle with vein Cua; vein 2-Rs tubular, apically spectral, reaching wing margin; HW1C 1.31; vein Cub distinctly convex on posterior half, forming distinctly obtuse angle with vein Cua (basally curved); vein 2-1A reaching 0.87 of distance to posterior wing margin.

METASOMA: First tergite moderately long, about 0.4 × as long as T2–8, strongly depressed, ventrolaterally angled, dorsally sparsely pilose, laterally moderately pilose; T1LW 2.66; T1WW 2.02; spiracle on 0.53 of its length, distinctly prominent; median depression elongate, distinct; median posterior depression elongate; lateral depressions elongate, distinct; ventrolateral carina weak, distinct only at posterior 0.4. T2LW 1.16; T2WW 1.8; thyridium longer than wide, without small circular depression just behind it; T2–8 smooth between punctures, moderately and uniformly pilose except glabrate postero-dorsal area in T2–3. OST 1.24; ovipositor moderately stout, slightly upcurved, basally cylindric, apically distinctly depressed; dorsal valve with four weak ridges; ventral valve apex with 4 teeth, 1st and 2nd widely spaced; surface anterior to first tooth rugulose.

Color. Head, meso- and metasoma black and light yellow. Head: black; clypeus, basal 0.5 of mandible, mouthparts, malar space, supra-clypeal area and complete orbital band, light yellow (226,208,125); white band at flagellum starting at f5. Mesosoma: black; pronotum except small ventral mark, propleuron, U-shaped mark at mesoscutum, scutellar carina, scutellum, axillary carinae, postscutellum, tegula, subalar ridge, central mark on mesopleuron, mesosternum, dorsal division of metapleuron, metapleural triangle, transverse sulcus medially, metapleuron except small posterior spot and arc-shaped mark on propodeum, light yellow; fore coxa light yellow; mid and hind coxae, all trochanters and femora, bright orange (212,105,045); all tibiae, fore t1–4 and mid t1, deep yellow; fore t5, mid t2–5 and hind t1, blackish; hind t2–4 deep yellow. Metasoma: black; T1–7 with posterior light yellow stripes, at T2–7 also extending laterally; T1 dorsally light yellow at anterior 0.5, laterally at anterior 0.25; S1 whitish, S2–6 whitish, S2–4 with anterior dark brown marks; T8 laterally light yellow.

Male. Very similar to female, except for the following: pronotal wrinkles weak; pronotum almost entirely yellow; blackish areas at posterior area of propodeum smaller, about 0.9 of its surface yellow; apical 0.3 of hind tibia blackish.

Comments. Similar to M. terebrator , from which it can be differentiated by the mid and hind coxae entirely orange (vs. with large yellow spot, hind coxa also with narrow blackish line); mandible mostly yellow (vs. entirely blackish); yellow spot on mesoscutum U-shaped (vs. subcircular); propodeal wrinkles anteriorly faint, posteriorly strong, and complete (vs. very weak and restricted to posterior half of posterior area, each wrinkle incomplete); and cell 1+2Rs small, APH 0.54 (vs. of moderate size, APH 0.96). Also somewhat similar to the species of the compressicornis group, from which it can be isolated by the pronotum mostly yellow (vs. black, yellow only at collar and dorsal margin); mid and hind coxae orange (vs. yellow and black); yellow mark at mesoscutum distinctly U-shaped (vs. subcircular); supra-antennal area distinctly striate near antennal sockets (vs. not striate); and ovipositor usually longer, OST 1.24 (vs. 0.86–1.24), slightly upcurved, ventral valve with four teeth (vs. straight, ventral valve with 6–9 teeth).

Biology. Unknown.

Material examined. 2 ♀, 2 ♂♂. Lectotype ♀, from 1 ♀, from CUBA, Santiago , 6.IV.1973, GTzankov. Pinned. Left antenna, apical half of left antenna, right mid tarsus, right hind leg apicad to coxa and left hind tarsus missing; right fore wing broken and re-glued to the specimen; metasoma somewhat darkened, color pattern only weakly distinguishable (see Fig. 115 ).

In the original description of the species, Alayo and Tzankov (1974) did not explicitly assigned a holotype for M. townesi . They only stated “type in collections of the Instituto de Biologia , Habana. Paratypes in the authors’ collections.” However, the number of specimens examined is unknown, as is the specimen designated as the holotype . Therefore we designate a lectotype.

Paralectotypes: ♂ from CUBA, Santiago , 22.III.1973, GTzankov;; 1 ♂ from CUBA, Oriente , cerca Santiago, 10.VII.1971, GTzankov ( IESC) . 1 ♀ from CUBA, Ote., Caney , Playa Juraguá, V.1955, PAlayo .

Distribution. Southeastern and southwestern Cuba ( Fig. 369 ). Messatoporus townesi occurs in sympatry with the other Cuban species, M. zonatus , at least in one of its recorded localities (Santiago de Cuba).

Figures

FIGURES 115–118. 115–116: M. townesi, lateral view. 115, Lectotype, head, mesosoma, metasoma and wings. 116, Paralectotype female, mesosoma and metasoma. 117–118: Male specimens, lateral view. 117, M. semialbiventris. 118, M. andinus.

FIGURES 260–271. 260–261, Gena, lateral. 260, M. longicaudis*. 261, M. compressicornis. 262–264, Antenna. 262, M. tibiator. 263, M. compresscornis. 264, M. antennator, male. 265–266, Hind t4. 265, M. paeneater*. 266, M. nigriscutus*. 267–271, Metasoma and ovipositor. 267, M. opacus*. 268, M. discoidalis. 269, M. longicaudis*. 270, M. convexus. 271, M. townesi.

FIGURES 369–376. Distribution maps for species of Messatoporus. 369 M. townesi. 370, M. transversostriatus. 371, M. unidentatus. 372, M. unimaculatus. 373, M. variegatus. 374, M. versicolor. 375, M. xanthogaster. 376, M. zonatus.