Aulacus neboissi Jennings & Austin, 2018

Jennings, John T., Parslow, Ben A. & Austin, Andrew D., 2018, Systematics of the parasitoid wasp genus Aulacus Jurine (Hymenoptera: Evanioidea: Aulacidae) from Australia, Zootaxa 4538 (1), pp. 1-113 : 67-69

Aulacus neboissi Jennings & Austin , sp. nov.

Figs 1 , 36 , 63 .

Material examined. Holotype. ♀, "Licola, Vic., 15-11-1965, Neboiss" ( MVMA).

Description. FEMALE. Length. 8.7 mm, excluding ovipositor.

Colour. Head black except clypeus and mandibles largely brown, antenna brown except scape, pedicel and flagellomeres 5–8 orange, meso- and metasoma orange, ovipositor sheaths black ( Figs 36A, B ). Wings hyaline except for brown spot apically on the marginal and submarginal cells of fore wing ( Fig. 1 ).

Head. 1.43× wider than long when viewed dorsally ( Fig. 36C ); face rugulose-reticulate, pubescence long; deep sub-antennal groove; frons without lateral medial carina above toruli, rugose, with short pubescence; vertex rugulose-reticulate with scattered shallow punctures tending to punctate laterally, with scattered short setae; gena punctate, with scattered short setae; posterior margin of head not concave in dorsal view; occipital carina absent; malar space 0.2× height eye; clypeus 2.8× as wide as high, margin sinuate, without medial process; distance from lateral ocellus to eye margin 0.77× distance between lateral ocelli; scape 1.45× length pedicel; first flagellomere 1.19× as long as scape, 0.54× as long as second flagellomere.

Mesosoma. Propleuron smooth, pubescence long, ventro-lateral carina present; pronotum smooth dorsally to rugose ventrally; mesoscutum in lateral view slightly angular antero-dorsally ( Figs 36B,F ), medial and lateral lobes strigate, with scattered short setae, admedial lines present ( Fig. 36F ); notauli distinct, carinate, narrow and deep; scutellum and axillae strigate, scutellum anteriorly with a single deep depression ( Fig. 36E ); metapostnotum scrobiculate, posterior margin convex; mesopleuron rugose, with long pubescence; mesepimeron broad, carinate; metapleuron rugose, with short pubescence; propodeum rugose, almost areolate, posterior margin scrobiculate; hind coxa strigate dorsally, pubescence long laterally, ovipositor guide distal, transverse, broad with short setae in groove and along distal margin; hind trochanter imbricate, with scattered short setae; prefemur on hind leg present; hind femur imbricate, with scattered short setae; hind tibia imbricate, pubescence short, with scattered stout emergent setae; hind femur 1.4× length hind tibia; hind tibia with ventro-apical pecten of short robust spines; hind tarsomeres 1–4 with ventro-apical pecten of short robust spines, tarsomere 1, 2.4× length tarsomere 2; tarsomere 2, 1.4× length tarsomere 3; tarsomere 3, 3.3× length tarsomere 4; tarsomere 4, 0.4× length tarsomere 5; hind tarsal claw 0.4× length tarsomere 5; fore wing veins 2r-m and 3r-m largely spectral; hind wing venation complete ( Fig. 1 ), M+Cu and r-m spectral, Cu weakly pigmented, 2-M largely spectral, except for apical third nebulous and weakly pigmented, with 2 hamuli.

Metasoma. Ovate, 1.09× length of mesosoma ( Fig. 36B ); T1 and T2 broad, glabrous; ovipositor 5.2 mm.

MALE. Unknown.

Etymology. This species is named after the collector, Arturs Neboiss, Museum of Victoria.

Distribution. This species is known only from the type locality, Licola, about 150 km east-northeast of Melbourne, Victoria ( Fig. 63 ).

Biology. Nothing is known of the biology of this species.

Comments. Although A. neboissi keys out with A. hackeri , the two species differ as follows: ovipositor guide medial, frons with lateral medial carina above toruli, and head, meso- and metasoma black-brown in A. hacker , whereas in A. neboissi , ovipositor guide distal, frons lacks lateral medial carina above toruli, head black and meso- and metasoma orange. See also comments under A. hackeri .

Figures

FIGURE 1. Wings of Aulacus neboissi sp. nov. showing complete hind wing venation. Scale bar = 1 mm.

FIGURE 36. Aulacus neboissi sp. nov., holotype female, (A) dorsal habitus; (B) lateral habitus; (C) dorsal head; (D) lateral head; (E) dorsal mesosoma; (F) lateral pronotum and mesoscutum.

FIGURE 63. Distribution of Aulacus minutus Crosskey, A. naumanni sp. nov., A. nebo sp. nov., and A. neboissi sp. nov.