Aulacus froggatti 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 : 43-44

Aulacus froggatti Jennings & Austin , sp. nov.

Figs 22 , 60 .

Material examined. Holotype. ♀, " Mittagong N.S.W., 26.XI.[19]01, W.W.F.[Froggatt] ( ASCU). Right flagellomeres 5–12 missing, right mid and hind legs missing except for hind coxa, trochanter and femur, left mid and hind legs missing except for coxae, trochanters and femora, tip of ovipositor missing.

Description. FEMALE. Length. 8.2 mm, excluding ovipositor.

Colour. Head and mesosoma brown except some orange on gena, propleuron and lateral pronotum, scape, pedicel, legs and metasoma orange Figs 22A, B ). Wings hyaline, brown spot apically on marginal and submarginal cells of fore wing ( Fig. 22A ).

Head. 1.3× wider than long when viewed dorsally; face punctate-reticulate, pubescence long; shallow subantennal groove; frons without lateral medial carina above toruli, punctate-reticulate, with short scattered setae, denser near toruli; vertex and gena punctate-reticulate, with scattered short setae; posterior margin of head slightly concave in dorsal view; occipital carina absent; malar space 0.4× height eye; clypeus 5.0× as wide as high, margin sinuate, with small medial process; distance from lateral ocellus to eye margin 0.9× distance between lateral ocelli; scape 1.3× length pedicel; first flagellomere as long as scape, 0.8× as long as second flagellomere.

Mesosoma. Propleuron reticulate, pubescence long, ventro-lateral carina present; pronotum rugose; mesoscutum in lateral view rounded antero-dorsally, medial and lateral lobes punctate-reticulate, with scattered short setae, admedial lines present; notauli distinct, carinate, broad and deep; scutellum and axillae punctatereticulate, scutellum anteriorly with a single deep depression; metapostnotum depressed, scrobiculate, posterior margin convex; mesopleuron rugose, with long pubescence; mesepimeron broad, scrobiculate; metapleuron rugose, with short pubescence; propodeum coarsely rugose, several v-shaped carinae medially, posterior margin scrobiculate; hind coxa strigate dorsally, pubescence long laterally, ovipositor guide apparently absent (covered with glue); hind trochanter imbricate, with scattered short setae; prefemur on hind leg present; hind femur imbricate, with scattered short setae; hind tibia and hind tarsomeres missing; fore wing veins 2r-m and 3r-m largely spectral; hind wing venation complete, R+Rs, M+Cu, Cu, r-m and 2-M largely spectral, with 4 hamuli.

Metasoma. Ovate, 1.5× length of mesosoma ( Figs 22A, B ); T1 and T2 broad, glabrous; ovipositor broken, but> 7.3 mm.

MALE. Unknown.

Etymology. This species is named after the collector, Walter Wilson Froggatt, a noted Australian economic entomologist.

Distribution. This species is known only from the type locality, Mittagong, NSW ( Fig. 60 ).

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

Comments. Aulacus froggatti is in a group together with A. aquilus , A. bashfordi and A. pallidicaudis , all of which have the mesosoma rounded antero-laterally in lateral view, metasoma ovate, and lack an ovipositor guide on the hind coxae. It can be readily distinguished from A. bashfordi , both of which lack a lateral medial carina above the toruli, by both sculpturing and colour differences. Aulacus froggatti is a largely brown species and has a punctate-reticulate face whereas Aulacus bashfordi has a largely black body and rugose face (see key for additional colour differences).

Figures

FIGURE 22. Aulacus froggatti sp. nov., holotype female, (A) dorsal habitus; (B) lateral habitus.

FIGURE 60. Distribution of Aulacus froggatti sp. nov., A. fuscicornis Cameron, A. glorious sp. nov., and A. hackeri sp. nov.