Habroteleia soa Chen & Talamas

Chen, Hua-yan, Talamas, Elijah J., Masner, Lubomir & Johnson, Norman F., 2018, Revision of the world species of the genus Habroteleia Kieffer (Hymenoptera, Platygastridae, Scelioninae), ZooKeys 730, pp. 87-122 : 100-101

Habroteleia soa Chen & Talamas sp. n. Figures 77-81

Description.

Body length of female: 3.72 mm (n=1). Length of A3 in male: longer than A2. Length of A3 in male: longer than A2. Punctation of frons above antennal scrobe: dense. Sculpture of antennal scrobe: smooth. Central keel: present. Sculpture of ventrolateral frons: punctate rugose. Occipital carina: complete. Sculpture of posterior vertex: punctate rugose. Sculpture of gena: punctate rugose ventrally, sparsely punctate dorsally. Sculpture of occiput: rugulose.

Color of mesosoma: black. Sculpture of dorsal pronotal area: punctate rugose. Sculpture of lateral pronotal area: smooth anteriorly, foveate posteriorly. Sculpture of netrion: coarsely striate. Setae of netrion: sparse throughout. Sculpture of notaulus: contiguously punctate. Sculpture of mesoscutal midlobe: punctate rugose on the anterior margin, otherwise largely smooth with two rows of discrete punctures. Sculpture of lateral lobe of mesoscutum: smooth. Sculpture of lateral propodeal area: rugose. Setation of mesoscutellum: sparse. Sculpture of mesoscutellum: coarsely punctate rugose. Median propodeal projection: short. Mesopleural carina: weakly developed. Sculpture of mesepisternum anteroventral to mesopleural depression: smooth with a row of punctures along mesopleural carina. Sculpture of dorsal metapleural area: smooth. Sculpture of ventral metapleural area: punctate rugose. Setation of ventral metapleural area: sparse. Color of legs: orange-yellow to dark brown. Sculpture of hind coxa: smooth.

Color of metasoma: black. T1 horn in female: absent. Sculpture of posterior margin of T1 in female: sparsely longitudinally striate. Transverse sulcus on T2: present. Sculpture of T2-T5: T2-T4 sparsely longitudinally striate, with fine punctures in interstices, T5 densely longitudinally striate punctate. Sculpture of T6 in female: densely punctate. Length of T6 in female: wider than long. Apex of T6 in female: round. Sculpture of S2: longitudinally striate rugose. Sculpture of T1 in male: sparsely longitudinally striate, smooth in interstices. Male T8 apical spine: present.

Etymology.

The Malagasy word " soa " means “beautiful” or “excellent”. We apply it to this species because we find it to be both of these. The name is treated as a noun in apposition.

Link to distribution map.

[http://hol.osu.edu/map-large.html?id=448556]

Material examined.

Holotype, female: MADAGASCAR: Antsiranana Auto. Prov., 5km W Manantenina, Camp Mantella, low altitude rainforest, MA-31-32, 490 m, 14°26.29'S 49°46.44'E, Marojejy National Park, 14. X– 22.X.2005, Malaise trap, M. Irwin & R. Harin’Hala, CASENT 2136859 (deposited in CAS). Paratypes: MADAGASCAR: 3 males, CASENT 2132434-2132435 (OSUC), 2135976 (CAS).

Comments.

Habroteleia soa is the most geographically disjunct member of the genus, separated from the other species by the Indian Ocean. Despite this separation, it is not morphologically unusual in comparison with the other species, suggesting either that there is a relatively recent division between H. soa and the other species, that the morphology of the genus evolves rather slowly, or that there has been insufficient sampling in the intervening areas (e.g., east Africa, the moist southern part of the Arabian peninsula, India, and all other intervening regions).