Harpactus pulawskii Binoy & Girish Kumar, 2022

Binoy, C., Kumar, P. Girish, Monks, Joseph & Sheikh, Altaf Hussain, 2022, A review of digger wasp genus Harpactus Shuckard, 1837 (Hymenoptera Crabronidae) of the Indian subcontinent, with description of a new species and rediscovery of Harpactus impudens (Nurse, 1903), Zootaxa 5190 (4), pp. 531-542 : 537-538

Harpactus pulawskii Binoy & Girish Kumar , sp. nov.

Figs 21–30

urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act:529C3DEB-7825-4528-BA7B-CE164BEBE32C

Type material. Holotype ♀. India: Jammu & Kashmir, Shopian district , Heff (33°47′46.1″N 74°58′30.5″E, alt. 1629 m), 26.viii.2021, A. H. Sheikh collector, ( ZSIK) Regd. No. ZSI/WGRC/IR/INV.20976.

Diagnosis. Propodeal enclosure black; clypeus apico-medially almost straight; fore wing brown-black; head, mesosoma, and T2 distinctly foveolate- punctate, with scattered foveae; remaining terga densely punctate; metasoma tricoloured: red-brown, ivory, and brown-black, T1 sub-sessile, immaculate, impunctate; T2 with ivory oval spots laterally, connected by transverse ivory white band along apical margin; T3 immaculate brown-black, a narrow faint yellow-brown band along apical margin; T5 ivory white with anterior margin brown-black.

Description. Female. ( Figs 21–30 ). Body length 6.1 mm; fore wing length 3.6 mm.

Colour. Head red-brown with ocellar triangle and upper frons black; inner eye margin at level of frons ivoryyellow; clypeus yellow brown; mandible yellow-brown with apex red-brown to black; scape brown-black, yellowbrown ventrally. Mesosoma mostly red-brown (except brown-black ventrally), pronotum pale; propodeum redbrown except enclosure black ( Fig. 26 ); legs red-brown with black patch on hind femur; coxae with yellow streaks ventrally; wings brown with dark brown-black venation ( Fig. 28 ); metasoma tricoloured: T1 red-brown with apical margin dark; T2 red-brown with two ivory spots on dorsolaterally on apical margin, the spots connected medially by narrow ivory band; T3 and T4 brown-black, immaculate; T5 ivory white, brown-black near anterior margin.

Pubescence. Head with moderately dense golden setae beyond ocellar triangle, white along inner eye margin on ivory-yellow patches and on clypeus; scape and pedicel with slightly longer white setae compared to adpressed setae on flagellum; gena with moderately dense white setae; pronotum (neck, collar and lobe) densely pubescent with yellow-brown setae; mesoscutum with moderately dense, short brown setae arising from punctures; setae from foveae longer than those from punctures; pronotal lobe, tegula, both wing surfaces and tarsi of all legs with short appressed to semi-erect brown pubescence; propodeum with long white setae lateroapically; legs with moderate adpressed pubescence both on outer and inner sides; T3 and T4 with moderately dense brown pubescence arising from punctures; pubescence on ivory spots on T5 white.

Head. Head in frontal view rounded, wider than high (IH= 0.77), inner orbits subsinuate ( Fig. 23 ); gena wide ( Fig. 24 ), finely foveolate-punctate; occipital carina separated from hind ocellus at vertex by 1.4 × OD; labrum free margin truncate; clypeus broad (IC= 0.36), with disc evenly convex, apico-medially very slightly emarginate, with discernible setigerous punctuation along dorsal margin; clypeal lamella broad, pale brown; mandible evenly curved, inner tooth triangular; frons shiny, with short carina medially, distinctly foveolate-punctate; gena with similar sculpture, foveae scattered; OOD = 0.67 × OD, 0.45 × POD ( Fig. 22 ); scape twice as long as wide; flagellomeres longer than broad.

Mesosoma. Pronotum and mesoscutum shiny, with dense setigerous micropunctures and scattered round setigerous foveae; anterior margin of mesoscutum with buttressing ridges; anterior margin of scutellum with row of 9–10 foveae; scutellum with dense micropunctures and scattered round foveae; metanotum foveate ( Fig. 26 ); mesopleuron shiny, rugose punctate, densely pubescent; scrobal sulcus distinct; metapleuron shiny, unevenly sculptured, practically impunctate ( Fig. 25 ); propodeum distinctly rugose, distinct median furrow present ( Fig. 27 ).

Metasoma. T1 shiny, with sparse micropunctures; T2 micropunctate with scattered large punctures; remaining terga densely micropunctate ( Fig. 29 ); acutely triangular pygidial plate outlined by sharp lateral carina; sterna similarly sculptured as terga ( Fig. 30 ).

Male. Unknown.

Distribution. India (Jammu & Kashmir).

Etymology. The species is named in honour of Dr Wojciech Jerzy Pulawski, Curator Emeritus of Entomology, California Academy of Sciences, for his relentless effort in updating and archiving literature in The Catalog of Sphecidae since 2003.

Comparison with related species. H. pulawskii sp. nov. resembles H. impudens (Nurse) in having the propodeal enclosure black, rugose, with distinct median furrow running posteriorly onto the remaining propodeum and in having the inner eye margin with a pale ivory-yellow patch. It differs from H. impudens (Nurse) in having T1 red-brown, immaculate (T1 black with two oval sublateral patches in H. impudens ); T2 red-brown with numerous close foveae (T2 black with well separated fewer foveae in H. impudens ); fore and mid femora and tibiae red-brown without any ivory-yellow patches (fore and mid femora and tibiae red-brown to black with pale ivory-yellow to white spot on apico-ventral margin in H. impudens ); head and mesosoma distinctly foveolate-punctate (head and mesosoma without distinct foveae in H. impudens ). H. pulawskii sp. nov. resembles H. vividus (Turner) in having T1 immaculate, but differs in having the propodeal enclosure clearly delimited (enclosure indistinguishable from remaining propodeum in H. vividus ); propodeum red-brown (propodeum black in H. vividus ); head and mesosoma distinctly foveolate-punctate (head and mesosoma shiny without any foveae in H. vividus ).

Figures

FIGURES 21–30. Harpactus pulawskii Binoy & Girish Kumar, sp. nov. Holotype ♀ 21, habitus, lateral view; 22, head, dorsal view; 23, head, frontal view; 24, head and pronotum, lateral view; 25, mesosoma, lateral view; 26, mesosoma, dorsal view; 27, metapostnotum; 28, wings; 29, metasoma, dorsal view; 30, metasoma, lateral view.