Xorides maculatus (Benoit, 1952) Benoit, 1952

Varga, Oleksandr, 2019, Revision of theAfrotropical Xorides Latréille, 1809 (Hymenoptera, Ichneumonidae Xoridinae), with description of three new species, Zootaxa 4638 (1), pp. 57-80 : 65-67

Xorides maculatus (Benoit, 1952) , syn. n.

Material examined. Holotype (examined only from images). SOUTH AFRICA: female, George, 1899, leg. M. Wilman (deposited in: SAMC). Co-type. SOUTH AFRICA: female, [Natal Land, Zulu], without date (deposited in: BMNH) . Other material. Xorides maculatus holotype. DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO: female, Musée du Congo, Bambesa , xii. 1946, leg. P. L. G. Benoit (deposited in: RMCA) . ZIMBABWE [Rhodesia]: female, Viktoria Falls , leg. E. H. Druce,? 3.xi.1915 [1915-113] . UGANDA: female,? [ Maligito Forest ], 25.vi.1965, leg. K. W. Brown. UGANDA: female, Kawanda , 15.iv.1941, leg. T. H. O. Taylor. MALAWI [Nyasaland]: female, Chiromo , 1963, leg. R. C. Wood (deposited in: BMNH) . SOUTH AFRICA: female, KwaZulu-Natal, Mfongosi, without date ,

Diagnosis. Xorides maculiceps is characterized by the combination of the following characters: body generally reddish-black; vertex sparsely punctate; antenna subapically sharply angled at a single joint; face reticulate rugose; pronotum densely punctate dorsally, rugulo-punctate ventrally; epomia present; epicnemial carina absent; propodeum with only traces of dorsal longitudinal carinae on proximal 0.5, tooth-like projections indistinct; fore and middle trochantelli without apical tooth; fore wing with vein cu-a basad of Rs&M by about 0.2 of its length; first metasomal tergite 2.0× as long as apical width, densely punctate, with transverse grooves present, carinae absent; ovipositor about 3.3× length of hind tibia.

Re-description. Female. Xorides maculatus holotype (Fig. 5). Body length 11.5 mm. Fore wing 9.0 mm.

Head (Figs 5B, 5C, 5F, 5I) depressed, temples short and weakly narrowed behind eyes, covered with sparse short white setae; frons transversely wrinkled, with short carina-like projection between antennal sockets; length of the ocellar-ocular distance 1.4× maximum diameter of lateral ocellus; ocelli small, hind ocellus on the same line with eye; vertex sparsely punctate; temples wrinkled; occipital carina complete; antenna subapically sharply angled at a single joint, with 22 flagellomeres, 18 th flagellomere with two long sensillae; face about 0.5× as long as wide, reticulate rugose, tentorial pits deep; malar space 1.2× basal width of mandible, with strongly depressed subocular groove; clypeus about 0.6× as long as wide, rugulose, rounded apically.

Mesosoma (Figs 5D, 5E, 5F) densely pubescent; propleuron indistinctly sculptured; pronotum swollen apically, densely punctate dorsally, rugulo-punctate ventrally, epomia present; mesoscutum elongate, densely punctate, with strong notauli; scutellum densely punctate and postscutellum longitudinally wrinkled; mesopleuron densely punctate except posteriorly; epicnemial carina absent; sternaulus indistinct; metapleuron densely punctate; propodeum densely punctate, with only traces of dorsal longitudinal carinae on proximal 0.5, tooth-like projections indistinct; pleural and submetapleural carinae present; spiracles elongate, small.

Legs slender, hind femur 3.9× as long as wide; hind coxae minutely punctate, fore and middle tibiae not swollen, narrower than femora; with V-shaped median ventral groove; fore and middle trochantelli without apical tooth; tarsal claws simple.

Wings. Fore wing with vein 2 rs-m short, about 0.6× distance between 2 rs-m and 2 m-cu; vein cu-a basad of Rs&M by about 0.2 of its length; hind wing with distance between distal abscissa of Cu 1 and M about as long as vein cu-a.

Metasoma (Figs 5E, 5H) sparsely pubescent; first tergite 2.0× as long as apical width, densely punctate, with transverse grooves present, carinae absent; second tergite 1.0× as long as apical width, densely punctate, with two large basolateral and third central triangular swellings delimited by basolateral and subapical transverse grooves; third tergite about 0.9× as long as apical width, the same structure and sculpture as previous tergite, notched apically; the remaining tergites transversely wrinkled; ovipositor about 3.3× length of hind tibia, with the apical teeth; ovipositor sheaths densely pubescent.

Colour. Head and mesosoma generally black, except face laterally temples centrally yellow; mesosoma widely reddish centrally; fore and middle legs brown dorsally, yellow ventrally; hind legs brown; metasoma generally brownish-black with apicolateral marks on the second tergite and apical bands on tergites 5–7 yellow; antenna brownish with flagellomeres 11–17 yellow; pterostigma and two stripes on fore wing brown; ovipositor sheaths brown, yellow subapically.

Male. Generally similar to female, but antenna not sharply angled, with long erect setae (as on Fig. 3G ), entirely black; tibiae without emarginations; propodeum more strongly sculptured, rugose, with dorsal longitudinal and apical transverse carinae more distinct; metasomal tergites 2–5 the same structure as the second tergite of female, but swellings more distinct.

Variation. Head from black to partly red; temples in Xorides maculiceps paratype female without yellow marks; hind femur dorsally with yellow line in some specimens.

Comments. I examined one undescribed female from South Africa which has entirely red body (at least partly black in X. maculiceps ); hind tibia without long spines (with at least 2–3 long spines in X. maculiceps (as on Fig. 10F ); antenna yellow till sharply angled bend (antenna with at least one flagellomere not yellow before angled bend in X. maculiceps ), but it is not possible as yet to determine whether this is a separate species or just X. maculiceps variation.

Distribution. Democratic Republic of Congo, Kenya, Malawi, South Africa, Uganda, Zimbabwe.

Figures

FIGURE 3. Xorides hulstaerti (Benoit, 1952), holotype male (scale bar is 0.5 mm): A) lateral view of habitus; B) frontal view of head; C) lateral view of head; D) lateral view of mesosoma; E) dorsal view of propodeum and metasomal tergites 1–2; F) fore wing; G) lateral view of flagellomeres; H) type label.

FIGURE 10. Xorides rufofacialis Varga, sp. n., holotype female (scale bar is 0.25 mm):A) frontal view of head; B) lateral view of habitus; C) dorsal view of head and mesosoma; D) dorsolateral view of propodeum and metasomal tergites 1–2; E) lateral view of head and mesosoma; F) lateral view of hind tibia; G) lateral view of apical flagellomeres.