Platygaster phragmitiphila, Buhl, 2006

Buhl, P. N., 2006, Taxonomical And Distributional Notes On New And Known Palaearctic Platygastrid Species (Hymenoptera: Platygastridae), Acta Zoologica Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae 52 (3), pp. 287-311 : 300-302

Platygaster phragmitiphila sp. n.

( Figs 28–32 )

Female – Length: 3.1 mm. Black, legs dark brown, tibiae and segments 1–4 of tarsi medium brown. Head from above ( Fig. 28 ) hardly twice as wide as long, 1.2 times as wide as mesosoma, finely reticulate-coriaceous; occiput transversely so, with a few weak wrinkles medially; frons medially slightly smoother, above antennae with fine transverse wrinkles. OOL:LOL = 3:4. Head in frontal view 1.25 times as wide as high; antenna ( Fig. 29 ) with preapical segments each 1.4 times as long as wide. Mesosoma 1.6 times as long as wide, 1.1 times as high as wide. Sides of pronotum dull reticulate-coriaceous, smooth in lower half and along upper and hind margins. Mesoscutum with sparse and inconspicuous hairs, weakly and almost uniformly reticulate-coriaceous; notauli sharp and complete, meeting in a rather fine point not reaching scutellum; scuto-scutellar grooves with a few inconspicuous hairs. Mesopleuron smooth except for a few wrinkles just below tegula. Scutellum ( Fig. 30 ) hardly above mesoscutum, sculptured and hairy as this. Metapleuron with pilosity all over. Propodeal carinae parallel, area between them about as long as wide, smooth and shiny. Fore wing reaching base of T4, clear, 2.75 times as long as wide; marginal cilia very short. Hind wing 5.7 times as long as wide, with two hamuli; marginal cilia hardly one-fifth the width of wing. Metasoma ( Fig. 31 ) 3.0 times as long as head and mesosoma combined, nearly 4 times as long as mesosoma, slightly narrower than this. T1 with two longitudinal carinae and some finer crenulation, smooth in posterior half between carinae; T2 finely striated in basal foveae to about half of length, rest of tergite (except antero-medially and along hind margin) with fine longitudinal microsculpture; T3 with such microsculpture, smoother anteriorly, posteriorly and medially; T4–T5 with such microsculpture, each smoother anteriorly and posteriorly; T6 almost smooth. Sternite 2 slightly prolonged anteriorly; apical tergites moderately flattened, e.g. T5 medially hardly twice as wide as high, joints not thickened.

Male – Length: 1.7–2.0 mm. Antenna ( Fig. 32 ) with flagellar pubescence one-fifth the width of segments. Metasoma 1.2 times as long as head and mesosoma combined, smoother than in female.

Material examined: Holotype female: Turkey, Antalya, Phaselis near Kemer, 23.II.2004, ex. Phragmites communis TRIN. with Lipara sp. -galls (seemingly also with cecidomyiids). M. BONESS leg. Paratypes: 3 males same data. Preserved in ZMUC.

Similar to P. phragmitis (SCHRANK, 1781) but at once separated from this species by the shape of female metasoma; in P. phragmitis this is much constricted at T3 with T4–T5 parallel sided, less than half as wide as T2. P. phragmitis differs also from P. phragmitiphila e.g. in having female metasoma slightly shorter and distinctly smoother, and in having mesosoma twice as long as wide, somewhat differently structured, cf. KIEFFER (1926) and SZELÉNYI (1958).

Figures

Figs 28–32. Platygaster phragmitiphila sp. n.: 28 = female head in dorsal view, 29 = female antenna, 30 = female scutellum in lateral view, 31 = female metasoma in dorsal view, 32 = male antenna.