Platygaster semiflava, 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 : 302-303

Platygaster semiflava sp. n.

( Figs 33–36 )

Female – Length: 1.3 mm. Black, antennae hardly lighter except A2–A5 which are strikingly brownish yellow; legs dark brown, all tibiae and segments 1–4 of tarsi light reddish brown. Head from above ( Fig. 33 ) 1.9 times as wide as long, almost 1.2 times as wide as mesosoma. Occiput distinctly, densely transversely striated; vertex with weak microsculpture, transverse between ocelli; frons smooth medially, towards sides with weak fan-like microsculpture, becoming stronger towards antennae. OOL = LOL. Head in frontal view 1.3 times as wide as high; antenna ( Fig. 34 ) with A1 0.9 times as long as height of head; preapical segments each 1.3 times as long as wide. Mesosoma 1.4 times as long as wide, almost 1.2 times as high as wide. Sides of pronotum finely longitudinally reticulate-coriaceous, smooth along upper and hind margins. Mesoscutum weakly reticulate-coriaceous in anterior half, laterally and posteriorly almost smooth, in posterior third in front of each scuto-scutellar groove with distinct hair-implantations; notauli indicated in hardly posterior half, mid lobe posteriorly broad and smooth, bluntly reaching base of scutellum; scuto-scutellar grooves densely hairy. Mesopleuron smooth. Scutellum ( Fig. 35 ) smooth, laterally with dense hairs, medially with sparse hairs. Metapleuron with sparse pilosity all over. Propodeal carinae parallel, widely separated, slightly transverse area between them smooth and shiny. Fore wing clear, 0.8 times as long as body, 2.4 times as long as wide, with long and slightly sparse microtrichia; marginal cilia hardly 0.1 width of wing. Hind wing 5.4 times as long as wide, with two hamuli; marginal cilia 0.3 width of wing. Metasoma ( Fig. 36 ) hardly as long as head and mesosoma combined (18:19), slightly wider than mesosoma. T1 evenly crenulated; T2 striated in basal foveae to fully half of length, medially to 0.1 of length, rest of tergite as well as the following tergites smooth; T3 with a few deeply implanted hairs; T4 with a medially interrupted transverse row of deeply implanted hairs; T5 with a complete such row.

Material examined: Holotype female: Germany, Leverkusen , Bergisch Neukirchen, 13–19.IX.

2004, compost site. M. Boness leg. Preserved in ZMUC.

Similar to P. fennica BUHL, 2003 and P. varicornis BUHL, 1999 , but differs from these species in colour and in sculpture of metasoma, from P. fennica also in having preapical antennal segments more elongate, and from P. varicornis also in having less transverse head (more than twice as wide as long in P. varicornis , holotype reexamined) cf. BUHL (1999, 2003).

Figures

Figs 33–36. Platygaster semiflava sp. n. female: 33 = head in dorsal view, 34 = antenna (A10 missing), 35 = scutellum in lateral view, 36 = metasoma in dorsal view.