Microplitis brevispina Song & Chen

Ranjith, A. P., Rajesh, K. M. & Nasser, M., 2015, Taxonomic studies on Oriental Microplitis Foerster (Hymenoptera: Braconidae, Microgastrinae) with description of two new species from South India, Zootaxa 3963 (3), pp. 369-415 : 387

Microplitis brevispina Song & Chen

Microplitis brevispina Song & Chen 2008 ; 283–293. Holotype HAU.

Female. Body length 3.1 mm.

Head: Head 1.9× as wide as long in dorsal view; vertex and upper temple sparsely and weakly punctate; head more or less circular in anterior view; face densely setose; antennae longer than body; F12–F15 approximately 1.8– 1.9× as long as wide.

Mesosoma: Pronotum flat, weakly rugose-punctate with upper pronotal groove absent; mesoscutum densely punctate; notauli wide and distinct, meeting posteriorly to form a sunken area; scutellar lunules wide, deeply divided by five carinae; scutellum weakly punctate with dense hairs; propodeum coarsely reticulate-rugose with percurrent medial longitudinal carina; hind coxae 2.8× as long as wide, small and as long as T1; hind tibial spurs 0.2× as long as basitarsus.

Wings: Areolet large, nearly quadrangular; 1-R1 1.5× and 0.8× as long as the distance from itself to apex of marginal cell and length of pterostigma, respectively; margin of vannal lobe convex and hairy.

Metasoma: T1 parallel sided, weakly rugose except for slightly depressed base and apical swelling smooth; median area of T2 slightly swollen, smooth; ovipositor sheath approximately as long as third hind tarsomere.

Colour: Black to dark reddish black, antennae brown except for most of scape yellowish, maxillary palp, labial palp and tibial spurs pale yellow; tegula reddish brown, pterostigma and veins yellowish brown, semihyaline, wings brown over first discal cell and above areolet, legs generally yellow, coxae yellowish to reddish brown, hind femur reddish brown, basal 1/6 and apical 2/5 of tibia and tarsus grey brown, metasoma mostly yellowish brown except for T1 dark yellowish brown, basal and lateral membrane pale yellowish brown.

Male: Body length 2.9–3.1 mm, vertex with dense punctation; antennae longer than female.

Distribution. China (Fujian).

Host. Unknown.

Discussion. This species is closely related to M. longwangshana in having the propodeum coarsely reticulaterugose, T1 sub parallel sided, number of carinae dividing the scutellar lunules and T2 with a median field. However, it differs in the following characters: mesoscutum rugose-punctate (in M. longwangshana mesoscutum smooth), medial length of T3 longer than T2 (in M. longwangshana medial length of T3 as long as T2) and pterostigma less than 3.1× as long as wide (in M. longwangshana pterostigma 3.1× as long as wide).

Comments. We could not examine type material of this species.