Pseudoceraphron belissimus, Jałoszyński, 2020

Jałoszyński, Paweł, 2020, Three new species of Pseudoceraphron from Japan and New Zealand (Hymenoptera: Chalcidoidea: Pteromalidae), Zootaxa 4810 (3), pp. 546-558 : 547-551

Pseudoceraphron belissimus sp. n.

Figs 1–11

Type material: Holotype: ♀, “ JAPAN, OKINAWA Pref. / ISHIGAKI-JIMA, 2 km S / Kabira , jungle, 12 I 2017 / leg. P. Jałoszyński ” [white, printed], “ PSEUDOCERAPHRON / belissimus m. / HOLOTYPUS / P. Jałoszyński, 2020” [red, printed] ( ELKU).

Diagnosis. Scape weakly, pedicel, anelli and clava distinctly infuscate, F1 contrastingly pale yellow ( Figs 1, 2 ); face pale yellow with narrow, dark brown, transverse band below toruli ( Figs 1, 2 ); posterior margin of vertex with one pair of conspicuously thick, long, but pale yellowish bristles ( Figs 5, 6 ); OOL/POL ~ 0.2; anterior margins of lateral ocelli connected by transverse ridge ( Fig. 7 ); antennal clava 3.4× as long as F1; mesoscutum lacking long bristles ( Fig. 6 ); notauli Y-shaped ( Fig. 6 ); scutellum subrectangular, with lateral margins indistinct anteriorly; axil- lae absent ( Fig. 6 ); wing stump with bristle over 1.5× as long as scutellum ( Fig. 6 ); ventral margin of hypopygium angulate, its proximal and distal portions straight.

Description (female). Body ( Figs 1–4, 6 ) stout, length 1.1 mm. Antenna ( Figs 1, 2 ) infuscate with scape pale yellow in basal half and weakly darkened distally, F1 pale yellow; body pigmentation ( Figs 1–3 ) otherwise predomi- nantly light brown with orange tint, with contrastingly pale yellowish head except for dark brown posterior margin of vertex, infuscate, diffuse rings around ocelli, and dark brown transverse band across face just below toruli; all legs ( Figs 1, 2 ) brown, with tibiae and tarsi slightly lighter; gaster ( Figs 1–3 ) with pale yellowish ring behind cerci, but tips of epipygium and ovipositor sheaths nearly black.

Head ( Figs 5 , 7, 8 ) measurements: length 181 μm, width 407 μm, height 263 μm, width of oral fossa 131 μm, malar space 119 μm, longest diameter of compound eye 183 μm, POL 129 μm, OOL 27 μm. Head much broader than mesoscutum ( Fig. 6 ), distinctly broader than high ( Fig. 8 ); clypeal margin ( Fig. 8 ) weakly concave; malar sulcus complete and in lateral view nearly straight ( Fig. 5 ), with tiny elongate pit at lateral margin of oral fossa; longitudinal convexity between toruli ( Fig. 8 ) well developed but with indistinct margins, dorsally extending for distance about equal to three diameters of torulus; scrobes ( Fig. 8 ) developed as shallow depressions lacking welldefined margins. Clypeus ( Fig. 9 ) smooth, face ( Fig. 9 ) below toruli with weak, polygonal, transverse microscu- lpture, but smooth and impunctate above toruli; short and sparse setae on microsculptured region, between toruli, and laterad clypeus, and with one row of setae along mesal margin of eye. Vertex ( Figs 5 , 7 ) with distinct posterior edge, additional distinct ridge connecting anterior margins of lateral ocelli; vertex and occiput ( Fig. 7 ) shallowly mi- crosculptured, with polygonal, transverse cells; posterior edge of vertex with a pair of thick erect bristles ( Figs 5 , 7, 8 ), microsculptured area with sparse, short setae. Gena ( Fig. 5 ) with shallow microsculpture composed of elongate polygonal cells parallel to posterior genal margin, and with distinct arcuate posterior edge. Antenna ( Fig. 9 ) 464 μm in length; scape in distal half weakly thickened, pedicel weakly broadening distally; AN1 and AN2 asetose, AN3–7 each with sparse setae; F1 and each segment of clava with one ring of longitudinal sensilla; clava indistinctly demarcated from F1, with its first segment nearly as long as 2 and 3 combined; lengths: scape 138 μm, pedicel 55 μm, AN1 8 μm, AN2 8 μm, AN3 11 μm, AN4 16 μm, AN5 12 μm, AN6 16 μm, AN7 20 μm, F1 40 μm, clava 138 μm.

Mesosoma ( Figs 5, 6 ) measurements: length 245 μm, maximum width 280 μm; length of pronotum 65 μm, width of pronotum 224 μm, length of mesoscutum 102 μm, length of scutellum 75 μm, length of postscutellar portion of propodeum 55 μm. Pronotum dorsally ( Fig. 7 ) with shallow microsculpture composed of transverse polygonal cells. Mesoscutum ( Figs 5, 6 ) strongly transverse, with shallow microsculpture composed of transverse polygonal cells and with two pairs of short setae ( Fig. 6 ); notauli ( Fig. 6 ) Y-shaped, posteriorly united into a common furrow near middle of mesoscutum. Scutellum ( Fig. 6 ) transverse, nearly rectangular with broadly rounded posterior corners, with step-wise lateral edges indistinct in anterior third, and with posterior margin nearly straight; flat surface with shallow microsculpture composed of transverse polygonal cells, well visible in anterior half and becoming gradu- ally indistinct in posterior half, and with two pairs of setae; axillae not delimited. Propodeum ( Fig. 6 ) with postscu- tellar portion strongly transverse; posterior margin strongly concave medially; surface smooth, lacking longitudinal carinae, and lacking dorsal setae.

Prepectus ( Figs 5, 6 ) triangular and smooth, partly visible in dorsal view. Mesopleuron ( Fig. 5 ) subtriangular, short, mostly smooth except for small shallowly reticulate area near middle.

Wing stumps ( Figs 5, 6 ) prominent, strongly projecting laterad, each with bristle more than 1.5× as long as scutellum.

Petiole ( Fig. 6 ) short, transverse, dorsally with several slightly irregular and weakly marked longitudinal cari- nae laterally, and smooth between carinae.

Gaster ( Figs 1–4, 6 ) measurements: length 675 μm, width 410 μm, length of postcercale (excluding ovipositor sheaths) 98 μm; T1 ( Figs 4, 6 ) slightly more than twice as long as remaining tergites combined (excluding ovipositor sheaths), dorsally ( Fig. 6 ) mostly smooth except for shallow reticulation just behind anterior margin, and sparsely covered with short, nearly recumbent setae, the setae distinctly denser in anterior half, and remaining tergites con- spicuously short, each smooth; cerci ( Fig. 10 ) each with two long setae subequal in length, postcercale with sparse, long setae; ovipositor sheaths about as long as epipygium, sparsely setose; ovipositor ( Fig. 11 ) with upper valve ser- rate, lower valve smooth. Hypopygium in lateral view angulate, with proximal and distal margins nearly straight.

Etymology. The specific epithet belissimus is a Latin adjective meaning ‘the most beautiful’.

Remarks. In the identification key given by Desjardins (2007), P. belissimus keys out to couplet 5, but it matches neither the thesis (axillae visible), nor the antithesis (bristles absent from vertex). Pseudoceraphron belissimus is the first known Northern Hemisphere member of this genus, and the new finding considerably extends the genus range nearly 4,000 km north of the previously known northernmost limit. The holotype female was sifted from moist leaf litter near stream, in subtropical forest.

Figures

FIGURES 1–3. Pseudoceraphron belissimus sp. n., holotype female. Habitus photographed in ethanol in lateral (1), ventral (2) and dorsal (3) views.

FIGURES 4–6. Pseudoceraphron belissimus sp. n., scanning electron micrographs. Habitus of holotype female in lateral (4) and dorsal (6) views, and close-up of head, mesosoma and anterior portion of gaster in lateral view (5).

FIGURES 7–11. Pseudoceraphron belissimus sp. n., holotype female, scanning electron micrographs. Head in dorsal (7) and anterior (8) views; antenna in anterior view (9); tip of gaster in lateral view (10–11).