Microcurgus braconoides ( Priesner, 1955 ) Schmid-Egger & Enayatnina & Rakhshani, 2018

Schmid-Egger, Christian, Enayatnina, Masoumeh & Rakhshani, Ehsan, 2018, Review of the genus Microcurgus Haupt, 1950 (Hymenoptera, Pompilidae) with description of a new species from Iran, Zootaxa 4444 (5), pp. 530-536 : 532-535

Microcurgus braconoides ( Priesner, 1955) , new combination.

( Figs. 1–6 )

Micropompilus braconoides Priesner 1955: 163 , male. Locus typicus: Ägypten: Wadi Hof. Holotypus in coll . Alfieri (probably lost); Wolf 1990 (Tunisia, description of female).

Remarks: Microcurgus braconoides was described from a single male from Egypt. Wolf (1990) described a female from Tunisia as the corresponding sex without further comments about the male-female relationship. Because of sexual dimorphism in Pompilidae , this assumption is not really justified;it would be better to recognize the sex association based on examination of both sexes from the same region. As we cannot disprove this association, however, we retain the taxon name M. braconoides for the Tunisian female, and describe the females from Iran as a new species.

Diagnosis: The female of M. braconoides can be distinguished from M. iraniensis sp.n. mainly by body color (predominantly red/brown versus all yellow in M. iraniensis sp.n.). Additionally, the vertex(in frontal view) is medially flat and not elevated as in M. iraniensis sp.n..

Description of female: Body length 4 mm. Color. Mandible red brown. Clypeus, band around eyes (inner eye margin and gena), band connecting scape and eye yellow, frons red-brown. Scape dark brown, AS II and AS III ivory white, remaining AS mixed pale, light brown and dark brown, apically paler than basally. Mesosoma dorsally and laterally red-brown, ventrally dark brown. Abdominal segments I–IV dark brown, segments V–VI light yellow. Legs red brown with paler parts. Wing greyish transparent, inside of the cells with some darker patches. Body covered with fine pubescence. Morphology. Apical clypeal margin with median triangular emargination. Mandibular base with a few brown bristles, as long as mandible. Malar space as long as diameter of AS III. Eye (measured frontally, in medial face) 0.27 as large as remaining face. Vertex (frontal view) straight, somewhat elevated above a line connecting upper eye margin. Mid- and hindtibia with about five pale spines, as long as diameter of tibia or somewhat longer. Pulvillus small and thin (half as large as claw), claw medially with small tooth. See also generic characters and figures.

Description of male (based on Priesner 1955 with modification). Body length 2.7 mm. Color. Dull orange to brown, head and pronotum paler, testaceous, propodeum dark brown. Antenna yellow, AS at the articulations darker. Legs pale brown, coxae darker. Wing hyaline, with brown veins that become much paler towards apex, stigma dark brown. Morphology. Head transverse, frons very broad, about 3.5x broad as the eye. Ocelli large, OOL:POL= 4:3. Hindocelli situated at the margin of the vertex, the latter sharply edged. Antennae long and fine, about as long as the wings, AS I short, twice as long as AS II, AS III twice as long as AS II.Gena short,in lateral aspect probably one-third of eye. Mesosoma strongly convex, with pronotum declivous towards apex, sides narrowed anteriorly, straight, hindmargin forming a shallow arc, hind angles strongly produced backwards.Mesonotum convex, semi-circularly limited posteriorly, notauli fine. Mesoscutellum broad, convex. Metanotum deep, metapostnotum scarcely half as long as metanotum, transversely impressed in the middle, only indistinctly striate laterally. Body shining, finely and little densely pubescent, propodeum more strongly shining, like the abdomen and the anterior body with very fine transversely alutaceous surface structure. Propodeum parallel sided at base, rounded and narrowed behind, slightly convex, at the sides and posteriorly with finely reflexed margin, without median sulcus. Abdomen shorter than the mesosoma, narrowly lanceolate in shape. Legs long and very slender, foretarsi with inconspicuous spines. Hind tarsi very long, much longer than the tibia, the latter about as long (or scarcely so) as tarsomeres I–II combined. White spines at the end of the tibiae somewhat splayed out, lateral margin of tibiae with a few white long spines. Longer spur of the hindtibia about half as long as metatarsus. Pulvillus well developed, slender. Claws without inner tooth.

Distribution: Egypt, Tunisia.

Material examined. One female:, Kala Shira, Tunisia, 24.iv.1980, Tussac leg. (Bitsch).

Figures

FIGURES 1–6. Microcurgus braconoides, female. 1. Mesosoma, dorsal view. 2. Habitus, lateral view. 3. Head, frontal view. 4. Head, lateral view. 5. Foreleg. 6. Right forewing, ventral view.