Scelio ardelio Yoder

Yoder, Matthew J., Valerio, Alejandro A., Polaszek, Andrew, Noort, Simon van, Masner, Lubomir & Johnson, Norman F., 2014, Monograph of the Afrotropical species of Scelio Latreille (Hymenoptera, Platygastridae), egg parasitoids of acridid grasshoppers (Orthoptera, Acrididae), ZooKeys 380, pp. 1-188 : 22

Scelio ardelio Yoder sp. n. Figures 43-48; Morphbank 24

Description.

Female body length: 3.45 mm (n=1). Shape of compound eye: not or only slightly bulging. Color pattern of pilosity below anterior ocellus in female: brown throughout. Sculpture of frons in female: reticulate rugulose, rugae finer, with slight dorsoventral trend. Genal carina in female: absent. Width of gena in lateral view: weakly expanded, posterior margin parallel to posterior margin of eye. Density of genal setae: sparse, setae generally inconspicuous. Color of genal setae: white to off-white. Sculpture of base of mandible in female: smooth. Color of A1 in female: light to dark brown throughout, or with apex and base slightly lighter, often yellowish. Color of A3 in female: brown. Sculpture of dorsal pronotal nucha in female: predominantly to completely sculptured. Color of pilosity of pronotal shoulder in female: predominantly light brown to brown. Sculpture along humeral margin of mesoscutum: with effaced areas. Color of pilosity of mesonotum in female: predominantly light to dark brown. Transition from lateral to posterior margin of propodeum in dorsal view: smoothly curved, corner of propodeum undefined. Shape of mesoscutum in lateral view: more or less flat. Pilosity on metapleuron above hind coxa: with large patch of dense fine setae. Form of fore wing submarginal vein in female: tubular throughout from base to costal margin. Fine pilosity of lateral T1 in female: present. Width of metasoma: very wide, width of S3> 2 times medial length. Distribution of pilosity on T2-T5 in female: more or less evenly distributed throughout. Sculpture of T3 in female: longitudinally striate laterally with prominent reticulate to rugulose elements medially. Overall sculpture of S3: coarsely reticulate. Sculpture of medial S3 in female: present throughout.

Diagnosis.

Most similar to Scelio chapmani , with which it shares the dense patch of pilosity above the hind coxa on the posterolateral corner of the metapleuron (Fig. 46). This species may be distinguished from Scelio chapmani by the sparse brown pilosity of the gena (dense and white in Scelio chapmani ), the the more or less rounded posterior propodeal margin (distinctly truncate with sharp lateral corner in Scelio chapmani ), and the thin strip of obliterated sculpture along the humeral margin of the mesoscutum (sculptured throughout in Scelio chapmani , compare Figs 45 and 57).

Etymology.

The epithet is Latin, for meddler or busybody, and is used as a noun in apposition. This refers to the odd character combinations that meddle with an otherwise straightforwardly defined species group, and rhymes nicely.

Link to distribution map.

http://hol.osu.edu/map-large.html?id=244960

Material examined.

Holotype, female: KENYA: Eastern Prov., Gatab, Mount Kulal, 7000ft, IV-1980, D. Levin, OSUC 212510 (deposited in CNCI).

Comments.

Scelio ardelio has a strange mix of characters that contradicts the definition of all the major species groups. The species is tentatively included in the ernstii-group based in part on the patch of metapleural pilosity it shares with Scelio chapmani , similarities in the shape of the anteclypeus, and the general habitus. At first impression the state of the posterior propodeal margin appears closer to that observed in species of the walkeri and pulchripennis groups with a margin that appears more or less rounded (Fig. 45). A very narrow perpendicular carina is visible medially adjacent the nuchal area, however, which may indicate that Scelio ardelio may simply be highly derived with respect to other ernstii-group species. Scelio ardelio is also notable for several states not, or rarely observed in Afrotropical ernstii-group species: the obliterated narrow strip of sculpture along the humeral margin of the mesoscutum, the absence of reticulate microsculpture at the base of the mandible, and the long and narrow setae in general. The fine pilosity of lateral T1 is particularly dense and the sculpture of T3 very reticulate.