Pristaulacus takakuwai Turrisi & Watanabe

Turrisi, Giuseppe Fabrizio & Watanabe, Kyohei, 2011, Description of two new Asian Pristaulacus Kieffer 1900 (Hymenoptera: Aulacidae), Zootaxa 2895, pp. 35-46 : 42-43

Pristaulacus takakuwai Turrisi & Watanabe , sp.n.

( Figs 18–27 )

Type material. THAILAND: holotype Ƥ labelled “Khao Kho, 8–900 m, Petchabun [Phetchabun Province], N. Thai., 24-27.V.2009, Takakuwa, M. leg./ Pristaulacus takakuwai Turrisi & Watanabe sp.n. Ƥ 2010 Holotypus ” ( UCCT).

Etymology. Named after Dr Masatoshi Takakuwa (Kanagawa Prefectural Museum of Natural History, Japan), who collected the holotype.

Description (holotype, Ƥ). Length: 14.7 mm; antenna length: 8.4 mm; fore wing length: 12.1 mm; ovipositor length: 10.7 mm.

Colour black, except: clypeus yellowish orange; mandible extensively yellowish orange, except teeth; maxillolabial complex dark reddish orange with palpomeres reddish orange; A1–2 reddish orange; fore and mid legs extensively orange (except base of mid coxa black and pretarsi dark brown); hind tarsus (except pretarsus) black brown; wings hyaline, yellowish, with veins black to brown; fore wing with irregular and wide dark brown spot below stigma (about wide as two-thirds of stigma length); metasoma extensively dark orange except T1 and middle of other tergites (except T2). Setae golden.

Head, from above, 1.2× wider than long, shiny; occipital margin weakly concave; temple, from above, well developed, straight to weakly convex, about 0.8× as long as eye length; occipital carina narrow, 0.1–0.2× diameter of an ocellus; POL:OOL= 1.1; vertex with fine, deep and dense punctures (distance between punctures 1.0–3.0× puncture diameter); temple with fine to coarse, deep and dense punctures (distance between punctures 1.0–2.0× puncture diameter); upper half of frons with fine, deep and dense punctures (distance between punctures about 1.0– 1.5× puncture diameter); lower half of frons with coarse, deep and dense punctures (distance between punctures 0.5× puncture diameter); clypeus with coarse, deep and dense punctures (distance between punctures 0.5× puncture diameter); anterior half of malar area with fine, deep and dense punctures, posterior half with fine, deep and dense punctures; occipital area with fine, superficial and dense punctures; antenna 0.7× fore wing length; A3 1.9× longer than wide; A4 5.2× longer than wide, and slightly longer than A3; A5 7.1× longer than wide, and 1.5× longer than A3. Setae erect, long and dense on vertex; recumbent and semi erect to erect, long and very dense on temple (length of setae 0.8–0.9× diameter of an ocellus); semi erect to erect, long and dense on upper frons; recumbent, long and dense on lower frons and clypeus; recumbent, moderately long and very dense on dorsal half of malar area, less dense on remaining surface.

Mesosoma coarsely sculptured; pronotum areolate-rugose, foveolate above lateroventral margin, with one well-developed acute tooth-like process on each lateroventral margin, above side of propleuron; propleuron polished and shiny with coarse, deep and scattered to dense punctures on dorsal surface, fine, deep and dense punctures on ventral surface (distance between punctures about 2.0–4.0× puncture diameter); prescutum triangular, narrow, concave toward mesoscutum, transverse-carinulate; mesoscutum mostly areolate-rugose, transverse carinate on anterior lobe; anterior margin slightly prominent and weakly angulate (lateral view); notauli deep and wide; scutellum mostly transverse-carinulate-punctate, polished to weakly rugulose-foveolate on posterolateral corners; mesopleuron areolate-rugose to oblique-carinulate except a moderately wide part of subalar area polished-punctate; metanotum scrobiculate; propodeum coarsely areolate-rugose, anterior margin longitudinally carinate; ventral parts of mesosoma polished to transverse carinulate-foveolate, scrobiculate in middle; fore wing with vein 2–rs+m short; coxa I polished-punctate with fine, deep and dense punctures on ventral surface; coxa II transverse-carinate on dorsal surface, rugulose-punctate (on basal third) to transverse-carinulate on ventral surface; coxa III transversecarinate on dorsal surface, mostly polished-punctate on ventral surface, with fine, deep and dense punctures (distance between punctures 2.0–3.0× puncture diameter), except along inner margin, with coarse, deep and dense punctures (distance between punctures 0.2–1.0× puncture diameter); inner spur of mid and hind tibiae longer than outer spur; hind basitarsus 10.7× longer than wide, and 1.2× as tarsomeres 2–5; tarsal claw with four tooth-like processes. Setae erect to semi erect, short and dense on dorsal mesoscutum; recumbent to erect (on upper pronotum), long (on pronotum) and dense (on pronotum) on sides and venter of mesosoma; erect, long and dense on hind surface of propodeum; erect, long and dense on propleuron (setae length 0.8× pretarsus length).

Metasoma pyriform (lateral view), compressed laterally; petiole elongate, slender, 3.4× longer than wide; segment 1 polished with a few sparse punctures on T1; following segments with fine, superficial and dense punctures; S7 polished with coarse, deep and dense punctures; T8 microsculptured with fine, superficial and dense punctures; ovipositor 0.9× longer than fore wing length. Setae on segment 1 glabrous; recumbent, short and dense on T2; recumbent, short and dense on remaining segments; semi erect, long and dense on S7.

3 unknown.

Remarks. This species is not obviously allied to any other described Oriental Pristaulacus (see Smith 2001; Turrisi et al. 2009; Turrisi & Smith 2011) and is easily recognized by the combination of the following characters: setae of the body entirely golden; wings hyaline, yellowish with apex infuscate; metasoma extensively reddish orange; shape of the head, with temple straight (dorsal view) ( Fig. 19 ); ovipositor 0.9× fore wing length.

It superficially resembles P. rufobalteatus ( Cameron 1907) described from Sikkim, India ( Cameron 1907) (type material examined in BMHN) but it is easily distinguished from P. rufobalteatus by the colour pattern ( Figs 18–27 ), with setae golden vs. whitish in P. rufobalteatus , wings hyaline, yellowish with apex infuscate vs. hyaline, not yellowish with apex not infuscate in P. rufobalteatus , hind legs mostly black to dark brown vs. reddish orange in P. rufobalteatus , the shape of the head, with temple more developed, straight in dorsal view ( Fig. 19 ), vs. temple moderately developed, convex in P. rufobalteatus ; the shape of the basal antennomeres, quite stout, with A3 1.9× longer than wide; A4 5.2× longer than wide, and slightly longer than A3; A5 7.1× longer than wide, and 1.5× longer than A3, vs. slender with A3 5.6× longer than wide; A4 12.0× longer than wide, and 1.9× longer than A3; A5 11.1× longer than wide, and 1.6× longer than A 3 in P. rufobalteatus ; shorter petiole, 3.4× longer than wide ( Fig. 27 ), vs. 4.2× in P. rufobalteatus ; and shorter ovipositor, 0.9× fore wing length vs. 1.4× in P. rufobalteatus .

Distribution. Thailand (Phetchabun Province), known only from type locality.

Biology. Unknown.

Figures

FIGURES 18 – 21. Pristaulacus takakuwai Turrisi & Watanabe, sp. n. (holotype Ƥ, Thailand): 18, habitus; 19, head, dorsal view; 20, head, frontal view; 21, head, lateral view.

FIGURES 22 – 27. Pristaulacus takakuwai Turrisi & Watanabe, sp. n. (holotype Ƥ, Thailand): 22, mesosoma, dorsal view; 23, mesosoma, lateral view; 24, wings; 25, mid and hind coxae, ventral view; 26, hind tarsus, lateral view; 27, metasoma, lateral view.