Ooctonus nigrotestaceus Subba Rao, 1989

Triapitsyn, Serguei V., 2010, Revision of the Palaearctic species and review of the Oriental species of Ooctonus (Hymenoptera: Mymaridae), with notes on extralimital taxa 2381, Zootaxa 2381 (1), pp. 1-74 : 67-68

Ooctonus nigrotestaceus Subba Rao, 1989

( Fig. 135 )

Ooctonus nigrotestaceus Subba Rao 1989: 140 (key), 141, 176 (illustrations); holotype female [BMNH], examined; type locality: Mudumalai [Wildlife Sanctuary], Tamil Nadu, India.

Type material examined. Holotype female [ BMNH] on card labeled: 1. “ INDIA: T. Nadu, Mudumalai A. San., 23–24.x.1979 ”; 2. “ J.S. Noyes B.M. 1979–518”; 3. “ Ooctonus nigrotestaceous [sic] sp. nov. ♀ det. B.R. Subba Rao, 1988”; 4. [inside red-bordered circle] “Holo-type”; 5. “B.M. TYPE HYM 5.34–83” . Paratype male [ BMNH] on card labeled: 1. “ INDIA: T. Nadu, Shembaganu, x.1979 ”; 2. “ J.S. Noyes B. M. 1979–518”; 3. “ Ooctonus nigrotestaceus sp. nov. ♂ det. B.R. Subba Rao, 1988”; 4. [inside yellow-bordered circle] “ Paratype ”. Subba Rao (1989) erroneously indicated (p. 141): “ Paratype female same data” [as the holotype], but in fact the paratype is a male collected from a different locality [correct spelling: Shembaganur (J.S. Noyes, personal communication)] in Tamil Nadu, India .

Redescription. FEMALE (holotype). Length 1700 µm [erroneously indicated as 1.8 mm by Subba Rao (1989)]. Body ( Fig. 135 ) almost entirely black except eyes and ocelli dirty pink and gaster dark brown to black; coxae black, remainder of leg segments and also scape and pedicel light brown (metatibia slightly darker distally); flagellum brown.

All funicle segments much longer than wide and more or less subequal in length (distal ones a little shorter), F1 notably longer than pedicel; mps apparently present on F4–F8, at least (impossible to verify without slide-mounting an antenna).

Mesosoma with pronotum weakly reticulate; mesoscutum and scutellum with reticulate sculpture (the cells larger on mesoscutum and posterior scutellum than on anterior scutellum, those on posterior scutellum more longitudinally elongate), midlobe of mesoscutum with a median groove about as wide posteriorly as width of a notaulus, anteriorly narrowing and almost extending to anterior margin of mesoscutum; metanotum strap-like, sculptured anteriorly; propodeum weakly, yet notably, sculptured, with median and lateral carinae parallel and a little longer than median areole.

Forewing approximately 2.9x as long as wide; disc with a slight brownish tinge throughout, densely setose but bare behind most of submarginal vein, with discal setae only just behind its apex along posterior margin of wing, slightly truncate apically.

Metacoxa with strong reticulate sculpture.

Petiole smooth, shining, much longer than metacoxa; gaster much shorter than mesosoma; ovipositor not exserted beyond apex of gaster.

Description. MALE (paratype, previously undescribed, see “Type material examined” above and also “Comments” below). Similar to female except for the normal sexually dimorphic features.

Diagnosis. Ooctonus nigrotestaceus differs from all other known Oriental species of the genus that have the midlobe of mesoscutum mediolongitudinally divided by an almost complete median groove (at least 0.5x length of mesoscutum), such as O. flavipodus Subba Rao , O. lapen sp. n., and O. sinensis Subba Rao , in having the combination of black metacoxae and the propodeum with median and lateral carinae long and parallel, and lateral carinae extending to the anterior margin of propodeum. In O. sinensis , which also has a black metacoxa, the lateral carinae on the propodeum are not parallel with the median carina and do not extend to the anterior margin of propodeum, and the petiole is longitudinally striate (smooth in O. nigrotestaceus ).

Distribution. ORIENTAL: India (Tamil Nadu).

Hosts. Unknown.

Comments. Subba Rao (1989) apparently somewhat mixed the descriptions, especially of the color, of O. nigrotestaceus and O. sinensis (p. 141), also (and particularly) in the second couplet of his key to the Oriental species of Ooctonus (p. 140).

Figures

FIGURE 135. Ooctonus nigrotestaceus ♀ (holotype): habitus.