Chrysis strakai Rosa, Proshchalykin & Halada, 2021

Rosa, Paolo, Proshchalykin, Maxim Yu. & Halada, Marek, 2021, Additions to the cuckoo wasps (Hymenoptera, Chrysididae) of Mongolia, with description of eleven new species, ZooKeys 1068, pp. 149-187 : 149

Chrysis strakai Rosa, Proshchalykin & Halada sp. nov.

Figure 4A-G

Material examined.

Holotype: ♂, Mongolia: Bayankhongor, 130 km S of Bayankhongor, 45°03'N; 100°59'E, 1240 m alt., Orog Nuur , 6-7.VII.2004, on saxaul, leg. JS (ZIN).

Diagnosis.

Chrysis strakai sp. nov. is characterised by body colour metallic dark blue to violet with green and bluish reflections on metasoma. Face almost flat, with scapal basin, genae and clypeus laterally fully covered with long, appressed and silvery setae; transverse frontal carina faint; pronotum elongate with subparallel sides and deep, irregularly-sized punctures; mesonotum with sparse and polished interspaces; metasoma double punctate; T3 lateral margin deeply emarginated before lateral tooth; median teeth widely separated, with interval between median teeth almost twice as wide as interval between median and lateral tooth. The female is unknown.

Description.

Male. Body length 5.4 mm. Head. Vertex and brow with sparse, small punctures (about 0.2 × MOD), with tiny punctures on polished interspaces; brow with confluent punctures, forming radial pattern around anterior ocellus; depressed area in front of anterior ocellus and lateral to posterior ocelli; transverse frontal carina faint (Fig. 4A ); in frontal view, uppermost margin of scapal basin edged, appearing as transverse carina; scapal basin flat densely micropunctate, with deep median line extended from uppermost margin of scapal basin to ¾ of scapal basin; scapal basin, excluding median line, genae and clypeus laterally fully covered with long, appressed and silvery setae; apical margin of clypeus triangular, non-metallic brown; mandible unidentate; genal carina developed from mid-eye to mandibular insertion, F1 as long as F2. OOL 2.5 × MOD; POL 2.0 × MOD; MS 1.1 × MOD; relative length of P:F1:F2:F3 = 1.0:1.3:1.3:0.9; subantennal space 1.4 × MOD. Mesosoma. Medial pronotal line unusually wide on anterior pronotal margin, as long as half-length of pronotum; pronotum coarsely punctate, with uneven sized punctures, denser and larger than those on mesonotum; interspaces with tiny punctures; mesoscutum with smaller, scattered and shallow punctures with wide interspaces (up to 3 PD); notauli as deep line, larger and triangular at base; lateral areas of mesoscutum with denser to sub-confluent punctures towards tegula; parapsidal signum hardly visible, as thin line amongst punctures; mesoscutellum with punctures similar to those on median area of mesoscutum, smaller and shallow punctate medially, denser laterally; metanotum with large, deep, irregular punctures mixed with smaller punctures, contiguous to confluent along the mesoscutellar-metanotal suture; posterior propodeal projections small, short, slightly divergent with straight posterior margin; posterior margin of metanotum with wide impunctate stripe (Fig. 4F ); mesopleuron with scrobal sulcus wide, triangular and impunctate; episternal sulcus deep and fully developed only in the upper part of mesopleuron (Fig. 4D ); forewing with radial sector complete, reaching wing margin and second radial cell closed. Metasoma. T1 with double punctation, punctures smaller than those on mesosoma and broadly separated with small punctures on interspaces; T2 dorsally with medium-sized, irregular punctures, deep and contiguous, obliquely engraved, well visible in posterior view (Fig. 4E ); T3, with similar punctures; pits of pit row small, shallow and longitudinally elongate (Fig. 4E and F ) separated to contiguous; T3 lateral margin deeply emarginated before apical, lateral tooth; apically with four short, pointed, triangular teeth (Fig. 4E and F ); median teeth widely separated, with interval between median teeth almost twice as wide as interval between median and lateral tooth (Fig. 4F ); metasomal terga without distinct median longitudinal carina; black spots on S2 large, medially separated, yet scarcely visible on the dark coloured sternum (Fig. 4G ). Colouration. Body entirely metallic light blue with green reflections all over the body, on face, on bottom of mesosomal punctures, on lateral sides, on legs and sterna. Scape, pedicel and F1 light blue, other flagellomeres black. Wings clear, with brownish veins. Vestiture. Body with relatively short (1.0-1.5 × MOD) and whitish setae laterally.

Female. Unknown.

Etymology.

The specific epithet Chrysis strakai (masculine noun in genitive) is dedicated to Jakub Straka (Prague, Czech Republic), who collected this undescribed species and other several new records for Mongolia, published in this article and in Rosa et al. (2020).

Comparative diagnosis.

Chrysis strakai sp. nov. belongs to the C. ehrenbergi group. It cannot be confused with any other species known in the C. ehrenbergi group so far, based on its colouration, elongate pronotum and shape of T3.

Remarks.

Members of the C. ehrenbergi group usually show a red to golden-red colouration, which may turn into greenish in specimens preserved in collections. For this reason, based on a single specimen, we cannot exclude that the colouration of the holotype is based on a melanic specimen. However, the elongate shape of pronotum, the apical margin of T3 and genital capsule differentiate this species from the other few Central Asian species known so far.

Distribution.

Mongolia (Bayankhongor).

Figures

Figure 4. Chrysis strakai sp. nov., male, holotype A head, frontal view B habitus, dorsal view C genital capsule D habitus, lateral view E metasoma, posterior view F metasoma, postero-lateral view G metasoma, ventral view. Scale bars: 1 mm.