Dendrocerus anneckei Dessart, 1985

Salden, Tobias & Peters, Ralph S., 2023, Afrotropical Ceraphronoidea (Insecta: Hymenoptera) put back on the map with the description of 88 new species, European Journal of Taxonomy 884 (1), pp. 1-386 : 368-371

Dendrocerus anneckei Dessart, 1985

Fig. 105

Johnson & Musetti 2004: 87.

Mikó et al. 2011: 356, 359, 363–364, 366.

Diagnosis

Flagellum brown, gradually lightening from F1 to F9; OOL 2.52 × lateral ocellus size; supraclypeal depression absent; OOL:POL 0.71; mesoscutum width 2.21 × mesoscutellum width; fore wing length 2.63× width. Male genitalia: harpe triangular in apical half in ventral and dorsal view and rounded in lateral view; harpe/gvc index 0.31; dorsomedial margins of harpes not touching at distodorsal margin of gvc, dorsomedial margin of harpe slightly concave and converging and touching distomedially in approximately basal third, straight and oriented laterally at approximately basal third, straight and diverging distolaterally in approximately apical two thirds; ventral margin of harpe convex in basal third, slightly concave in middle-third and convex in apical third.

Material examined

Neotype (hereby designated)

TANZANIA • ♂; Kilimanjaro Region, Mount Kilimanjaro; 3°4′50.5 S, 37°17′33.4 E; 3880 m a.s.l.; 26 Sep. 2012; KiLi project leg.; “high 3”; FER0, Erica trimera forest; Coloured pan trap; ZFMK; ZFMK-HYM-00037087 .

Holotype

SOUTH AFRICA • ♀; Pietermaritzburg, Thornveld; 20 Nov. 1963; E. Haeselbarth leg.; RBINS; PSUC_ FEM000147268 .

Condition: completely detached from card and missing.

Allotype

SOUTH AFRICA • ♂; Giants Castle Reserve , forest; 1800 m a.s.l.; 11 Nov. 1963; E. Haeselbarth leg.; RBINS.

Condition: mesosoma with legs attached to card, left protibia and protarsus missing, left middle and hind legs missing except meso- and metacoxae and mesotrochanter, and right metatibia and metatarsus missing. Rest missing.

Paratypes

SOUTH AFRICA • 1 ♀; Rustenburg “Tul.”; Mar. 1981; reared by S. Kamburov, ex Conwentzia capensis Tjeder, 1969 ; “Prép. microscopique n° 8104/081”; RBINS .

Condition: only one hind wing attached to card and right antenna and one fore wing on slides. Rest missing.

SOUTH AFRICA • 1 ♀; Rustenburg “Tul.”; Mar. 1981; reared by S. Kamburov, ex Conwentzia capensis Tjeder, 1969 ; “C 360”; RBINS .

Condition: completely detached from card and missing.

ZIMBABWE • 1 ♀; Harare; May – Jul.; A. Watsham leg.; “Prép. microscopique n° 8104/087”; RBINS .

Condition: only one leg attached to card. Rest missing.

ZIMBABWE • 1 ♀; Harare; May – Jul.; A. Watsham leg.; RBINS .

Condition: completely detached from card and missing.

Description

Male

BODY LENGTH. 2.75 mm.

COLOUR. Head dark brown, mesosoma dark brown, metasoma brown; scape and pedicel light brown, flagellum brown, gradually lightening from F1 to F9; legs brown; fore wing venation brown, fore and hind wing disc slightly melanized.

ANTENNA. 11 segmented, flagellomeres cylindric and F1 to F5 serrated, serration gradually weakening from F1 to F6; scape 6.0× as long as pedicel, scape as long as F1 and F2 combined, F1 1.8 × as long as wide, F1 3.2× as long as pedicel, F1 1.1× as long as F2, F1 shorter than F7 and F8 combined, F1 longer than F9, F6 2.3× as long as wide, F6 shorter than F7 and F8 combined; numerous distinctly small multiporous plates on flagellomeres, sensillae on flagellomeres erect and longer than width of F1 to F7.

HEAD. Head width 1.30 × head height; head width 1.57 × interorbital space; maximum eye diameter 1.18 × minimum eye diameter; head height 2.03 × maximum eye diameter. Dorsal margin of occipital carina ventral to dorsal margin of lateral ocellus in lateral view; preoccipital furrow indistinct; preoccipital carina distinct. OOL:POL:LOL 1.00:1.41:0.62; OOL 2.52 × lateral ocellus size. White, thick setae on upper face absent; supraclypeal depression absent; lateral margin of torulus slightly raised; intertorular carina present; posterolateral processes of gena absent.

MESOSOMA, METASOMA. Mesosoma not compressed laterally. Head width 1.06 × mesosoma width; Weber length 840 µm. Mesoscutum setose, setae curved backwards; notaulus incomplete, only in anterior part; median mesoscutal sulcus present; median mesoscutal sulcus adjacent to transscutal articulation; interaxillar sulcus absent (= scutoscutellar sulcus adjacent to transscutal articulation), scutoscutellar sulcus convex; dorsal axillar area sparsely setose, setae curved backwards; mesoscutellum sparsely setose, setae curved backwards or straight. Mesoscutum width 2.21 × mesoscutellum width; posterior mesoscutal width 1.48× mesoscutellum width; mesoscutellum length 1.49 × mesoscutellum width; mesoscutellum length 1.00 × posterior mesoscutal width; Weber length 1.41 × mesoscutum width; Weber length 2.10 × mesoscutellum length. Anteromedian projection of the metanoto-propodeo-metapecto-mesopectal complex absent; mesometapleural sulcus present; posterior propodeal projection absent; posterior mesosomal comb absent. At least six distinctly short, basal longitudinal carinae on syntergum; pairs of translucent patches on metasomal syntergum and synsternum.

FORE WING. Length 2.63 × width; stigmal vein slightly longer than pterostigma marginal length; pterostigma present.

MALE GENITALIA. Genital length 275 µm; Weber length 3.05 × genital length; gvc width 169 µm; genital length 1.63× gvc width; gvc width three quarters of gvc length; gvc width 1.22 × distal gvc width. Proximodorsal margin of gvc convex with median part slightly concave; distodorsal margin of gvc indistinct in median part, lateral parts slightly convex ( Fig. 105C ); proximoventral margin of gvc strongly concave; distoventral margin of gvc descending proximomedially and at lateral volsella margin ascending distomedially ( Fig. 105A ); ventral area of gvc slightly convex; dorsal area of gvc slightly convex ( Fig. 105B ), strongly indented distomedially; proximolateral margin of gvc ascending ventrally; distolateral margin of gvc descending ventrally ( Fig. 105B ). Harpe triangular in apical half in ventral and dorsal view and rounded in lateral view; harpe/gvc index 0.31; lateral articulation site of harpe with gvc not flush ( Fig. 105A, C ); ventral margin of harpe convex in basal third, slightly concave in middle-third and convex in apical third, dorsal margin convex ( Fig. 105B ), lateral margin straight and slightly concave apical third, widest point of harpe at lateral articulation site with gvc ( Fig. 105A, C ); dorsomedial margins of harpes not touching at distodorsal margin of gvc, dorsomedial margin of harpe slightly concave and converging and touching distomedially in approximately basal third, straight and oriented laterally at approximately basal third, straight and diverging distolaterally in approximately apical two thirds ( Fig. 105C ), apex of harpe pointed, oriented distolaterally ( Fig. 105A, C ). Harpe with at least 13 lateral setae, longest lateral setae two thirds as long as harpe, lateral setae oriented distolaterally, distoventrally and medioventrally; harpe with at least two apical setae, longest apical setae two thirds as long as harpe, apical setae oriented distomedially and distoventrally; harpe with at least eight median setae, longest median setae slightly less than as long as harpe, median setae distinctly crossing and oriented distomedially and distoventrally; volsella with at least one distal seta, oriented distomedially ( Fig. 105A ). Aedeagus + gonossiculus less than one quarter as long as harpe, apex of aedeagus + gonossiculus acute ( Fig. 105A, C ) and dorsal to apex of harpe. Genitalia strongly sclerotized.

Female

See Dessart (1985: 418–424).

Variation

In the male genitalia of the paratype (8104/087), which is illustrated in ventral view by Dessart (1985: 420, fig. 17), a straight and laterally oriented part in the basal third of the dorsomedial margin of the harpe is only indicated and not as distinct as in Fig. 105A, C .

Biology

Reared from pupae of Conwentzia capensis Tjeder, 1969 ( Neuroptera : Coniopterygidae ) ( Dessart 1985). ZFMK-HYM-00037087 was collected with coloured pan trap.

Distribution

Afrotropical: Democratic Republic of the Congo, Somalia, South Africa, Tanzania, Yemen and Zimbabwe.

Type depositories

The female holotype, four female paratypes and the male allotype were deposited at RBINS but were severely damaged (allotype, two female paratypes) or completely destroyed and lost (holotype, two female paratypes) during shipment to ZFMK for examination (for details on the material and the damage see Material Examined section above). Two male paratypes are still at the RBINS. A couple of paratypes of unknown sex are deposited at the CNC ( Dessart 1985: 423) and five female paratypes are deposited in “ Pretoria ” (presumably PPRI). For more details see Dessart (1985). A neotype is designated herein.

Remarks

Male and male genitalia known. Beside the slight variation of the dorsomedial margin of the harpe (see above), body and male genitalia characters of ZFMK-HYM-00037087 perfectly match D. anneckei .

We here designate this specimen as neotype of D. anneckei . We refrain from choosing one of the male paratypes still present at the RBINS as neotype because the male genitalia are not visible and the paratypes were not collected at the type locality.

The head and metasoma of ZFMK-HYM-00037087 are detached, thus the body length measurement is not precise. Both F9 are deformed, thus some descriptions of F9 were not possible. The left fore leg and the right middle leg are missing (except coxae).

Figures

Fig. 105. Neotype of Dendrocerus anneckei Dessart, 1985 (ZFMK-HYM-00037087). A–C. Male genitalia in ventral (A), lateral (B) and dorsal (C) views. D. Habitus in lateral view.