Properhyssalus Belokobylskij, 2024

Belokobylskij, Sergey A. & Manukyan, Andranik R., 2024, Properhyssalus, a new fossil genus of braconid wasps close to the genus Rhyssalus Haliday (Hymenoptera: Braconidae: Rhyssalinae) from Baltic amber, Zootaxa 5415 (4), pp. 552-560 : 553-556

Genus Properhyssalus Belokobylskij , gen. nov.

http://zoobank.org/ 4C354CC5-8303-4AF7-8CE2-5632E260B4DD

Type species. Properhyssalus szechowskii Belokobylskij , sp. nov.

Etymology. Named after “proper” (Latin for “close”) and the generic name of the most similar genus Rhyssalus from the subfamily Rhyssalinae . Gender is masculine.

Diagnosis of the genus. Head ( Figs 1B, D, E, F ) not depressed, distinctly transverse. Vertex smooth. Occiput only weakly concave (dorsal view); occipital carina present, distinct and almost complete. Ocelli medium-sized, arranged in almost obtuse triangle. Frons weakly concave. Eyes enlarged, oval, glabrous. Temple (dorsal view) strongly and evenly curved posteriorly, distinctly shorter than transverse diameter of eye. Face weakly convex. Hypoclypeal depression round. Malar space medium length; malar suture absent Mandibles coarse, relatively long, with two acuminated teeth. Maxillary palpus long, 6-segmented; labial palpus short and perhaps 4-segmented.

Antenna ( Fig. 1C ) rather slender, filiform, weakly longer than body. Scape short and relatively narrow, without any transformations, ~1.3 × longer than its maximum width. Pedicel elongate and rather wide, about 0.7 × as long as scape. First flagellomere rather short and straight, longer than second flagellomere. Penultimate flagellomere rather wide and short, about as long as apical flagellomere; the latter acuminate apically.

Mesosoma ( Figs 1E, F ; 2A ) not depressed. Pronotal neck short. Pronotum with wide and distinct posterodorsal lobe; its side with distinct, weakly curved and crenulate submedial furrow.Mesoscutum highly and subperpendicularly elevated above pronotum, distinctly and densely granulate. Notauli distinct and complete. Prescutellar furrow (scutellar sulcus) long, with high medial carina. Scutellum weakly convex, finely granulate. Mesopleuron mainly smooth. Precoxal sulcus distinct, wide, relatively short, rugulose. Propodeum convex, perhaps without lateral tubercles. with areas distinctly delineated by strong carinae.

Wings ( Figs 1A ; 2E ). Fore wing hyaline; pterostigma rather long and relatively narrow. Radial (marginal) cell wide, not shortened, 2.5 × longer than its maximum width. Metacarp (1-R1) distinctly longer than pterostigma. Radial vein (r) arising weakly behind middle of pterostigma. First medial abscissa (1-SR+M) present and curved. Second radiomedial (submarginal) cell relatively short and tetragonal. Petiole (1-SR) of discoidal (discal) cell distinct, relatively long. Recurrent vein (m-cu) distinctly convergent with basal vein (1-M) towards posterior margin of wing. First mediocubital vein (M+CU1) well sclerotised and straight. Brachial (subdiscal) cell rather narrow and short; brachial vein (CU1b) perhaps present. Parallel vein (CU1a) not interstitial. Hind wing. Radial vein (SR) weakly sclerotised, entirely spectral. Nervellus (cu-a) present and closed relatively short submedial (subbasal) cell. Recurrent vein (m-cu) pigmented.

Legs. Fore and middle femora with wide and low dorsal bumps in basal third or half. Fore tibia without visible spines on its anterior margin. Hind coxa suboval, without basoventral tubercle. Hind femur elongated and rather narrow, without distinct dorsal lump. Hind tibia slender, with medium-length and rather dense semi-erect setae. Hind tibial spur short. Hind tarsus relative short, ~ 0.8 × as long as hind tibia. Tarsal claw small.

Metasoma ( Figs 1A ; 2A, B ) medium size, not compressed. First metasomal tergite short and rather wide, convex, with coarse sublateral and submedial dorsal carinae, with small dorsope, with small spiracular tubercles in basal 0.4, about as long as its apical width. Second and following tergites relatively soft and smooth, without separated laterotergites; spiracles situated on its lateral parts. Suture between second and third tergites present, but rather fine. Ovipositor ( Figs 1A ; 2C, D ) weakly curved down, slender, distinctly evenly narrowed distally and without dorsal and ventral armaments (nodes and serration) apically. Ovipositor sheath rather narrow.

Comparative diagnosis. The new fossil genus Properhyssalus gen. nov. most likely belongs to the subfamily Rhyssalinae based on the fore and hind wings venation and morphological characters of the head, mesosoma and metasoma.

This new genus resembles the species of the genus Rhyssalus Haliday, 1833 ( Figs 3 , 4 ), with extant and extinct known taxa ( Belokobylskij 2014; Yu et al. 2016). However, the new genus differs from the extant type species of Rhyssalus , Rh. clavator Haliday. 1833 ( Figs 3 , 4 ), by having the ovipositor simple, apically without dorsal node and ventral serration ( Fig. 2D ) (apically with distinct single dorsal node and ventral serration in Rhyssalus : Fig. 4D ), the mesoscutum densely granulate ( Figs 1E ; 2A ) (entirely smooth in Rhyssalus : Fig. 3G ), hind femur elongate-oval (subclavate in Rhyssalus : Fig. 3J ), parallel vein (CU1a) of fore wing arising from the middle of the vein (3-CU1) closed brachial (subdiscal) cell distally ( Fig. 1G ) (arising from its posterior third in Rhyssalus : Fig. 4A ), the first abscissa of radial vein (r) arising only weakly behind middle of pterostigma ( Fig. 2E ) (from posterior third in Rhyssalus : Fig. 4A ), and first metasomal tergite with distinct and almost complete dorsal carinae ( Fig. 2A ) (without dorsal carinae in Rhyssalus : Fig. 4B ).

Also, Properhyssalus gen. nov. differs from the fossil genus Palaeorhyssalus Brues, 1933 described from Baltic amber, in having the propodeum with areas delineated by distinct carinae (without such areas in Palaeorhyssalus ), the second–fourth metasomal tergites weakly sclerotised and smooth (rigid and irregularly striate in Palaeorhyssalus ), the second tergite almost equal to third one and separate from it by weak second suture (much longer than third tergite and separated by deep suture in Palaeorhyssalus ), ovipositor sheath about as long as metasoma (only half of metasoma in Palaeorhyssalus ), and the parallel vein (CU1a) of fore wing not interstitial (almost interstitial in Palaeorhyssalus ).

Figures

FIGURE 1. Properhyssalus szechowskii gen. et sp. nov. (holotype, female, Baltic amber, B 4023) (A) Habitus, lateral view. (B) Head, front view. (C) Antenna, lateral view. (D) Head and mesoscutum, antero-dorsal view. (E) Head, mesosoma and first metasomal tergite, dorso-lateral view. (F) Head and mesosoma, sublateral view. (G) Medial part of hind wing.

FIGURE 2. Properhyssalus szechowskii gen. et sp. nov. (holotype, female, Baltic amber, B 4023) (A) Body, subdorsal view. (B) Metasoma, lateral view. (C) Metasoma, ovipositor and hind leg, lateral view. (D) Apex of ovipositor, lateral view. (E) Wings.

FIGURE 3. Rhyssalus clavator Haliday, 1833 (female) (A) Habitus, lateral view. (B) Head, front view. (C) Head, dorsal view. (D) Apical antennomeres of antenna. (E) Basal antennomeres of antenna. (F) Head and mesosoma, lateral view. (G) Mesosoma, dorsal view. (H) Fore tibia, anterior view. (I) Fore femur and tibia, lateral view. (J) Hind leg, lateral view.

FIGURE 4. Rhyssalus clavator Haliday, 1833 (female) (A) Wings. (B) Propodeum and metasoma, dorsal view. (C) Propodeum and metasoma, lateral view. (D) Apical part of ovipositor, lateral view.