Gammabracon philippinensis Quicke and Butcher, 2017

Quicke, Donald L. J., Hogan, James E., Bennett, Andrew M. R., Broad, Gavin R. & Butcher, Buntika A., 2017, Partial revision of the Indo-Australian braconine wasp genus Gammabracon Quicke (Hymenoptera: Braconidae) with descriptions of new species from Indonesia (Mollucas), Malaysia, Philippines and Thailand, Journal of Natural History 51 (21 - 22), pp. 1249-1294 : 1259-1261

Gammabracon philippinensis Quicke and Butcher sp. nov.

( Figures 4 , 5 )

Material examined

HOLOTYPE: Female. PHILIPPINES. ‘ S. LuisCalapan, Mindoro, Phil, IV-18 ’54 150 ʹ H.M. & D. Townes’ ( EMUS).

Description

Female: Length of body 11.5 mm, of forewing 11 mm, of exserted part of ovipositor 20 mm.

Head. Antennae broken, with 70 remaining flagellomeres. Median flagellomeres elongate, 1.5 × longer laterally than wide, slightly oblique; 1st flagellomere 1.2 and 1.3 × longer than 2nd and 3rd, respectively; width of head:width of face:height of eye = 2.0:1.06:1.0; intertentorial distance 1.05 × shortest distance between tentorial pit and eye; clypeus short; frons strongly depressed behind antennal sockets, with narrow midlongitudinal groove; shortest distance between posterior ocelli:transverse diameter of posterior ocellus:shortest distance between posterior ocellus and eye = 1.0:1.1:3.0; length of head behind eye 0.75 × length of eye in dorsal view.

Mesosoma. Scutellar sulcus with 7 foveae, middle one strongly enlarged and midanterior margin of scutellum markedly incised; posterior margin of propodeum with wide, abruptly defined median area.

Wings. Forewing vein 3RSb 1.6 and 4.7 × longer than 3RSa and rs-m, respectively; vein 1-M strongly expanding before junction with (Rs+M)a; anterior junction of vein 1cu-a moderately expanded, vein cu-a weakly postfurcal; vein m-cu thickened but almost straight; base of hind wing with large glabrous area, strongly emarginate.

Legs. foretibia with dark brown long setae.

Mesosoma. Midposterior margin of propodeum sharply differentiated from transverse subposterior groove, with distinct medial pit.

Metasoma. 1st tergite 2.9 × longer than apically wide with midlongitudinal carina expanding anteriorly forming a triangular area; 2nd tergite 1.2 × wider posteriorly than medially long, 1.2 × longer than 3rd tergite, with acute midbasal triangular area bordered by carinae, nearly reaching posterior margin of tergite, with posteriorly converging sublateral carinae sharp, reaching 0.8 × length of tergite; 3rd tergite with strongly crenulate transverse basal groove, weakly crenulate transverse median groove, with two submedial pairs of crenulae of basal groove uniting to form pair of longitudinal carinae; 4th tergite smooth; ovipositor 1.9 × longer than body.

Colour. Body and legs pale brown orange; flagellum black basally gradually becoming brown-yellow distally; wing membrane pale brown-hyaline, with darker brown venation.

Etymology

Named after the country where the holotype was collected.

Comments

Gammabracon philippinensis can be distinguished from other species of Gammabracon by a combination of: (1) metasoma completely brown-yellow and (2) mid-basal area of 2nd metasomal tergite long and narrow, more or less bordered by a pair of carinae which nearly reach the posterior margin of the tergite separately ( Figure 5 ).

Figures

Figure 4. Gammabracon philippinensis sp. nov. holotype female. (a) Habitus, lateral view. (b) Head dorsal view. (c) Forefemur and tibia. (d) Face, front view. (e) Detail of scutellum and scutellar sulcus. (f) Central part of forewing. (g) Base of hind wing.

Figure 5. Gammabracon philippinensis sp. nov. HOLOTYPE female. (a) 1st metasomal tergite. (b) metasomal tergites 2 and 3.