Gammabracon striatus 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 : 1266-1269

Gammabracon striatus Quicke and Butcher sp. nov.

( Figures 10 , 11 )

Material examined

HOLOTYPE: Female. MALAYSIA ‘ Pasoh Forest Res., Negri S., Malaysia, III.31.[19]80 sec. for. P. & M. Becker’ ( EMUS).

PARATYPES: 2 females. Same data as holotype but ‘VII .5.[19]79’ and ‘IV.12.[19]79’ ( EMUS).

Description

Female: Length of body 8.5–10 mm, of forewing 7.5–9.0 mm, of antenna 9.5 mm, of exserted part of ovipositor 11–17 mm.

Head. Antenna with 56–67 flagellomeres; terminal flagellomere acuminate; median flagellomeres elongate, 1.3 × longer than wide; 1st flagellomere 1.6 × longer than 2nd and 3rd separately; width of head:width of face:height of eye = 2.0:1.0:1.3; intertentorial distance 1.33 × shortest distance between tentorial pit and eye; frons deeply impressed and anteriorly depression defined by a lateral carina; shortest distance between posterior ocelli:transverse diameter of posterior ocellus:shortest distance between posterior ocellus and eye = 1.0:1.6:3.5; occiput very elongate, length of head behind eye 0.7 × length of eye in dorsal view.

Mesosoma. 2.0 × longer than high; scutellar sulcus with greatly enlarged median fovium, anterior margin of scutellum medially strongly emarginate; medial raised area of posterior margin of propodeum somewhat abruptly defined.

Wings. Forewing vein 3RSb 1.2 and 6.5 × longer than 3RSa and rs-m, respectively; vein 1-M gradually widening towards junction with (RS+M)a; anterior junction of vein 1cu-1 weakly expanded; vein m-cu not thickened, nearly straight; base of hind wing with large glabrous area, strongly emarginate.

Legs. Foretibia with black long setae.

Metasoma. 1st tergite 1.7 × longer than apically wide, with long midlongitudinal carina, smooth; 2nd tergite with elongate midbasal triangular area, with posteriorly converging sublateral carinae reaching approximately 0.6 length of tergite, with fine, longitudinal striation between them; 3rd tergite with irregular variable sculpture, with midlongitudinal carina formed by fusion of submedial crenulae of transverse basal groove; ovipositor 1.3–1.7 × longer than body.

Colour. Head (including stemmaticum), scapus (except dark laterally) yellow; mesosoma, fore and mid legs orange; hind coxa brown to piceous; flagellum, hind legs and metasoma black; wing membrane brown, venation including pterostigma dark brown.

Etymology

Named after the extensive, fine longitudinal striation of the 2nd metasomal tergite. Comments

This species appears to be closely related to G. extraneus and G. scrobi with which it shares a cubic head, Y-shaped depression at the top of the face, deeply impressed frons, deeply emarginate hind wing base and elongate midbasal area of the 2nd metasomal tergite. It differs from these in its larger eyes and more elongate head.

Figures

Figure 10. Gammabracon striatus sp. nov. (a) Habitus, dorsal view. (b) Head dorsal view. (c) Face frontal view. (d) Forefemur and tibia.

Figure 11. Gammabracon striatus sp. nov. (a) Head and mesosoma, lateral view. (b) Wings. (c) Base of hind wing. (d) Anterior metasomal tergites.