Gammabracon townesorum 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 : 1271-1274

Gammabracon townesorum Quicke and Butcher sp. nov.

( Figures 14 , 15 )

Material examined

HOLOTYPE: Female. PHILIPPINES. ‘ Los Banos Lag. PI, XI.8.[19]83, Townes family’ ( EMUS).

PARATYPE, male [missing metasoma], PHILIPPINES, Island Samar ( EMUS) .

Description

Female: Length of body 11.0 mm, of forewing 11.2 mm, of exserted part of ovipositor 22 mm.

Head. Antenna broken; 1st flagellomere 1.5 and 1.6 × longer than the 2nd and 3rd, respectively; width of head:width of face:height of eye = 1.95:1.0:1.0; intertentorial distance 1.5 × shortest distance between tentorial pit and eye; frons weakly impressed; shortest distance between posterior ocelli:transverse diameter of posterior ocellus:shortest distance between posterior ocellus and eye = 1.0:2.0:4.0; length of head behind eye 0.8 × length of eye in dorsal view.

Mesosoma. 2.0 × longer than high; scutellar sulcus with nine foveae, central one not enlarged, anterior margin of scutellum straight; midposterior margin of propodeum not sharply differentiated.

Wings. Forewing vein 3RSb 1.5 and 5.7 × longer than 3RSa and rs-m, respectively; vein 1-M gradually expanding before junction with (Rs+M)a; forewing vein m-cu thickened and curved; vein 1cu-a postfurcal, anterior junction weakly swollen.

Legs. Foretibia with yellow setae.

Metasoma. 1st tergite 1.4 × longer than apically wide, with midlongitudinal carina only weakly defined posteriorly and widening gradually on anterior half of raised median area, smooth lateral to dorsal carinae; 2nd tergite 1.37 × wider than long, 1.1 × longer than third tergite, with small midbasal triangular area, with posteriorly converging sublateral carinae defining a raised medial area; 3rd tergite anteriorly with pair of submedial carinae, posteriorly with single midlongitudinal carina; 4th tergite smooth; ovipositor 2.0 × longer than body.

Colour. Head (including stemmaticum) yellow, body and legs orange, flagellum (part remaining) and ovipositor sheaths black; wing membrane yellow with slightly darker venation.

Etymology

Named in honour of Henry and Marjorie Townes and their family who collected many interesting ichneumonoids in the Philippines.

Comments

Gammabracon townesorum is the only known species of Gammabracon with the combination of having an entirely brown-yellow metasoma and the mid-basal area of the 2nd metasomal tergite short and nearly equilateral and giving rise to a strong midlongitudinal carina.

Figures

Figure 14. Gammabracon townesorum sp. nov.(a) Habitus,lateral view.(b) Head dorsal view.(c) Scutellum and anterior propodeum. (d) Face frontal view. (e) Central part of forewing. (f) Base of hind wing.

Figure 15. Gammabracon townsorum sp. nov. (a) 1st metasomal tergite. (b) 2nd metasomal tergite, and base of 3rd.