Eriborus rubens, Vas, 2022

Vas, Zoltán, 2022, Contributions To The Taxonomy And Biogeography Of Afrotropical Eriborus Förster, 1869 (Hymenoptera: Ichneumonidae: Campopleginae), Acta Zoologica Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae 68 (2), pp. 169-178 : 174-177

Eriborus rubens sp. n.

( Figs 4–6 )

Type material – Holotype: female, South Africa, KwaZulu Natal , S Drakensberg, Garden Castle, under overhanging rocks, 21.829°44’59.4’’, 29°12’42.1’’, 1811m, 23.I.2007, leg. L. Papp & M. Földvári, No. 36; specimen card-mounted, apices of antennae broken, left middle leg from femur on missing, Id. No. HNHM-HYM 155122 . – Paratype: male, same locality and collecting data, specimen card-mounted, Id. No. HNHM-HYM 155123 . – The holotype and the paratype are deposited in HNHM .

Diagnosis – The new species can be identified by the combination of the following characters: gena in dorsal view 0.4× as long as eye width, strongly narrowed behind eyes; malar space about as long as basal width of mandible; propodeal carinae complete, except costulae obsolete, median section of posterior transverse carina only partly, weakly developed in female, entire and more strongly developed in male; area basalis trapezoidal; area superomedia hexagonal, wider than long, posteriorly only partly and weakly closed in female, entirely and distinctly closed in male; fore wing without areolet, 2 rs-m longer than abscissa of M between 2 rs-m and 2 m-cu, nervulus weakly postfurcal; ovipositor sheath 0.8× as long as hind tibia; scapus dark brown, apically yellowish brown, pedicellus dark brown; tegula pale yellow; basal tergites of metasoma dark, middle and apical tergites orange; legs predominantly orange, hind coxa black.

Description – Female ( Figs 4–6 ). Body length ca. 5 mm, fore wing length ca. 3.5–4 mm.

Head: First flagellomere ca. 3.5× as long as its apical width; preapical flagellomeres little longer than wide. Head transverse, matt, granulate with rather weak, indistinct punctures on clypeus; hairs short, on clypeus somewhat longer. Ocelli small, ocular-ocellar distance as long as ocellus diameter, distance between lateral ocelli 2× as long as ocellus diameter. Inner eye orbits slightly indented opposite toruli, about parallel. Gena short, in dorsal view 0.4× as long as eye width, strongly narrowed behind eyes. Occipital carina complete, reaching hypostomal carina distinctly before base of mandible; hypostomal carina elevated. Frons flat, slightly impressed above toruli, median longitudinal carina not developed. Face weakly convex, clypeus almost flat in profile, clypeus very weakly separated from face, moderately wide, its apical margin convex, moderately blunt. Malar space about as long as basal width of mandible. Mandible relatively short, lower margin with a moderately wide flange from base towards teeth, flange obliquely narrowed before teeth; upper mandibular tooth slightly longer and wider than lower tooth.

Mesosoma: Mesosoma matt, granulate with rather weak, indistinct punctures; hairs short, dense, on propodeum slightly longer. Pronotum with weak transverse wrinkles on ventral half, epomia indistinct. Mesoscutum about as long as wide, convex in profile; notaulus not developed. Scuto-scutellar groove wide and moderately deep. Scutellum convex in profile, lateral carinae not developed. Speculum finely granulate to smooth, subpolished. Epicnemial carina complete, pleural part bent to anterior margin of mesopleuron reaching it at about its middle height, transversal part (i.e., the part at the level of sternaulus running through the epicnemium to the ventral edge of pronotum) not developed, ventral part (behind fore coxae) strong, slightly elevated. Sternaulus indistinct. Posterior transverse carina of mesosternum complete, little elevated. Metanotum 0.5× as long as scutellum. Metapleuron without juxtacoxal carina; submetapleural carina complete, elevated. Pleural carina of propodeum strong; propodeal spiracle small, circular, separated from pleural carina by about its length, connected to pleural carina by a distinct ridge. Propodeum convex in profile, granulate with weak transverse rugosity on posterior half. Propodeal carinae complete, except costulae obsolete, and median section of posterior transverse carina only partly, weakly developed, its short lateral parts discernible, median part obsolete. Area basalis trapezoidal, shorter than its basal width. Area superomedia hexagonal, little short- er than its greatest width, posteriorly only partly and weakly closed, its lateral carinae posterior to costulae convergent. Area petiolaris wide, widely but not entirely confluent with area petiolaris, posteriorly slightly impressed. Fore wing without areolet, 3 rs-m absent, second recurrent vein (2 m-cu) postfurcal, intercubitus (2 rs-m) longer than abscissa of M between 2 rs-m and 2 m-cu; distal abscissa of Rs about straight; nervulus (cu-a) weakly postfurcal, inclivous; postnervulus (abscissa of Cu 1 between 1 m-cu and Cu 1a + Cu 1b) intercepted at about its middle by Cu 1a; lower external angle of second discal cell acute. Hind wing with nervellus (cu-a + abscissa of Cu 1 between M and cu-a) vertical, not intercepted by discoidella (Cu 1); discoidella spectral, proximally not connected to nervellus. Coxae granulate. Hind femur relatively stout, ca. 4.5× as long as high. Inner spur of hind tibia ca. 0.6–0.7× as long as first tarsomere of hind tarsus. Hind basitarsus with a midventral row of closely spaced, short hairs (appearing as a darker, more or less scaly, inconspicuous line). Tarsal claws small, about as long as arolium, basal two-third distinctly pectinate.

Metasoma: Metasoma moderately compressed, finely granulate to shagreened, and with moderately dense, short hairs. First tergite about 3× as long as width of its apical margin; glymma moderately strong; dorsomedian carinae of first tergite distinct. Second tergite 1.5× as long as its apical width; thyridium oval, relatively large, its distance from basal margin of tergite ca. 0.7× as long as its length. Posterior margins of apical tergites excised. Ovipositor sheath 0.8× as long as hind tibia; ovipositor compressed, strong, evenly upcurved, dorsal preapical notch distinct.

Colour: Antenna dark brown, except scapus apically yellowish brown. Head black, except palpi and mandible yellow, mandibular teeth reddish brown. Mesosoma black, except tegula pale yellow. Metasoma: petiolus and postpetiolus black; second tergite blackish; basal half of third tergite blackish to dark brown, apical half orange; following tergites orange. Wings hyaline, wing veins brown, pterostigma light brown. Fore and middle legs light orange, except trochanters and trochantelli pale yellow, apical tarsomeres darkened. Hind leg: coxa black; trochanter dark brown; trochantellus yellowish; femur orange; tibia and tarsus orange to orange-brown, apical tarsomeres brownish.

Male: Antenna with 28 flagellomeres. Similar to female in all characters described above, except: punctures of head and mesosoma even weaker than in female; median section of posterior transverse carina entire and more strongly developed than in female, area superomedia distinctly closed posteriorly; distance between thyridium and basal margin of second tergite ca. 0.5× as long as thyridium; fore and middle coxae apically yellowish, medially orange, basally darkened.

Distribution – South Africa.

Etymology – The specific epithet rubens is a Latin one-termination participle treated as an adjective, meaning tinged with red; it refers to the colouration of metasoma and legs of the new species.

Remarks on identification – Eriborus rubens sp. n. is not quite similar to any known Afrotropical species of the genus; it can be readily identified by its extensively orange metasoma and legs, and short ovipositor.

Figures

Figs 4–6. Eriborus rubens sp. n., holotype female: 4 = lateral habitus (scale bar = 1 mm); 5 = gena in dorsal view; 6 = propodeum in dorsal view