Glyptapanteles gigas Liang & Song, 2020

Lu, Ciding, Tang, Jinhan, Dong, Wanying, Zhou, Youjun, Gai, Xinmin, Lin, Haoyu, Song, Dongbao & Liang, Guanghong, 2020, A new species of Glyptapanteles Ashmead (Hymenoptera, Braconidae, Microgastrinae) within Macrobrochis gigas (Lepidoptera, Arctiidae, Lithosiidae) in Fujian, China, ZooKeys 913, pp. 127-139 : 127

Glyptapanteles gigas Liang & Song sp. nov.

Distribution.

Linyuan town (N24°44'40.42", E118°30'55.65") and Yonghe town (N24°42'57.34", E118°35'10.42") in Jinjiang, Fujian, south and east coastal areas of China.

Etymology. The specific epithet is derived from the scientific name of its host M. gigas . Gender is masculine.

Description. Female (holotype). Body length 2.1 mm, fore wing length 2.3 mm.

Head. In anterior view, head approximately orbicular-ovate with antennal sockets slightly above middle level of eyes; face slightly convex, finely punctate associated with long hairs, ratio of FH:FW being 2.0: 2.6 (Fig. 1 ); eyes covered setae; inner margin of eyes slightly constricted towards clypeus. Transverse in dorsal view, 2.3 times as wide as long, 0.9 times as wide as width of mesoscutum. Ocelli large, arranged in a low triangle, posterior tangent of anterior ocellus approaching posterior ocelli. POL: OD: OOL= 0.7: 0.3: 0.8 (Fig. 2 ). Vertex almost smooth, with fine sparse setae; temple feebly punctate, with dense long setae; occiput smooth, slightly concave. Antenna longer than body in ratio of 10.0:7.9 (Fig. 3 ); flagellomeres thin, with short bristles, most flagellomeres with placodes arranged regularly in two ranks excerpt for last four or five flagellomeres. Flagellomere ratios: 2 L/W = 2.8, 8 L/W = 2.7, 14 L/W = 1.7, L 2/14 = 1.9, W 2/14 = 1.2. F12-15 tightly connected.

Mesosoma (Fig. 4 ). Side of pronotum with both a dorsal and a ventral carinate groove. Mesoscutum relatively flat, sparsely punctate with thin setose, relatively smooth near scutellar sulcus; notauli hardly exist. Scutellar sulcus relatively wide and deep, slightly curved; disc of scutellum smooth all over, approximately a low triangle in its shape. Propodeum relatively flat and smooth, horizontally rectangle, not inclined rear surface and no median longitudinal carina.

Wings (Fig. 5 ). Forewing with areolet open, vein r slightly inner oblique emitted from middle of pterostigma; r and 2-SR meeting at a circular arc and hardly distinguish from each other; 2-SR: r: width of pterostigma = 0.6: 0.8: 0.9; vein 1-R1 1.8 times as long as pterostigma, pterostigma 2.0 times as long as wide. 1-CU1:2-CU1:m-cu= 0.6: 1.0: 0.7. Hind wing narrow, vein cu-a slightly incurved, vannal lobe slightly convex with a few hairs.

Legs (Fig. 6 ). Slender. Hind coxa large, near to T3, compressed, almost smooth and shiny, scattered with weak granular on upper surface. Hind tibia approximately 0.95 times as long as hind tarsi; inner hind tibial spurs longer than outer one and about half of hind basitarsus. Fore distitarsus with a feeble spine.

Metasoma. T1 smooth, 1.9 times as long as its greatest width, slightly parallel on both sides, gradually in general converging apically and rounded to apex, base broad depression concave, narrowed toward the end (Fig. 7 ). T2 approximately scalariform, the central area inconspicuous with apical width slightly long than central length, T3 1.1 times as wide as long, slightly longer than T2 (Fig. 8 ). All tergites almost smooth and polished, scattered with feeble setae. Ovipositor short, ovipositor sheath, about equal to length of the 2th hind tarsus with a few hairs on tip (Fig. 9 ). Hypopygium, evenly sclerotized.

Color. Adult body mostly black (Fig. 10 ). Antennae black brown; maxillary palps, labial palps, legs yellow, except for most coxae black brown; most hind tibiae and hind tarsus infuscate. Pterostigma dark brown and semi-transparent, most veins pale yellowish. T1 reddish yellow-brown and transparent.

Male. Antenna longer than body (10.0: 7.0), the rest same as female.

Remarks.

This new species is closely related to Glyptapanteles phragmataeciae (You & Zhou, 1990), but it is easily distinguished from it based on T1 slightly parallel on both sides, gradually in general converging apically and rounded to apex (T1 cuneiform); antenna longer than body (antenna shorter than body); vein 1-R1 1.8 times as long as pterostigma (vein 1-R1 1.0 times as long as pterostigma); inner hind tibial spurs longer than outer one and about half of hind basitarsus (inner hind tibial spurs as long as outer one and shorter than half of hind basitarsus).

Hosts

The parasitoid of genus Glyptapanteles mostly attacks lepidopteran caterpillars, of which very few species attacks insects of Coleoptera ( Nixon 1976; Papp 1990; Smetacek 2008; Tobias 1971, 1976, 1986; Whitfield 1985, 1995, 1997; Whitfield and Wagner 1991; Wilkinson 1936, 1940). Here, we collected parasitoids specimen from caterpillars of Macrobrochis gigas Walker (Fig. 11 ) between 2015-2016 in China, and they occurred in Guangdong, South China ( Fang 1985; Taiwan 2019; Mell 1938; Dubatolov et al. 2012; Liu 2005), India, Sikkim, Bhutan, Nepal, Bangladesh, Indonesia ( Fang 2000). Taxonomically, it belongs to the family Arctiidae ( Telenga 1955; Papp 1983a, 1983b; Fernández-Triana and Ward 2014; Dubatolov et al. 2012), and was firstly recorded and described as a new genera and species in 2001. Biologically, the host insects have one generation per year, and larvae feed on the mosses (Fig. 12 ) growing on the trunks of masson pines ( Pinus massoniana Lamb.), litchis ( Litchi chinensis Sonn.), longans ( Dimocarpus longan Lour.), coast oak ( Casuarina equisetifolia Forst.), waxberries ( Myrica rubra Sieb.et Zucc), eucalyptus ( Eucalyptus grandis x urophylla ), Acacia confusa Merr., and loquats ( Eriobotrya japonica (Thunb.) Lindl) from April to June, and the moths prefer the flowers after they emerge at the end of July in South China.

Figures

Figures 1 - 6. Glyptapanteles gigas Liang & Song, sp. nov. 1 Head approximately orbicular-ovate; face slightly convex with long hairs, FH: FW = 2.0: 2.6 2 Head. 2.3 times as wide as long. Ocelli large, arranged in a low triangle. POL: OD: OOL = 0.7: 0.3: 0.8 3 Antenna longer than body (10.0: 7.9); Flagellomere proportions: 2 L / W = 2.8, 8 L / W = 2.7, 14 L / W = 1.7, L 2 / 14 = 1.9, W 2 / 14 = 1.2. F 12 - 15 tightly connected 4 Mesosoma. Note that notauli hardly exist. Propodeum relatively flat and smooth, horizontally rectangle, no median longitudinal carina 5 Wings. Forewing with areolet open; r and 2 - SR meeting at a circular arc; 2 - SR: r: width of pterostigma = 0.6: 0.8: 0.9. 1 - CU 1: 2 - CU 1: m-cu = 0.6: 1.0: 0.7. 6 Legs. Hind coxa large, near to T 3. Hind tibia approximately 0.95 times as long as hind tarsa; inner hind tibial spurs longer than outer one and about half of hind basitarsus.

Figures 7 - 12. 7 - 10 Glyptapanteles gigas Liang & Song, sp. nov. 7 metasoma. T 1 smooth, 1.9 times as long as its greatest width, slightly parallel on both sides, base broad depression concave, narrowed toward the end 8 T 2 approximately scalariform, the central area inconspicuous with apical width slightly long than central length. T 3 1.1 times as wide as long, slightly longer than T 2 9 ovipositor short, ovipositor sheath short, about equal to length of the 2 th hind tarsus 10 body mostly black. Antennae black brown. 11 Parasitized larva of M. gigas, cocoons and adult of G. gigas. White ellipse indicating adult of parasitoid. Red and white arrows indicating parasitized larva and cocoons of parasitoid respectively. 12 Unparasitized larvae of the host M. gigas.