Pristomerus sotho, Rousse & Noort, 2015

Rousse, Pascal & Noort, Simon van, 2015, Revision of the Afrotropical species of Pristomerus (Ichneumonidae: Cremastinae), with descriptions of 31 new species, European Journal of Taxonomy 124, pp. 1-129 : 95-97

Pristomerus sotho sp. nov.

urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act:D7109E59-7B2D-4F89-9E55-347D23E52A40

Fig. 35

Diagnosis

Moderately large; mostly reddish-orange with entire head, mesosoma ventrally and tergites 1–2 black; face and clypeus densely punctate with unusually dense silver hairs; clypeus transverse; malar line long; mesosoma densely and evenly punctate, with pronotum centrally coriaceous and speculum ventrally smoother; femoral tooth strong; ovipositor short, apically moderately sinuous. Male unknown.

Differential diagnosis

Moderately sized, black and reddish-orange species; readily differentiated from every other Afrotropical species by the unique colour pattern, with most of the head and mesosoma ventrally black, the remainder of the mesosoma being reddish-orange; also characteristic because of the combination of the densely hairy face and mandibles, the short ovipositor, the strong female femoral tooth and the punctate scutellum.

Type material

Holotype

SOUTH AFRICA: ♀, “SA KZN [Kwazulu-Natal] Kamberg F57 29.3767°S 29.67108°E 1967m Forest Malaise 2 13-Jan–2006 III-UKZN MDTP 66029, SAM–HYM–P047100” ( SAMC).

Description

Female (holotype)

B 1.3; A n/a; F 0.9; CT 1.7; ML 0.7; POL 0.8; OOL 1.0; Fl n-1 n/a; ASM 2.2; OT 1.2; FFT 2.

COLOUR. Head including antenna black with clypeus reddish-orange and mandible yellow; mesosoma dorsally reddish-orange, ventrally black; metasoma with tergites 1–2 black, following tergites reddishorange, medially blackened; legs orange with base and apex of hind tibia and hind femur blackened; wings hyaline, venation brown.

HEAD. Face and clypeus densely punctate with very dense silver hairs obscuring most of sculpture; mandible also unusually hairy; inner margins of eyes parallel; clypeus transverse, punctation ventrally smoother; malar line long; frons and vertex sparsely punctate-granulate; temple coarsely coriaceous; occipital carina joining hypostomal carina distinctly above mandible base; both antennae broken.

MESOSOMA. Mesosoma moderately elongate; pronotum entirely sculptured, moderately densely punctate with a median coriaceous area; mesopleuron and metapleuron densely, deeply and evenly punctate, with an oblique striate furrow below speculum, ventral half of speculum smoother; mesoscutum densely and evenly punctate; notaulus moderate; scutellum densely punctate; propodeum densely and roughly punctate, punctures sometimes confluent into rugosities, area superomedia elongate, area petiolaris transversely strigose. Legs. Femoral tooth strong and apically lamellar, followed by a row of hardly distinct denticles.

METASOMA. Tergite 2, apical half of tergite 1 and base of tergite 3 aciculate; following tergites coriaceous; thyridium sub-circular; ovipositor short, apically moderately sinuous.

Male

Unknown.

Distribution

South Africa.

Figures

Fig. 35. Pristomerus sotho sp. nov. Holotype, ♀. A. Habitus, lateral view (inset: data labels). B. Head, mesosoma, dorsal view. C. Head, anterior view. D. Propodeum, dorsal view. E. Mesosoma, lateral view. F. Hind tibia, lateral view.