Druon garciamartinonae, Cuesta-Porta, Melika & Pujade-Villar, 2022

Cuesta-Porta, Victor, Melika, George, Nicholls, James A., Stone, Graham N. & Pujade-Villar, Juli, 2022, Re-establishment of the Nearctic oak cynipid gall wasp genus Druon Kinsey, 1937 (Hymenoptera: Cynipidae: Cynipini), with description of five new species, Zootaxa 5132 (1), pp. 1-92 : 20-23

Druon garciamartinonae, Cuesta-Porta, Melika & Pujade-Villar sp. nov.

Figs. 33–45

http://zoobank.org/ urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act:4C780D77-FE00-4171-88C9-FC791D5F82B8

Type material. Holotype female: “ Mexico, State of Mexico, San Felipe del Progreso , Plateros-Arenales; Code 207 ; ex Quercus glabrescens Benth. ; coll. 2013.x.05, emergence 2014.iv.30; leg. D. Garcia-Martiñón ”; 5 female paratypes labeled as the holotype . Holotype and 4 paratypes deposited in the UB collection and 1 female paratype at the collection from PHDNRL .

Etymology. Named after Délia García Martiñón, collector of the new species and dear colleague of the authors.

Diagnosis. The new species belongs to the dark Druon species group (comprising D. alexandri , D. flocculentum , D. garciamartinonae , D. gregori , and D. serretae ) but it is the only species of this group with a larger malar space (height of eye 2.75× as long as malar space) ( Fig. 33 ), fore wing venation pale and almost inconspicuous ( Fig. 43 ), and ventral spine of hypopygium no more than 2.0× as long as broad.

Description. Asexual female ( Figs. 33–44 ). Head, mesosoma dark brown to black; antennae paler; metasoma slightly paler than mesosoma; mouthparts, legs yellowish, with darker coxae and base of femora.

Head alutaceous, trapezoid, slightly broader than high and slightly broader than mesosoma in frontal view, with sparse setae, denser on lower face; 2.3× as broad as long in dorsal view. Gena alutaceous, not broadened behind eye in frontal view, narrower than transverse diameter of eye in lateral view. Malar space with striae radiating from clypeus and reaching eye; eye 2.75× as high as length of malar space. Inner margins of eyes parallel. POL 2.4× as long as OOL, OOL 1.6× as long as diameter of lateral ocellus and slightly shorter than LOL, all ocelli ovate, of same size. Transfacial distance subequal to the height of eye; toruli located in mid height of head, frons nearly as high as lower face, diameter of antennal torulus 2.0× as long as distance between them, distance between torulus and eye 1.5× as long as diameter of torulus; lower face with numerous delicate striae, forming a network of interrupted rugae, with white setae; slightly elevated median area reticulate, glabrous, with few setae. Clypeus trapezoid, broader than high, smooth, glabrous, with delicate parallel longitudinal striae, with a few long setae along ventral edge; ventrally rounded, not emarginate and without median incision; anterior tentorial pit rounded, distinct, epistomal sulcus distinct, clypeo-pleurostomal line well impressed. Frons uniformly alutaceous, without striae and setae, interocellar area alutaceous. Vertex, occiput and postocciput, postgena alutaceous, glabrous, with a few setae; posterior tentorial pit large, elongated, area below impressed; occipital foramen slightly shorter than height of postgenal bridge; hypostomal carina emarginate, continuing into postgenal sulci which diverge strongly toward occipital foramen, postgenal bridge anteriorly slightly broader than occipital foramen. Antenna longer than head+mesosoma, with 11 flagellomeres, F11 partially divided, pedicel longer than broad; flagellomeres sequentially broadening towards apical end of antenna; F1 2× as long as pedicel and 1.2× as long as F2; F2 slightly shorter than F3; F3=F4, F5 to F6 equal in length, F7 to F10 equal in length; F11 1.6× as long as F10; placodeal sensilla on F5–F11.

Mesosoma only slightly longer than high, with a few white setae, setae denser along propleuron and on lateral propodeal area. Pronotum glabrous, with delicate parallel striae and sparse setae laterally; propleuron smooth, glabrous, with delicate transverse parallel striae ventrally. Mesoscutum uniformly and entirely reticulate, with a few white setae along notauli, 1.3× as broad as long (greatest width measured across mesoscutum level with base of tegulae). Notaulus narrow, weakly impressed, complete, posteriorly strongly converging; at posterior end the distance between notauli shorter than distance between notaulus and side of mesoscutum; anterior parallel line inconspicuous or weakly impressed; parapsidal line marked with broad impressed area; median mesoscutal absent; parascutal carina broad, reaching notaulus. Mesoscutellum ovate, as long as broad; disk of mesoscutellum reticulated, rugose on lateral and posterior margins, overhanging metanotum, with sparse long setae; circumscutellar carina complete. Mesoscutellar foveae transverse, about 2.0× as broad as high, smooth, glabrous, divided by a narrow reticulated elevated central carina. Mesopleuron striato-reticulate, including speculum; mesopleural triangle striated, glabrous; dorsal and lateral axillar areas alutaceous, glabrous; axillula with delicate parallel longitudinal striae; subaxillular bar smooth, glabrous, increasingly higher towards posterior end, posteriorly as high as height of metanotal trough; metapleural sulcus reaching mesopleuron at half of its height; upper part of sulcus also distinct, delimiting very broad smooth, glabrous area; lower delimited part smooth, with dense long white setae. Metascutellum smooth, glabrous, higher than height of smooth, glabrous ventral impressed area; metanotal trough smooth, glabrous; central propodeal area smooth, glabrous, with parallel rugae in posterior half; lateral propodeal carinae distinct, curved; lateral propodeal area alutaceous, with sparse long white setae, rounded bump at the base of each seta. Nucha with numerous sulci dorsally and laterally. Tarsal claws with basal lobe.

Fore wing longer than body, hyaline, with distinct dense cilia on margin, veins pale brown, radial cell open, 4.0× as long as broad; Rs nearly reaching wing margin, R1 short, extending to 2/3 of vein projection to wing margin; areolet triangular, closed but indistinct. Rs+M inconspicuous, its projection reaching basalis in the lower 1/3 of its height.

Metasoma as long as head+mesosoma, slightly longer than high in lateral view; second metasomal tergum extending to 2/3 of length of metasoma in dorsal view, with numerous white setae anterolaterally, smooth without micropunctures; all subsequent terga with micropunctures; sometimes tergum 3 reticulate, and tergum 2 with some fine reticulations, subsequent tergites always micropunctured. Hypopygium with micropunctures, prominent part of ventral spine of hypopygium 2.0× as long as broad in ventral view. Body length 1.5–2.0 mm (n = 5).

Gall ( Fig. 45 ). Creamy fluffy gall on the midrib on the underside of leaves, pubescence sometimes with purple areas. Cluster of a few cells.

Biology. Only the asexual generation is known, which induces woolly leaf galls on Q. glabrescens (Section Quercus , Series Leucomexicanae). Galls mature in October; adults emerged in April under laboratory conditions.

Distribution. Mexico: State of Mexico, San Felipe del Progreso, Plateros-Arenales.

Comments. Some morphological variation has been found in the studied material. The metasomal sculpture ranges from smooth in T2 and micropunctured in the subsequent tergites, to partially finely reticulated in T2, coarsely reticulated in T3 and micropunctured in subsequent tergites. This variation is similar to the variation between D. quercuslanigerum var. quercuslanigerum and D. quercuslanigerum var. striatum . However, the variation in D. garciamartinonae occurs among samples from the same locality while the varieties of D. quercuslanigerum are allopatric populations with consistent morphological traits for each locality. Thus, we consider D. garciamartinonae a species with intraspecific morphological variation, but the lack of correlation with population structure does not support the creation of any infraspecific classification.

Figures

FIGURES 33–38. Druon garciamartinonae, sp. nov., asexual female. 33–36, head: 33, frontal view, 34, posterior view, 35, lateral view, 36, dorsal view. 37, antenna. 38, mesosoma and propleura, frontal view.

FIGURES 39–42. Druon garciamartinonae, sp. nov., asexual female. 39, mesosoma, lateral view. 40–41, mesosoma, dorsal view. 42, metascutellum and propodeum, posterodorsal view.

FIGURES 43–45. Druon garciamartinonae, sp. nov., asexual female. 43, fore wing. 44, metasoma, lateral view. 45, galls.