Apanteles attenuator Liu & Chen 2020, sp. nov.
Creators: name: Liu, Zhen
name: He, Jun-Hua
name: Chen, Xue-Xin
name: Gupta, Ankita
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2020
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Hymenoptera
Braconidae
Apanteles
Apanteles attenuator

description: Apanteles attenuator Liu & Chen, sp. nov.   
(Figures 13, 98)  
 Description. Holotype. Female. Body length 2.1 mm, fore wing length 2.6 mm.   
 Head. Transverse in dorsal view, 2.0× as wide as long, as wide as mesoscutum. Vertex between eye and posterior ocellus somewhat shiny with extremely shallow punctures. Temple rough, uneven with shallow punctures, slightly constricted. Face 0.8× as high as wide, shiny with superficial punctures, inner margin of eyes subparallelsided. Ocelli small, posterior tangent to anterior ocellus just touching posterior ocelli, distance between fore and hind ocellus slightly longer than diameter of hind ocellus, POL:OD:OOL=5.0:1.5:4.0. Antenna distinctly longer than body length, weakly closely articulated, penultimate flagellomere 2.4× longer than wide.   
 Mesosoma. Length:width:height = 40.0:25.5:25.5. Disc of mesonotum dull with tiny, dense, strong punctures, becoming shallower towards apex, interspaces not smaller than diameter of puncture, indistinctly rugulose between punctures at extremely posterior end of notaulic courses. Scutellar sulcus curved, narrow with dense carinae inside. Scutellum shiny and polished entirely, median length slightly longer than basal width. Lateral polished field of scutellum reaching half length of scutellum. Propodeum slightly shiny, long, areola V-shaped apically, without costulae, spiracle enclosed by hind keels, elsewhere shiny, polished. Mesopleuron shiny, anterior parts strongly and sparsely punctate.   
 Legs. Hind femur relatively thin, 3.0× longer than wide. Hind coxa shiny with merely extremely shallow punctures above (basally). Spines on outer side of third tibia not dense. Inner spurs of hind tibia nearly half length of hind basitarsus, outer spur 1/3. Basitarsus of hind leg about as long as tarsomeres 2–4 combined, claws of normal size.   
 Wings. Pterostigma 3.0× as long as its widest part. Vein 1-R1 1.1× longer than pterostigma, 4.8× as long as its distance from apex of marginal cell. Vein r arising from middle of pterostigma, nearly perpendicular to the latter, 1.3× longer than width of pterostigma, 1.6× longer than 2-SR, indistinctly angled at junction, 2-M half as long as 2- SR, the latter as long as m-cu, 1-SR nearly as long as 2-SR+M and 2-M. First discal cell of fore wing weakly (1.1×) wider than high. Second submarginal cell of hind wing nearly as wide as high. Vein cu-a indistinctly curved. Hind wing not broad, length of 1-M indistinctly shorter than distance between its distal extremity and apex of vannal lobe, and vannal lobe beyond its widest part strongly curved and hairless.   
 Metasoma. Almost as long as mesosoma (42.0:40.0). T1 nearly parallel-sided, long, 1.8× longer than hind width, concave at basal two-fifths, turned-over part slightly shiny, weakly subrugose-punctate medially, smooth to slightly uneven at apical third, longitudinal channel absent, and apical tubercle polished. T2 shiny, smooth, 3.3× wider than long in the middle, nearly straight apically. T3 1.7× longer than T2. Tergites posterior to T2 shiny, smooth and pubescent. Hypopygium distinctly shorter than apex of metasoma. Ovipositor sheath as long as length of hind tibia, relatively narrow, hairs long and not dense, apical attenuation of ovipositor indistinct and long.   
 Colour. Black. Tegula brown. Palpi pale yellow (except blackish basally) and spurs white. Antenna and ovipositor sheath dark brown. Labrum and mandible dark brown. Legs brown to black, except most parts of fore femur, fore tibia with tarsus, extreme apex of mid femur, mid tibia with tarsus, extreme apical part of hind tibia and apical two to three segments of hind tarsus pale yellow to weakly reddish yellow. Wing membrane hyaline, setae light brownish, C+SC+R, 1-R1, border of pterostigma, r, 2-SR and 2-M light yellowish brown, other alar veins more or less pale yellowish brownish, pterostigma more or less pale medially.   
 Male. Unknown.   
 Material examined. Holotype: 1♀, Dongling, Shenyang, Liaoning, 1994.VII.10, Lou Juxian, No. 947433.   
 Distribution. China (Liaoning).   
 Etymology. The specific name “ attenuator ” derives from the Latin, referring to the long apical attenuation of ovipositor.   
 Remarks. This species is very similar to A. machaeralis Wilkinson, but differs in the following: penultimate flagellomere 2.4× longer than wide (one and a quarter in latter); metacarp 4.8× as long as its distance from apex of marginal cell (much shorter, 3.0× in latter); and anterior part of mesopleuron shiny, evenly punctate (rugose, without punctures in latter).
description: Published as part of Liu, Zhen, He, Jun-Hua, Chen, Xue-Xin & Gupta, Ankita, 2020, The ater-group of the genus Apanteles Foerster (Hymenoptera, Braconidae, Microgastrinae) from China with the descriptions of forty-eight new species, pp. 1-205 in Zootaxa 4807 (1) on pages 36-38, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4807.1.1, http://zenodo.org/record/3927639