Orasema texana Gahan
Creators: name: Baker, Austin J.
name: Heraty, John M.
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2020
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Hymenoptera
Eucharitidae
Orasema
Orasema texana

description: Orasema texana Gahan
urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act: 0A70BCAC-F58C-463C-B4D1-63307176C805
(Fig. 16)
Orasema texana Gahan 1940: 440–441.
Diagnosis. Distinguished from other members of the O. bakeri group by usually having a broad medial depression in the mesoscutal midlobe (Fig. 16F), mesoscutal mid- and lateral lobes angulate at the notaulus anteriorly (Fig. 16F), and a callar nib present (Fig. 16G). Other combinations of features that help diagnose O. texana include: petiole short/wide (PTL:PTW = 0.6–1.0 in females; 1.6–3.2 in males), female scape yellow (Fig. 16D), propodeum often with median longitudinal carina (Fig. 16G), mesoscutal side lobes often with shallow depression dorsally (Fig. 16F), and axillular sulcus poorly defined to absent (Fig. 16C).
Description. Female. Length 2.5–3.4 mm (Fig. 16A). Color. Head and mesosoma dark, iridescent blue-green. Scape, pedicle, and anellus yellow. Maxilla and labium brown. Tibiae yellow. Fore wing venation pale brown. Head (Fig. 16B). Head in frontal view subquadrate; HW:HH =1.1–1.3; scrobal depression shallow, laterally rounded, reticulate; eyes bare, IOD:EH =1.5–2.0; MS:EH = 0.6–1.0; supraclypeal area broader than long, smooth; epistomal sulcus distinct but shallow; anteclypeus distinct, broadly rounded. Palpal formula 2:2. Occiput with dorsal margin abrupt. Pedicel globose, broader than F1. FL:HH = 0.9–1.1; F2L:F2W = 1.0–1.6, F2L:F3L = 1.2–1.8 (Fig. 16D). Mesosoma (Fig. 16C, F). ML:MH = 1.1–1.4. Mesoscutal midlobe bare; lateral lobe weakly reticulate to imbricate with an irregular dorsal impression; notauli deep. Axilla weakly rugose-reticulate, dorsally well above mesoscutel-lum; scutoscutellar sulcus broad, irregularly foveate, reaching transscutal articulation; mesoscutellar disc as long as broad, areolate-reticulate; frenal line irregularly foveate; axillular sulcus absent; axillula areolate-reticulate. Propodeal disc flat, with median carina (Fig. 16G); callus smooth, bare; callar nib present. Propleuron nearly flat. Postpectal carina absent. Upper and lower mesepimeron smooth anteriorly, reticulate posteriorly; transepimeral sulcus weakly impressed. Metepisternum laterally smooth. HCL:HCW = 1.4–2.0; HFL:HFW = 3.7–5.9, evenly covered with short setae. FWL:FWW = 2.2–2.5, FWL:ML = 1.9–2.2; fore wing with basal third sparsely setose, including speculum and costal cell, wing disc setose; marginal fringe relatively long; submarginal vein bare; marginal vein with minute setae; stigmal vein about the same length as width, slightly angled toward wing apex; postmarginal vein longer than stigmal vein. Metasoma. Petiole cylindrical, linear in profile, PTL:PTW = 0.6–1.0, PTL:HCL = 0.4–0.6, reticulate, lateral margin with longitudinal carina continuous with basal flange, ventral sulcus absent. Ovipositor with subapical carina present; second (dorsal) valvula with 6 or 7 annuli that are narrowly separated dorsally, the carinae coalescing.
Male. Length 2.3–2.7 mm. HW:HH = 1.2–1.5; FL:HH = 1.1–1.3, F2L:F2W = 1.1–1.6 (Fig. 16E). Tibiae yellow. PTL:PTW = 1.6–3.2, PTL:HCL = 0.8–1.4.
Planidium. Length 0.16 mm. Head with two pairs of dorsal cranial setae. Antenna, labial plates, and tergopleural line absent. Tergites I and II separate. Tergites I, II, and III with dorsal setae. Tergites II and VI with lateral setae. Tergites I, III, V, and VII with ventral setae. Tergites IV–VIII with posteriorly pointing ventral projections. Tergite IX with separated leaflike ventral plate. Caudal pad present; caudal cerci present, about as long as tergites XI+XII.
The planidium of O. texana has relatively short caudal cerci but no other obvious morphological features to differentiate it from other Orasema species, and it closely resembles illustrations of other species, like O. viridis (Johnson et al. 1986, fig. 2).
Hosts. Unknown.
Plant associates. Observed ovipositing into huisatch (Fabaceae: Vachellia farnesiana (L.) Wight et Arn.) in Texas. Swept from Chilopsis linearis (Bignoniaceae) and Vachellia vernicosa (Britton & Rose) Seigler & Ebinger in Arizona, Chilopsis linearis in California, and Vachellia constricta (Benth.) Seigler & Ebinger in New Mexico.
Distribution (Fig. 11) Mexico: BC, BS, HG, NA, OA, SI, TM; United States: AZ, CA, NM, TX. Collected March–November.
Material Examined. Holotype. UNITED STATES. Texas: Grayson Co., Denison, 33 ° 45’0”N, 96 ° 31’48”W, 26.viii.1937, Christenson & Jones, sweep, C-3511 [♀, deposited in USNM: USNMENT1520795, type images: http://n 2t.net/ark:/65665/3f8507c59-e9c9-4b8e-9bc7-6d9b34e9b034]. Larval slides. UNITED STATES. Texas: San Patricio Co., Welder Wildlife Ref. near Vena Mills, 3m, 28 ° 06’42”N, 97 ° 24’24”W, 26.vi.1989, J. Heraty, Aster [5?, UCRC: UCRCENT00513224–28]. Additional material examined. 265 specimens, see supplementary material. GenBank sequences. UCRCENT00292561 (D3212): 18S (MH 231711), 28S D2 (MH 247394), 28S D3–5 (MH 247546), COI-NJ (MH 247760); UCRCENT00412495 (D3929): 18S (KR632475.1), 28S D2 (KR632406.1), 28S D3–5 (KR632445.1), COI-BC (KR733127.1).
description: Published as part of Baker, Austin J. & Heraty, John M., 2020, The New World ant parasitoid genus Orasema (Hymenoptera: Eucharitidae), pp. 1-84 in Zootaxa 4888 (1) on pages 34-36, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4888.1.1, http://zenodo.org/record/4297699