Cratocentrus inermus Abul-Sood & Gadallah & Hossni & Delvare 2018, sp. nov.
Creators: name: Abul-Sood, Medhat I.
name: Gadallah, Neveen S.
name: Hossni, Mohammed T.
name: Delvare, Gérard
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2018
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Hymenoptera
Chalcididae
Cratocentrus
Cratocentrus inermus

description: Cratocentrus inermus Delvare sp. nov.
(Figs 20, 39‒48 and Table 1)
Registered in ZooBank, http://zoobank.org/urn:lsid: xxx
Type material. Holotype ♀ from IRAQ labelled 'Loc. Hilla IRAQ [in red, in Bouček's handwriting hence subsequently added] Data 10/7/970 Host Pomegranate coll. Izzat / on Chrysobothris / 347 / C.I.E. coll 4767 / ♀ Cratocentrus sp. det Z. Bouček 1971 (NMP).
Other material. IRAN: Fars, Neyriz, N29°16' E54°19', Malaise trap in Pistachia orchard, 15.ix.2008, M. Khosroabadi M. leg. (1 ♀) [GDEL 0358] (CIRAD).
Etymology. The Latin word “ inermis ”, meaning “unarmed”, an allusion to the complete absence of teeth on the vertex, a special and outstanding feature of the species.
Condition of the holotype. Specimen complete, glued on rectangular card, right wings and hind leg glued separately on another card.
Description (female holotype). Body length (ovipositor sheaths excluded) 10.6 mm.
Colour (Figs 39‒44). Mandibles, clypeus, frons, scrobal depression above interantennal projection, occiput, flagellum, syntergum past cercal plates and apex of ovipositor sheaths, black. Labrum, scape, pedicel, pronotum anteriorly and laterally, tegula, sloping surface of propodeum, anteroventral projection of mesepisternum, tarsi, basal and lateral surfaces of GT1 up to posterior level of fasciae, basal stripe on GT5, base of syntergum in front of cercal plates, dark brown. Rest of body reddish. Fore wing hyaline on most of surface, hardly infuscate towards apex.
Setation entirely silvery on whole body (Fig. 39). Adpressed setation masking the integument visible on the following parts (Figs 39‒43): frons dorsally; interantennal projection; gena along ventral carina; sub-basal transverse stripe on sloping part of pronotum, then anterolateral and subdorsal mesal patches; small patches above lateral excavation and in front of mesothoracic spiracle; small fasciae along outer side of notauli at base of mesoscutum; posterior slope of axillae; spiracular area of propodeum; patches on mesopleuron below tegula, along anterior edge of femoral depression and in front of epicnemial carina; mesepimeron dorsally; narrow dorsal and anteroventral stripes on metapleuron; metacoxa on ventral surface, the setation progressively sparser from base to apex and tapering stripe on outer dorsal surface; 2 large fasciae at base of GT 1 in addition to small sublateral fasciae; 2 moderately small and widely separated fasciae on GT5, not reaching its hind margin; 2 fasciae on inner side of spiracles, not nearly reaching hind margin of GT6. Frons ventrally and gena with moderately sparse and fine setation. Occiput with adpressed setae oriented upwards dorsally and outwards elsewhere. Pronotum, mesonotum and rest of sides of mesosoma with thin, short, curved and reclinate setae originating from bottom of areoles. Metafemur bearing thin, adpressed setation and metatibia with suberect setae. Setae very short, not much visible, on punctulate parts of metasoma.
Head (Fig. 40) 2.02× as wide as long in dorsal view and 1.36× as wide as high, somewhat narrower than mesosoma (0.95×). Distance between lateral ocellus and compound eye as large as diameter of lateral ocellus. Distance between lateral ocelli 1.89× as large as that between each lateral ocellus to compound eye. Eyes bare, separated by 1.04× their own height. Oral fossa 1.9× as wide as length of malar space. Mandible strongly tapering, 2-toothed, the teeth narrow. Labrum depressed; clypeus falcate and receding. Distance from antennal toruli to clypeus less than half of torulus diameter. Short carina visible above oral fossa. Postorbital groove present. Gena smooth above oral fossa. Scrobal depression transversely strigose, reaching median ocellus, its sides converging dorsally; no stripe of setation above interantennal projection. Vertex rounded between lateral ocelli, without remains of teeth or carina, the areolation dense there.
Antenna (Fig. 42). Scape linear, 6.1× as long as wide. Pedicel with basal bottle-neck, 1.19× as long as wide. Flagellum regularly tapering from base to apex. First funicular 2× as long as wide, all following segments clearly longer than wide with last funicular 1.74× as long as wide. Clava 2.65× as long as wide. Flagellomeres bearing numerous MPS and short setae.
Mesosoma (Figs 39, 43) 1.33× as long as wide. Pronotum nearly as wide as mesoscutum and much longer (1.63×). Pronotal carina absent, hence collar not at all separated from collum; areolation homogeneous, with anterior margin of areoles on dorsum of pronotum not forming crests. Mesonotum also with homogeneous areolation, the areoles as large as those on dorsum of pronotum. Only a few areoles on posterior half of mesoscutum and basal surface of mesoscutellum have their anterior margin slightly raised. Posterior part of axillae strongly sloping but not vertical, not separated from anterior surface by step-like margin. Mesoscutellum with dorsal outline evenly convex when seen in lateral view. Frenal area faintly margined anteriorly, somewhat depressed and crenulate, more distinctly sloping than rest of mesoscutellum, without mucron. Apical margin of mesoscutellum slightly overhanging metanotum. Postscutellum with basal crenulate stripe. Propodeum with basal stripe crenulate; plical area (surface between the oblique sublateral carinae) rugulose.
Legs. Apical dorsal spine of protibia weakly arcuate. Dorsal surface of mesotibia without spicules, the tibia bearing only 4 short apical pegs. Metacoxa 1.72× as long as wide, punctulate along lower margin of dorsal surface (Fig. 44). Metafemur moderately sparsely punctulate on disc, the interspaces between points at least as wide as their own diameter. Tarsal groove of metatibia visible on apical half of the distance between base of tibia and tarsal insertion. Tibia with 2 rows of subelliptic areoles along tarsal groove (Fig. 45). Claws with two pegs and a long seta on ventral margin (Fig. 20).
Wings. Fore wing about 3× as long as wide (Fig. 46); marginal vein about one third as long as costal cell; postmarginal vein 1.65× as long as marginal vein; base of wing bare except for ventral tuft of setae at apex of costal cell and a line of microtrichiae on cubital fold beyond basal fold; setation of wing denser and shorter beyond venation. Hind wing 3.58× as long as wide, broadly bare and only bearing short setae beyond venation, bearing 3 identical hamuli close to each other.
Metasoma (Figs 39, 47, 48). GT1 large, reaching 0.37× length of gaster. GT2‒GT4 visible dorsally. GT1, GT5 and GT6, except for apical smooth stripe densely punctulate, as is syntergum at base. Rim of spiracles on penultimate tergite somewhat elevated. Cercal plates not protruding. Ovipositor sheaths 5.49× as long as carinate dorsal edge of syntergum and 1.16× as long as mesosoma.
Diagnosis. Body with large parts brownish to reddish, not black (Fig. 39). Fore wing mostly hyaline, hardly infuscate towards apex (Fig. 46). Setation silvery on entire body (Fig. 39). Frons with adpressed setation covering integument only dorsally; sparser and suberect setation visible ventrally on frons and gena (Fig. 40). Mandibles strongly tapering. Teeth on vertex completely absent. Antenna black (Fig. 42). All funiculars distinctly longer than wide. Pronotal carina absent (Fig. 43). Pronotal collum with 3 patches of dense, adpressed setation (Fig. 41).
Areolation of pronotum and mesonotum homogeneous, the anterior margin of areoles rarely forming slightly elevated crests. Mesoscutal fasciae reduced (Fig. 39). GT5 with fasciae very widely separated (Figs 39, 48). Ovipositor sheaths long, over 5× as long as carinate dorsal edge of syntergum and longer than mesosoma (Figs 39, 47).
Recognition. Cratrocentrus inermus can be separated from other species of the genus by the complete absence of teeth on the vertex (Fig. 40) and absence of a pronotal carina and crests on the dorsum of the pronotum (Fig. 41). In addition it is distinguished from all Afrotropical species by the entirely silvery setation of the body (Fig. 39-44). The dark antenna, the colour of the fore wing, mostly hyaline and hardly infuscate towards apex, and the long ovipositor sheaths separate it from C. fastuosus. The shorter and less expanded setation, the pattern of setation on the pronotal collum and, especially, the widely separated fasciae on GT5 distinguishes it from C. tomentosus.
Distribution. Iraq and Iran.
Host (s). Chrysobothris sp. (Coleoptera, Buprestidae) on Punica granata L. (Lythraceae).
description: Published as part of Abul-Sood, Medhat I., Gadallah, Neveen S., Hossni, Mohammed T. & Delvare, Gérard, 2018, The subfamily Cratocentrinae (Hymenoptera: Chalcididae): reappraisal of their morphological characters and review of the West Palaearctic species, with the description of two new species, pp. 490-516 in Zootaxa 4377 (4) on pages 502-505, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4377.4.2, http://zenodo.org/record/1165794