Ooencyrtus alrake Hayat, sp. nov.
Creators: name: Hayat, Mohammad
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2012
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Hymenoptera
Encyrtidae
Ooencyrtus
Ooencyrtus alrake

description: Ooencyrtus alrake Hayat, sp. nov.   
(Figs 1–7)  
 Female. Holotype. Length, 1.48 mm. Body dark brown to black; frontovertex with purple and bluish lustre, bluish green above scrobes; face purple. Antenna (Fig. 1) with radicle and scape dark brown; pedicel brownish yellow with about basal half brown; funicle and clava pale brownish yellow. Mesosoma with mesoscutum light bluish green; scutellum light bluish green basally and on sides, otherwise largely purple; tegula dark brown. Wings hyaline. Legs with coxae and femora dark brown; fore tibia brownish at base, becoming yellow apically; mid tibia dark brown with about apical quarter yellow; hind tibia brown, becoming brownish yellow apically; tarsi yellow; mid tibial spur yellow except apex pale brown. Gaster with TI largely bluish, other tergites purple with bronzy lustre.   
 Head. Occipital margin sharp; frontovertex width 0.3× head width; ocellar triangle with dorsal angle slightly acute; POL, OOL and OCL ratios, 9:1.5:4; head, in frontal view, 1.14× as broad as high; scrobes moderately deep, inverted U-shaped with rounded margins; torulus with dorsal margin above level of ventral eye margin and ventral margin separated from mouth margin by a distance slightly greater than own length (8:7); eye height 1.93× malar space; frontovertex with slightly raised reticulate sculpture, the cells small, and with fine setigerous punctures; malar space with elongate reticulate sculpture; setae on head silvery white except brown between posterior ocelli and occipital margin; eyes bare. Mandible (Fig. 2) with two teeth and a truncation, lower tooth separated from the middle tooth by a deep V-shaped incision. Antenna with scape flattened and expanded in distal half, 2.7× as long as broad; F1 1.2× as long as pedicel; F1–F4 longer than broad; F5 quadrate and F6 1.3× as broad as long; clava distinctly broader than F6 (6.5:5.25), slightly shorter than F4–F6 combined, and with all three segments transverse. (In two paratypes: scape 2.81× and 2.96× as long as broad; F1 1.05× and 1.13× as long as pedicel; F 4 in the slidemounted paratype (Fig. 1) appears quadrate, and F6 1.5× as broad as long.) Relative measurements —head dorsal width, 52.5; frontovertex width, 16; head frontal height, 46; eye height, 31; malar space, 16; antennal scape length, 15.5; scape width, 5.75.   
 Mesosoma 1.55× as long as metasoma (62:40); mesoscutum 1.2× as long as scutellum (30:25); scutellum as long as wide, and 5× as long as median length of propodeum (25:5); mesoscutum with fine polygonal reticulations, the cells very small and slightly transverse, with minute setigerous punctures; scutellum with raised reticulate sculpture, the sides with reticulations elongate; setae brown; propodeum with several silvery white setae on sides. Fore wing 2.45× as long as broad; marginal vein slightly shorter than postmarginal, the latter shorter than stigmal vein (ratios, 0.75:0.81:1.0); ventral surface of costal cell with 3 lines of setae in proximal half, and 2 lines of setae in distal half; linea calva open posteriorly; venation and setation as in Fig. 3. Hind wing 3.7× as long as broad. Relative measurements (paratype slide)—mid tibia length, 62; mid basitarsus length, 17; mid tibial spur length, 19.   
 Metasoma. Ovipositor and hypopygium as in Figs 4 and 5. Relative measurements (paratype slide)—TVII length, 42.5; ovipositor length, 59.5; third valvula length, 15.   
 FIG URES 1–7. Ooencyrtus alrake Hayat, sp. nov. Female: 1, antenna; 2, mandibles; 3, basal part of fore wing; 4, ovipositor; 5, hypopygium. Male: 6, antenna; 7, distal part of genitalia.   
 Male. Length, 1.66 mm. Similar in colour and sculpture to female, except for head dimensions, antenna and genitalia. Frontovertex width 0.42× head width; head in frontal view 1.18× as broad as high; torulus with ventral margin above level of ventral eye margin and separated from mouth margin by 2.42× own length (17:7). Antenna (Fig. 6) with scape slightly more than 2× as long as broad (14.5:7); pedicel subtriangular, slightly broader than long; F1 longest, several times longer than pedicel, and 1.37× as long as F2; funicle segments all longer than broad; clava 2-segmented, shorter than F5 and F6 combined; flagellar segments with short setae. Genitalia with distinct parameres (Fig. 7); phallobase 0.45× mid tibia length; digitus long, with a denticle.   
 Material examined. Holotype (NPC, Registration No. 136/13/124/1), female (on card) labelled “ INDIA: KERALA: Kozhikode, Calicut, 27.x.2011, Coll. U.A. Saleem” and “ Trioza jambolanae on Syzygium cumini ”.   
Paratypes: 3 females, 2 males: 2 females (one on card, the second specimen on slide under 5 coverslips, slide No. EH.1450) with same data as holotype; 1 female (on slide under 5 coverslips, slide No. EH.1452), 2 males (one on card, the second on slide under 4 coverslips, slide No. EH.1453), with same data as holotype, except collection date is 19.x.2011. (ZDAMU, Registration No. HYM. CH.657).  
 Host. Trioza jambolanae Crawford (Hemiptera: Triozidae) (Fig. 24) from leaf galls of Syzygium cumini (L.) (Fig. 23).   
 Distribution. India: Kerala.   
 Comments. This new species of Ooencyrtus is distinct from all other described species by the following combination of characters: antennal torulus with dorsal margin slightly above level of ventral eye margin and ventral margin separated from mouth margin by a distance slightly greater than own length; mandible with ventral tooth separated from middle tooth by a deep V-shaped incision; antenna with scape flattened and expanded in distal half, slightly less than 3× as long as broad; F1 slightly to distinctly longer than pedicel, and nearly 3× as long as broad; clava robust, 1.2× as broad as the transverse F6, and shorter than F4–6 combined; fore wing with marginal vein about 2.5× as long as broad, but slightly shorter than postmarginal vein; stigmal vein longer than both marginal and postmarginal veins (1.0:0.75:0.81).   
 I checked all available descriptions and figures of Ooencyrtus species (e.g., Huang & Noyes 1994; Noyes 1985, 2010; Prinsloo 1987; Trjapitzin 1989; Zhang et al. 2005) and found that this new species does not agree with any of these. Further, there are no earlier records of any Ooencyrtus species parasitizing psylloids (Noyes, 2012).   
 Etymology. The species name is an anagram of ‘Kerala’ State.
description: Published as part of Hayat, Mohammad, 2012, On some Encyrtidae (Hymenoptera: Chalcidoidea) associated with gall-inducing psylloids, Phacopteron and Trioza species (Hemiptera: Phacopteronidae, Triozidae) in southern India, pp. 14-22 in Zootaxa 3566 on pages 15-17, DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.210657