Conura leucotela
Creators: name: Brotto, Thales Renan De Aguiar
name: Tavares, Marcelo Teixeira
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2021
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Hymenoptera
Chalcididae
Conura
Conura leucotela

description: The leucotela species group
Species group diagnosis. Head 0.3–0.5× as long as wide; frontovertex 0.7–0.8× as long as head height; antennal scrobes not very deep (Figs 1B, 3B, 5B); interantennal projection fairly convex, carinate in middle (Figs 1B, 3B, 5B, 7B, 8B); antennae inserted slightly above level of lower eye margins (Figs 1B, 3B, 5B); scape barely reaching vertex (Figs 1B, 3B, 5B); lower face striolate, or strigose, with transverse carina (Figs 1B, 3B: TC) or raised stripe (Figs 1B: RS) below antennal foramen; left mandible with 2 teeth, right mandible with 3 teeth, teeth sharp, of same length, with wide lamina on lower edge; malar sulcus broad, distinctly delimited by complete internal and external carinae, the external carina extended behind eye and delimiting a postorbital furrow; genal carina present up to level of half eye height; occipital carina absent, occiput contiguous with gena and vertex, without a slope; postocciput without dorsal carina; pronotal carina present laterally, absent dorsally (Figs 1C, 3D, 3E, 5E); mesosoma 1.0–1.2× as long as wide; mesoscutum with umbilicate fovea; notauli superficial, tending to be shallow (Figs 1C, 3D, 3E, 5E); mesoscutellum 0.9–1.2× as wide as long, with frenal carina as narrow lamina; metascutellum distinct from lateral panel of metanotum; mesopleuron with anterior face almost forming a perpendicular angle with body axis (Figs 1A, 3A, 5A, 7A, 8A), without ventral carina; metapleuron with umbilicate fovea; propodeum short, strongly sloping, irregularly areolate, anterior costula irregular or conspicuous throughout, posterior costulae conspicuous throughout (Figs 2A, 4A, 6A); procoxa with flat faces and sharp edges, not carinate, outer face setose; metafemur with 10–15 small teeth, basal tooth longer than following teeth, but without inner tooth; metatibia with apical spine short. Female with petiole 0.1–0.6× as long as wide, tending to be joined to dorsal side of gaster (Figs 4D, 6D); Gt7+8 0.3–1.1× as long as Gt1–Gt6 combined (Figs 2C, 4D, 6D). Male with petiole about 0.6–1.5× as long as wide; phallobase distinctly elongate, with parallel sides, closed ventrally, with ventral frame only visible at apex, emarginate at apex near lamina; phallobase volsellar digiti emarginate on their outer edge; phallotreme broadly open.
Remarks. The diagnosis above follows Delvare (1992), except the underlined features which are proposed here. The head of species of the leucotela group is similar to that of referator group species, but narrower (frontovertex 0.8–0.9× as long as head height). The transverse carina below the antennal foramen was proposed as a synapomorphy for the exinaniens complex, but it is present in only five of its eleven species groups (dimidiata, exinaniens, leucotela, referator, and similis groups). In the leucotela group, C. leucotela has a raised strip rather than a carina (Fig. 1B: RS).
It was not possible to observe the condition of the postocciput (depressed or not) nor the condition of the anterior margin of pronotum (curved or not) for the species treated here because all of them are represented by singletons and it would be necessary to dissect the specimens to observe these features. The lack of an evident strong depression on the postocciput would suggest that the anterior margin of the pronotum is slightly curved upward or not curved at all. The anterior margin of the pronotum has an inconspicuous and narrow anterior sulcus, which is bordered posteriorly by a carina (Fig. 3D). This sulcus is conspicuous in other groups of the exinaniens complex (e.g., exinaniens, referator, similis, surumuae, transidiata groups).
In the exinaniens complex, only the leucotela and the referator groups have females with a very short petiole. Females of both groups also have a long gaster, with all the gastral segments of approximately the same length in the referator group, but only Gt7+8 distinctly elongated in the leucotela group.
description: Published as part of Brotto, Thales Renan De Aguiar & Tavares, Marcelo Teixeira, 2021, Review of the leucotela species-group of Conura (Hymenoptera: Chalcididae) from Amazon rainforest, pp. 409-427 in Zootaxa 4942 (3) on pages 411-413, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4942.3.5, http://zenodo.org/record/4604424