Pristaulacus virga Smith 2008, new species
Creators: name: Smith, David R.
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2008
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Hymenoptera
Aulacidae
Pristaulacus
Pristaulacus virga

description: Pristaulacus virga SMITH, new species   
(Figs 67-71)  
 Diagnosis:   
Head, mesosoma, and legs orange. Forewing black with hyaline band at center basal to stigma and hyaline band near apex apical to stigma. Ovipositor with a white band. Head smooth and shining. Mesoscutum with 8-9 coarse transverse carinae. Hind coxa smooth and shining. Pronotum without anteriorly projecting tooth.  
 Female:   
 Length, 9.0 mm; forewing length 7.0 mm; ovipositor length 7.0 mm. Color: Antenna with scape and pedicel orange, flagellomeres 1-4 black (missing beyond 4). Head and body orange; apex of mandible and infuscate to black band at apex of first metasomal tergite. Ovipositor brownish with white band near apex. Forewing (Fig. 71) with base, broad band below stigma, and apex black, hyaline areas between base and band below stigma and between band below stigma and apical dark stripe; stigma mostly yellow, infuscate toward base. Hind wing (Fig. 71) black at base, center, and apex with hyaline areas in between. Veins mostly black with those in hyaline areas more yellowish. Head: [Both antennae of holotype broken beyond 6 th segment.] Lower interocular distance subequal to eye height; malar space 0.4X eye height (Fig. 67). Head behind eyes straight then sharply narrowing, head length 0.8X eye length (Fig. 68). Occipital carina very narrow, hardly discernable, less than a fifth diameter on an ocellus. Shining, almost impunctate. With fine white pubescence, densest on interantennal area, lower inner orbits, malar area, and clypeus (Figs 67, 68). Mesosoma: Pronotum without anteriorly projecting tooth. Propleuron smooth and shining. Mesoscutum with transverse carinae, 8-10 carinae on middle lobe; axilla reticulate, mesoscutellum with 3 or 4 arc-shaped transverse carinae, more reticulate laterally; pronotum with narrow scrobiculate band on anterior margin, center shining with diagonal band of fine carinae, reticulate dorsoposteriorly; mesepisternum finely punctate with coarse reticulations on lower third; mesepimeron shining with narrow scrobiculate band on posterior margin; metapleuron finely reticulate on dorsal half, coarsely reticulate on ventral half; propodeum reticulate (Figs 69, 70). Hind coxa smooth and shining, 2.5X longer than broad, with diagonal ovipositor guide near apex on inner surface. Tarsal claws with 5 teeth. Hind basitarsus 1.2X longer than length of remaining tarsal segments combined. Forewing with cells 1M and 1Rs contiguous, without vein Rs+M (Fig. 71). Hind wing veins distinct, cells Cu and R1+Rs contiguous (as in Fig. 110). Metasoma: Shining, with fine white pubescence on tergite 2 to apex. Ovipositor length subequal to forewing length.   
 Male: Unknown.   
 Holotype: Female labeled “ Mexico: Jalisco, Chamela Biol. Stn., 12 July 1989, R. Brooks, C. Michener, A. Roig Alsina, #024” (UKAN).   
 Etymology: From the Latin virga, meaning stripe, referring to the striped- or banded-color pattern of the wings.   
 Remarks:   
 This is one of three species with black-banded forewings. It is separated from the other two, P. punctum and P. decorus, by the entirely orange color, lack of an anteriorly projecting tooth on the pronotum, and the transverse carinae of the mesoscutum.
description: Published as part of Smith, David R., 2008, Aulacidae of the southwestern United States, Mexico, and Central America (Hymenoptera), pp. 267-355 in Beiträge Zur Entomologie = Contributions to Entomology 58 (2) on pages 304-306, DOI: 10.21248/contrib.entomol.58.2.267-355, http://zenodo.org/record/5364480