Aulacus wrightae Jennings & Parslow & Austin 2018, sp. nov.
Creators: name: Jennings, John T.
name: Parslow, Ben A.
name: Austin, Andrew D.
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2018
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Hymenoptera
Aulacidae
Aulacus
Aulacus wrightae

description: Aulacus wrightae Jennings & Austin, sp. nov.
Fig. 54, 67.
Material examined. Holotype. ♀, “ Mt. Cootha, Qld. Australia, Nov.–Dec. (QM). Left flagellomere tip missing, right antenna missing pedicel to tip, left ovipositor sheath missing tip.
Description. FEMALE. Length. 11.0 mm, excluding ovipositor.
Colour. Black, except fore and mid tibiae and tarsomeres 1–4 orange, metasomal T1 orange laterally, T2 orange-brown, T3–T8 dark brown-black, ovipositor sheaths brown, ovipositor orange (Figs 54A, B). Wings hyaline except for dark brown spot apically on the marginal and submarginal cells of fore wing.
Head. 1.3× wider than long when viewed dorsally (Fig. 54C); face punctate-rugose, pubescence long; distinct sub-antennal groove; frons with pronounced lateral medial carina above each torulus, rugose, with short pubescence (Fig. 54D); vertex and gena punctate-rugulose, with scattered short setae, denser ventrally on gena; posterior margin of head not concave in dorsal view; occipital carina absent; malar space 0.2× height eye; clypeus 4.1× as wide as high, margin sinuate, distinct medial process; distance from lateral ocellus to eye margin equal to distance between lateral ocelli; scape 0.7× length pedicel; first flagellomere 3.0× as long as scape, 0.6× as long as second flagellomere.
Mesosoma. Propleuron rugose, pubescence long, ventro-lateral carina present; pronotum coarsely rugose; mesoscutum in lateral view rounded antero-dorsally (Fig. 54E), medial and lateral lobes coarsely rugose, with scattered short setae, admedial lines indistinct; notauli distinct, carinate, broad and deep (Fig. 54E); scutellum and axillae coarsely rugose, scutellum with two oblique deep depressions, separated by a weak median carina; metapostnotum narrow, carinate, posterior margin convex; mesopleuron coarsely rugose-areolate, setae long; mesepimeron broad, carinate; metapleuron and propodeum coarsely rugose-areolate, with long pubescence; propodeum with medial longitudinal groove, posterior margin smooth, with several carinae; hind coxa dorsally rugose-areolate basally to strigate apically, pubescence long, ovipositor guide absent (Fig. 54F); hind trochanter imbricate, pubescence short; prefemur on hind leg present; hind femur imbricate, with scattered short setae; hind tibia imbricate, pubescence short, with scattered stout emergent setae; hind femur 0.7× length hind tibia; hind tibia with ventro-apical pecten of short robust spines; hind tarsomeres 1–4 with ventro-apical pecten of short robust spines, tarsomere 1, 3.05× length tarsomere 2; tarsomere 2, 1.4× length tarsomere 3; tarsomere 3, 1.9× length tarsomere 4; tarsomere 4, 0.5× length tarsomere 5; hind tarsal claw 0.2× length tarsomere 5; fore wing veins 2r-m and 3r-m largely spectral; hind wing venation complete, M+Cu, Cu, r-m and 2-M spectral, 3 hamuli.
Metasoma. Clavate, 1.5× length of mesosoma (Fig. 54B); T1 and T2 narrow, T1 scattered punctures dorsally, T2 imbricate, scattered short setae, T3–T8 imbricate, pubescence short; ovipositor 10.0 mm.
MALE. Unknown.
Etymology. This species is named for Susan Wright, Entomology Collection Manager, Queensland Museum.
Distribution. This species is known from Mt. Cootha, Queensland (Fig. 67).
Biology. Nothing is known of the biology of this species.
Comments. Aulacus wrightae is readily identified by the characters in the key, viz., mesoscutum rounded in lateral view, metasoma clavate, fore wing with dark brown spot apically on marginal and submarginal cells, hind wing venation complete, and ovipositor guide on hind coxae absent. The rugose-areolate sculpturing on the hind coxa (Fig. 54F) is also distinctive.
description: Published as part of Jennings, John T., Parslow, Ben A. & Austin, Andrew D., 2018, Systematics of the parasitoid wasp genus Aulacus Jurine (Hymenoptera: Evanioidea: Aulacidae) from Australia, pp. 1-113 in Zootaxa 4538 (1) on pages 96-97, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4538.1.1, http://zenodo.org/record/3771367