Phasgonophora rubra Binoy & Nasser & Santhosh 2022, sp. nov.
Creators: name: Binoy, C.
name: Nasser, M.
name: Santhosh, S.
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2022
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Hymenoptera
Chalcididae
Phasgonophora
Phasgonophora rubra

description: Phasgonophora rubra Binoy, sp. nov.
(Figures 1, 2a–h, 3a–d)
Type material
Holotype ♀, India: Kerala, shrub jungle near Athirappilly waterfall (10.277°N, 76.541°E; 98 m above mean sea level), Thrissur district, standard yellow pan trap, 17 February 2021, Coll. C. Binoy. Paratype, ♀, same details as holotype.
Recognition
Body black with pronotum, mesoscutum and axilla bright red (Figure 2f); setation on body and wings sparse and stout (Figure 2c, e, f); clava 1-segmented (Figure 2b); mesoscutellum moderately convex, broadly emarginate posteriorly (Figure 2f); propodeal tooth present (Figure 3a); fore wing hyaline with brown setation, slight brown infumation adjoining STV with line of infumation along Rs (Figure 3b); Gt 1 dorsally smooth (Figure 3c); syntergum hardly protruding, 0.2× mesotibia (Figure 3d).
Description of holotype
Female, Length 4.24 mm; length of fore wing 3.39 mm.
Colour. Body black with ocelli golden yellow, radicle and pedicel, tegula, fore and mid coxae and all trochanters liver-brown, scape and flagellar segments brown-black (Figure 2a), clava apically brown-orange (Figure 2b), mandibles red-brown with teeth black (Figure 2d), pronotum, mesoscutum and axilla red-brown, extending onto anterior margin of mesoscutellum, explanate apex of mesoscutellum brown (Figure 2f, h), postscutellum medially with a red-brown oval areola; wings hyaline with veins deep brown; fore wing with line of infumation along Rs; fore and mid femora brown with apex red-brown, fore and mid tibia with base and apex red-brown, hind coxae black with ventral red streak, hind femur black, hind tibia black with faint red patch, all tarsi testaceous (Figure 3a), metasoma black with all terga red-orange on posterolateral side, all sterna black with posterior margin faintly red-brown (Figure 3d).
Setation. Pubescence on head, mesosoma and metasoma suberect, sparse, white, arising from pits; pubescence dense on legs.
Head. Head 1.1× as wide as mesosoma in dorsal view, 2.2× as long as wide, with coarse setigerous punctures and setae arising from papilla, punctures smaller near ocellar region, interstice distinctly raised, imbricate; ocelli large, OOL 2.1× POL; OOL 2.5× OD; anterior ocellus placed in a smooth depression beyond carinate scrobal margin; frons, vertex and occiput similarly sculptured (Figure 2e); in frontal view, head 1.4× as wide as long, with coarse setigerous punctures, interstices imbricate; interantennal projection subtriangular, wide and conspicuously punctate as remainder of face, its anterior end pointed reaching 0.6× of scrobal depression; antennal scrobe dumbbell shaped at antennal attachment point, cavity coarsely and transversely strigose (Figure 2c); obsolete ‘X’-shaped carina below antennal scrobe; faint preorbital carina indicated (Figure 2d); malar sulcus absent; eye glabrous, 2.2× as long as malar space, 2.0× as wide as maximum width of gena; eye almost reaching occiput posteriorly; gena with three short carinae, basal two reaching genotemporal margin; post-orbital carina faintly indicated, running to temple and not beyond (Figure 2a); radicle long, 0.3× as long as scape; scape long, curved, not reaching anterior ocellus; pedicel short, annellus short, subquadrate, 0.4× as long as pedicel; basal funiculars not much longer than wide, apical ones subquadrate with 1–2 rows of multiporous plate sensilla and adpressed setae; length: width of scape, pedicel, anellus, fl2 and fl8 (first and last funiculars) and clava = 5.03, 0.95, 0.47, 1.07, 0.91 and 2.21.
Mesosoma. Slightly convex in profile (Figure 2g), pronotum, mesonotum and scutellum bearing short, thin suberect setae; pronotum entirely punctured, posterior margin markedly convex, without any median depression (Figure 2f); lateral panel with irregular rugae, followed by transverse striae ventrally; mesonotum cristate-punctured, transverse crests slightly raised in profile (Figure 2g); notauli shallowly impressed (Figure 2f); tegula finely imbricate, bearing short patch of setae baso-ventrally; mesoscutellum slightly convex in lateral view (Figure 2g), dorsal outline straight, markedly emarginate apically, with large fovea; postscutellum shiny with longitudinal areola; propodeum declining steeply onto metasoma, with posterolateral limit forming a right angle, with large irregular areola, carinate margin, median areola prominent and followed by nucha; propodeal spiracle slitlike; lateral costula setose; epicnemial carina faintly indicated (Figure 2g); ventral shelf virtually punctate as mesopleuron; adscrobal area of mesepisternum, entire mesepimeron and metepimeron with coarse setigerous punctures, setae short and suberect as on thoracic notum, interstices imbricate; femoral scrobe of mesopleuron strigose, margins well raised (Figure 2g).
Legs. Procoxa deeply depressed on front side, depression margined posterodorsally by raised carina forming a short flange (Figure 2g); protibia with apicodorsal short spine; mesotibia without any dorsal pegs, stout spine apico-ventrally; hind leg bearing sparse, thin and suberect setae more concentrated on ventral side of coxa, outer disc of femur and dorsal side of tibia; metafemur on outer disc with piliferous setigerous points without engraved network; its ventral margin with a row of 11 regularly distributed equal teeth, basal tooth not prominent, without any inner basal tooth; all tarsi thin, bearing slender normal claws without modification (Figure 3a).
Wings. Fore wing with moderate adpressed microtrichiae, ventral line of setae along the wing margin; MV 0.3× as long as SMV, 2.8× as long as PMV; PMV 1.3× as long as STV; hind wing with three similar closely set hamuli (Figure 3b).
Metasoma. Short petiole visible dorsally, dorsal surface with medio-longitudinal depression (Figure 3c); metasoma shorter than mesosoma, sub-acuminate apically; Gt1 as long as 0.54× entire length of metasoma, 1.1× as wide as long, smooth on dorsal disc with very fine microsculpture (visible only in certain angle of light), laterally with scattered pits and raised spiracle; Gt2–Gt5 finely microsculptured, dorsally with one row of setigerous micropits, laterally with setigerous punctures on anterior margin, posteriorly very finely microsculptured (Figure 3c); Gt6 densely punctured, with 5–6 rows of setigerous punctures, interspaces matt; spiracle conspicuous, peritreme raised; syntergum very short, spiracle conspicuous, medially carinate; sterna as sculptured as terga; ovipositor sheath barely visible dorsally (Figure 3d).
Male
Unknown.
Etymology
The species name is the Latin feminine adjective rubra referring to the red pronotum and mesoscutum of the species.
description: Published as part of Binoy, C., Nasser, M. & Santhosh, S., 2022, The Western Ghats, a biodiversity hotspot: the example of Chalcididae (Hymenoptera) with the description of a new species of Phasgonophora Westwood and a review of the regional species, pp. 1627-1655 in Journal of Natural History 56 (41 - 44) on pages 1631-1635, DOI: 10.1080/00222933.2022.2134059, http://zenodo.org/record/7340886