Spathius proximoscus Tang, Belokobylskij & Chen, 2015, sp. nov.
Creators: name: Tang, Pu
name: Belokobylskij, Sergey
name: Chen, Xue-Xin
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2015
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Hymenoptera
Braconidae
Spathius
Spathius proximoscus

description: Spathius proximoscus sp. nov.
(Fig. 31)
Description. Female. Body length 2.9 mm; fore wing length 2.3 mm.
Head. Antennae filiform, 27-segmented. Scape 1.6 × as long as its maximum width. First flagellar segment 4.6 × as long as its apical width, almost as long as second segment. Penultimate segment 3.5 × as long as wide, almost as long as subpointed apical segment. Head width (dorsal view) 1.5 × its median length, 1.3 × as wide as mesoscutum. Head behind eyes (dorsal view) evenly convex-roundly narrowed; transverse diameter of eye 1.6 × length of temple. Ocelli medium-sized, arranged in equilateral triangle; POL: Od: OOL = 1.5: 2.5: 9.0. Vertex entirely smooth; frons densely and linearly aciculate, smooth laterally and posteriorly. Eye glabrous, 1.15 × as high as broad. Malar space 0.4 × eye height and 0.85 × basal width of mandible. Temple entirely smooth. Face mainly dense, rather fine and straight transverse striate, smooth medially. Face width 1.3 × eye height and 1.3 × height of face and clypeus combined. Hypoclypeal depression medium size and round, its width 0.9 × distance from edge of depression to eye, 0.4 × width of face. Occipital carina complete dorsally, ventrally not joined with hypostomal carina upper base of mandible.
Mesosoma. Length of mesosoma 1.9 × its height. Pronotal keel distinct, its posterior branch distinct, almost fused medially with posterior margin of pronotum; anterior branch of carina distinct and situated submedially. Mesoscutum highly and roundly elevated above pronotum, its median lobe convex anteriorly and without anterolateral corners. Mesoscutum densely and distinctly granulate, without rugae along notauli and laterally, with two distinct and strongly convergent posteriorly and almost straight carinae in medioposterior third; mostly glabrous, with sparse, long and semi-erect or erect yellow setae arranged in stripe along notauli and in single line laterally. Notauli rather deep, wide, coarsely and densely crenulate, weakly shallow posteriorly. Prescutellar depression rather deep, long, with four carinae, finely coriaceous, 0.35 × as long as scutellum. Scutellum entirely densely and finely granulate-coriaceous, weakly convex, with lateral carinae. Mesopleuron reticulate-granulate and partly with striation, smooth in small anterior area. Subalar depression shallow, widely and densely striate with granulation partly. Precoxal sulcus (sternaulus) deep in anterior half and shallow in posterior half, weakly curved, sparsely crenulate and partly with fine granulation, running along entire lower part of mesopleuron. Propodeum with very short lateral tubercles, with basolateral areas distinctly delineated by carinae and densely granulate with fine striation laterally, rest part of propodeum granulate and partly rugose-striate; areola rather wide and short; basal carina present in basal 0.3, 1.4 × longer than anterior fork of areola.
Wings. Fore wing 3.4 × as long as wide. Vein r arising weakly behind middle of pterostigma. 3-SR: r: SR1: 2-SR = 17: 3: 33: 16. Second submarginal cell weakly narrowed distally, its length 3.1 × maximum width, 1.5 × length of first subdiscal cell. Vein CU1a not interstitial, arising from anterior 0.4 of posterior margin of first subdiscal cell. Hind wing vein M+CU 0.6 × as long as vein 1-M. Vein m-cu weakly antefurcal, strongly curved towards base of wing, faintly infuscate.
Legs. Hind coxa dorsally transversely striate with dense granulation, laterally densely granulate to finely granulate-reticulate, with distinct basoventral corner and fine tooth. Hind femur finely striate-reticulate in upper third and smooth on remainder part, 3.3 × as long as wide. Hind tibia apically with single spines on outer side. Dorsal surface of hind tibia with long, rather dense and almost erect setae, their length 1.0–1.5 × maximum width of tibia. Hind tarsus 0.9 × as long as hind tibia. Hind basitarsus 0.7 × as long as second-fifth segments combined.
Metasoma. Petiole (lateral view) weakly curved ventrally, dorsally distinctly arched in basal half and almost straight in apical half, distinctly thickened in basal 0.5; widened in apical fourth (dorsal view), with very small spiracular tubercles in widened basal third. Length of petiole 2.2 × its apical width, 1.4 × length of propodeum. Second tergite without separate laterotergites. Median length of second and third tergites combined 1.2 × basal width of second tergite, 0.7 × as long as their maximum width. Second suture absent. Petiole distinctly and rather densely longitudinally striate, with additional dense and distinct reticulation. Remaining tergites entirely smooth. Ovipositor straight. Ovipositor sheath 1.7 × as long as petiole, 0.6 × as long as metasoma, 0.9 × as long as mesosoma, 0.4 × as long as fore wing.
Colour. Head yellow. Mesosoma and metasoma light reddish brown, propodeum and petiole reddish brown. Antennae yellow to brownish yellow in basal half, brown to dark brown apical half, without pale subapical segments. Palpi whitish yellow. Legs yellow to brownish yellow, hind tibia whitish subbasally. Ovipositor sheath pale brown in basal half and brown in apical half. Fore wing faintly and almost evenly infuscate. Pterostigma brown, pale yellow in basal quarter.
Male. Unknown.
Material examined. Holotype. female, China, Zhejiang Prov., Deqing Fatou, 27.V.1995, He Junhua, No. 959008 (ZJUH).
Comparative diagnosis. This new species belongs to the S. fasciatus Walker species group. Spathius proximoscus sp. nov. is very similar to S. moscus Nixon, but differs in having the head more transverse (less transverse in S. moscus), scutellum entirely and densely but not strongly granulate-coriaceous (mainly smooth in S. moscus), mesopleuron almost entirely striate-reticulate (smooth in S. moscus), ovipositor sheath distinctly shorter than metasoma(weakly longer in S. moscus), and vein 1m-cu separated from vein 2RS on 0.3 (on 0.7 in S. moscus). This new species also similar to S. leschii Belokobylskij, but differs from it in having the subapical segments of antenna dark (distinctly pale in S. leschii), mesopleuron entirely striate-rugulose (mainly smooth in S. leschii), first flagellar segment almost as long as second segment (distinctly longer in S. leschii), mesoscutum with long and almost erect setae (with shorter and semi-erect setae in S. leschii), body mainly yellow to light reddish brown (mainly reddish brown to black in S. leschii), and fore wing faintly infuscate (distinctly infuscate in S. leschii). S. proximoscus sp. nov. differs from S. nanpingensis Chao by completely smooth vertex (finely sculptured in S. nanpingensis), antennae 27-segmented (21-segmented in S. nanpingensis), setae on dorsal margin of hind tibia very long (short in S. nanpingensis), and mesopleuron mainly sculptured (mainly smooth in S. nanpingensis).
Etymology. From “proxime” (Latin for “similar”) and species name “moscus ”, because new species is similar to S. moscus.
Distribution. China (Zhejiang).
description: Published as part of Tang, Pu, Belokobylskij, Sergey & Chen, Xue-Xin, 2015, Spathius Nees, 1818 (Hymenoptera: Braconidae, Doryctinae) from China with a key to species, pp. 1-132 in Zootaxa 3960 (1) on pages 87-88, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.3960.1.1, http://zenodo.org/record/14951550