Cleruchoides indicus Manickavasagam and Sankararaman 2021, sp. nov.
Creators: name: Sankararaman, H.
name: Palanivel, S.
name: Manickavasagam, S.
name: Rameshkumar, A.
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2021
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Hymenoptera
Mymaridae
Cleruchoides
Cleruchoides indicus

description: Cleruchoides indicus Manickavasagam and Sankararaman sp. nov.
(Figures 1–3)
Type material
Holotype. ♀ (EDAU, registration no. Mym/36/2021) on slide under four coverslips, labelled ‘ INDIA: Tamil Nadu, Salem, Yercaud hills (11°48ʹN 78°13ʹE), 21. September. 2016, YPT, Coll. S. Palanivel’. Paratype, 1 ♀ on slide under four coverslips, EDAU, 4 November 2017, same data as holotype except for the date.
Diagnosis. Cleruchoides indicus sp. nov. differs from the two other described species of Cleruchoides by the following combination of features: Body colour generally yellow, clava 3.5× as long as wide, fl 2 0.6× the length of fl 3 and fore wing 6.6× as long as wide.
Description. FEMALE (holotype, Figure 1). Length 490 μm. Head pale yellow, except subantennal grooves and mandible, dark brown to black. Eyes pink. Antenna with scape, pedicel and funicle yellow, clava pale brown, mesosoma (Figure 3) yellow, except pronotum and legs pale yellow (Figure 1). Wings hyaline, with brown suffusion behind venation. Metasoma (Figure 1) light brown dorsally and pale yellow laterally.
Head (Figure 2 (b)) in frontal view 1.4× as wide as long. Antenna (Figure 2 (a)) with scape 5.0× as long as wide, pedicel 1.6× as long as wide, fl 1 the shortest, 1.3× as long as wide, fl 2 0.6× as long as fl 3, fl 4 and fl 5 equal, fl 3 and fl 6 equal and longer than rest of the segments, clava 3.5× as long as wide and a little longer than combined length of fl 4–6; fl 5 and fl 6 each with 2 mps, clava with 5 mps.
Mesosoma 1.3× as long as metasoma. Pronotum 0.8× length of mesoscutum. Fore wing (Figure 2 (c)) 6.6× as long as wide, longest marginal seta 2.5× as long as maximum wing width, with one row of microtrichia at wing apex, parastigma-stigmal vein with posterior margin weakly sinuate. Hind wing (Figure 2 (d)) 12.3× as long as wide, longest marginal seta 3.3× as long as maximum wing width. Metasoma with ovipositor short, about 0.7× length of metatibia and 0.7× length of metasoma.
Measurements (holotype, as length or length:width). Body, 490 μm (dry mounted specimen prior to slide mounting), antenna: scape, 87.5:17.5; pedicel, 27.5:17.5; fl 1, 15:12; fl 2, 20:12; fl 3, 32.5:17; fl 4, 30:15; fl 5, 30:15; fl 6, 32.5:17; clava, 97.5:27.5; fore wing, 460:70; longest marginal seta, 175; hind wing, 370:30; longest marginal seta, 100; mesosoma, 200; pronotum, 20; mesoscutum, 25; metasoma, 155; metatibia, 152.5; ovipositor, 102.5.
Male. Unknown.
Distribution. India: Tamil Nadu.
Etymology. The new species is named after India, the country in which the specimens were collected.
Variation. No variation was observed in body length or colour of the paratype.
Hosts. Unknown; however, the extralimital species C. noackae from Australia, was reared from eggs of Thaumastocoridae (Hemiptera), Thaumastocoris peregrinus and Baclozygum? depressum (Lin et al. 2007). Neither of the latter species are reported anywhere from the Indian subcontinent so far, although T. peregrinus, an invasive pest of eucalyptus, has been introduced into several countries and was managed by the introduction of C. noackae. The only member of Thaumastocoridae known from India is Wechina chinai Drake and Slater, 1957. It has been observed as a sap-feeder on Syzygium cumini (H.M. Yeshwanth, personal communication). Currently, there are no reports of any egg parasitoids of this species from India. Rearing from parasitised eggs of W. chinai in India would confirm the association of C. indicus with this species.
description: Published as part of Sankararaman, H., Palanivel, S., Manickavasagam, S. & Rameshkumar, A., 2021, First report of Cleruchoides Lin & Huber (Hymenoptera: Mymaridae) from the Oriental region with description of a new species from India, pp. 1161-1167 in Journal of Natural History 55 (17 - 18) on pages 1162-1166, DOI: 10.1080/00222933.2021.1936681, http://zenodo.org/record/5466187