Ascogaster rubriscapa Kittel & Austin 2015, sp. nov.
Creators: name: Kittel, Rebecca N.
name: Austin, Andrew D.
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2015
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Hymenoptera
Braconidae
Ascogaster
Ascogaster rubriscapa

description: Ascogaster rubriscapa sp. nov.
(Figures 7a – e, 15)
Description (female)
Body measurements. Length of body 4.4 mm; ratio of antenna to body 0.5; ratio of length of fore wing to body 0.7; ratio of length of metasoma to mesosoma 1.4.
Head. Antenna with 19 antennomeres; ratio of length of third antennomere to fourth 1.2; ratio of length of third, fourth, penultimate and terminal antennomere 5.8, 4.8, 1.7 and 2.3 times their width, respectively; ratio of length of eye in dorsal view to length of temple 5.8; ocelli isosceles; imaginary line between anterior margins of posterior ocelli is not touching the anterior ocellus; ratio of width of face in anterior view to its height 2.4; ratio of width of clypeus to its height 2.0; clypeus without teeth; ratio of length malar space to base of mandible 2.8; face punctate; frons rugose; eyes glabrous; ratio posterior ocelli:LOL:POL:OOL 1.0:3.0:1.5:3.0.
Mesosoma. Middle lobe of mesoscutum punctate; notauli present; mesoscutellum shiny, fine punctate, weakly convex; mesopleuron shiny, punctate; precoxal sulcus present; ratio of height of mesosoma to its length 1.5; hind coxa shiny, fine punctate; ratio of length of hind tibia to hind tarsus 1.0; ratio hind coxa, hind femur, hind tibia and hind tarsus 1.7, 5.6, 4.7 and 11.0 times their width, respectively; ratio of length of posterior spur to length of basal tarsus 0.5; fore wing: 2-R1 absent; ratio of length of 1-R1 to length of pterostigma 1.0; ratio of width of pterostigma to its length 2.8; ratio r:3-SR:SR-1:r-m 1.0:0.7:4.2:0.8; SR-1 completely sclerotised; 1-SR+M emanating from 1+M; 2-SR+M antefurcal.
Metasoma. Shape of metasoma long oval in dorsal view; ratio of width of metasoma to its length 0.48; carapace broadens strongly to posterior end in lateral view; ratio keel to metasoma length 0.11; carapace rugose.
Colour. Black; except legs, pedicel, tegula and wing venation brown.
Diagnosis
Superficially similar to A. prolixogaster, but A. rubriscapa lacks the elongated tip of the carapace. Overall, it can be distinguished from all other Australian Ascogaster species by the combination of its colour and size, the shape of the carapace and the number of antennomeres. In addition, A. rubriscapa is one of only five species, along with A. ferruginegaster, A. prolixogaster and two undescribed species (Ascogaster sp. 25 and Ascogaster sp. 28), that has a 3-bp indel in its CO1 sequence at position 271 – 273.
Specimens examined
Holotype, Australia (South Australia): 1 ♀, “ 25 – 28 October 2010, Bon Bon Station 30° 37.56'S, 135°24.18'E, S. Mantel, F. Colombo, R. Kittel & G. Taylor, MT amongst Senna artemisioides, Acacia tetragonophila, Acacia aneura, and Acacia victoriae; Bush Blitz survey 367 Malaise 9 ” (SAM).
Male. Unknown.
Biology
Unknown.
Etymology
The name refers to the red scape of the specimen.
Distribution
South Australia (Bon Bon Station; Figure 15).
CO1 sequence
Genbank accession number for this species is KJ438533.
description: Published as part of Kittel, Rebecca N. & Austin, Andrew D., 2015, New species of Australian arid zone chelonine wasps from the genera Phanerotoma and Ascogaster (Hymenoptera: Braconidae) informed by the ' Bush Blitz' surveys of national reserves, pp. 211-262 in Journal of Natural History 50 on pages 229-230, DOI: 10.1080/00222933.2015.1074747, http://zenodo.org/record/3983279