Tropobracon shafeei Haider, sp. nov.
Creators: name: Haider, A. A.
name: Ahmad, Z.
name: Shujauddin
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2004
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Hymenoptera
Braconidae
Tropobracon
Tropobracon shafeei

description: Tropobracon shafeei Haider sp. nov.
(Figs. 7–16)
Female. Dark brown; head brown, except stemmaticum, frons and tips of mandible black; ocelli transparent; eyes grey; wings hyaline, venations brown, pterostigma dark brown; middle portion of each metasomal tergites light brown; ovipositor brown.
Head. Antenna 49 segmented; length of third antennal segment 1.8 times fourth segment; third, fourth and penultimate segments 4.5, 2.5 and 2.0 times their widths respectively; apical segment 2.5 times their width (Fig.14); length of maxillary palpi 0.9 times height of head; vertex and frons granulate; length of eye 2.3 times of temple in dorsal view (Fig. 9); temple roundly narrowed posteriorly; AOL: POL: OD: OOL = 3: 3: 3: 9; clypeus almost flat (Fig. 11) and ventral margin protruding; face smooth medio­ventrally and some what finely transversally rugulose behind antannal sockets; length of malar space 1.3 times basal width of mandible.
Mesosoma. Length of mesosoma 1.8 times its height; episternal scrobe linear and deep; mesoscutum smooth, only medio­posteriorly granulate with a short carina, medioanteriorly with a short groove; scutellar sulcus wide with a longitudinal carinae (Fig. 10); scutellum with distinct pit antero­medially; metapleuron finely puntulate with long whitish setae; propodeum without median carina with coarsely granulate.
Wings. Fore wing (Fig. 7) vein r: 3­SR: SR1 = 5: 7: 35; cu­a interstitial; 2­SR: 3­SR: r­m = 11: 7: 8; hind wing (Fig. 8) vein 1r­m straight, free from 1­SC+R and about 2.0 times longer than vein 2­SC + R; 1­SC + R about as wide as 1r­m.
Legs. Hind coxae granulate; length of femur, tibia and basitarsus of hind leg 3.33, 10.0 and 3.75 times their widths respectively; length of spurs of hind tibia 0.4 times of hind basitarsus (Fig. 13).
Metasoma. Length of first tergite 0.86 times its apical width, its surface behind united dorsal carina coarsely reticulate, its lateral areas wide and partially smooth; grooves of second tergite narrow, coarsely crenulate, not meeting each other and not reaching second metasomal suture, resulting without a distinct triangular area (Fig. 12); second and third tergites distinctly and rather finely rugose; four­six tergites granulate; length of ovipositor sheaths 0.37 times of fore wing (Fig. 16).
Length. 4.57 mm., fore wing 3.67 mm.
Male. Similar to female except: Mostly yellowish brown in colour; antennae 55 segmented, and body length 5.0 mm.
Host. Unknown.
Type material. Holotype, female, INDIA: West Bengal, Nadia, Kalyani, 20.xi.1999, A.A. Haider (ZDAMU); paratypes: 1 female, 2 males, with same data as holotype (ZDAMU).
Etymology. T. shafeei is dedicated to Late Dr. S. Adam Shafee from Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh (India) for his valuable contribution to parasitic Hymenoptera.
Distribution. India (West Bengal).
Remarks. The new species Tropobracon shafeei Haider sp.nov. is closely related to T. luteus Cameron. However, it differs from T. luteus in having (i) face smooth medio­ventrally and somewhat finely transversally rugulose behind antennal sockets (in T. luteus face granulate), (ii) scutellum medio­anteriorly with a distinct pit (in T. luteus scutellum without pit medio­anteriorly), (iii) metapleuron finely punctulate (in T. luteus metapleuron finely rugose), (iv) propodeum coarsely granulate (in T. luteus propodeum coarsely and densely reticulate­rugose, but with a narrow part smooth), (v) vein cu­a of fore wing interstitial (in T. luteus vein cu­a of fore wing antefurcal), (vi) vein 1r­m of hind wing about 2.0 times longer than vein 2­SC+R (in T. luteus vein 1r­m of hind wing about as long as vein 2­SC+R), (vii) grooves of second metasomal tergite not meeting each other and not reaching second metasomal suture, resulting without a distinct triangular area (in T. luteus grooves of second metasomal tergite reaching second metasomal suture, resulting in a large triangular area).
description: Published as part of Haider, A. A., Ahmad, Z. & Shujauddin, 2004, Taxonomic studies on Indian Tropobracon Cameron (Hymenoptera: Braconidae: Braconinae), with descriptions of two new species, pp. 1-8 in Zootaxa 663 on pages 5-7, DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.158686