Tanaostigma ukumbusho van Noort 2020, sp. nov
Creators: name: Noort, Simon van
name: Copeland, Robert S.
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2020
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Hymenoptera
Tanaostigmatidae
Tanaostigma
Tanaostigma ukumbusho

description: Tanaostigma ukumbusho van Noort sp. nov
(Figures 5(a – f), 6(a – f))
Holotype ♀ (deposited in NMKE), point mounted: KENYA, Coast Prov., Boni Forest, 29 m ASL, 1.84752°S 40.69307°E, 6 m Malaise trap in open canopy Forest, 6 – 18 June 2013, J. Bukhebi & R. Copeland, ICIPE 10462, Tanaostigma, imaged WaspWeb, LAS 4.9, SAMC 2019.
Description of female
Size and colour. Length 3.6 mm. Head and body black with extensive areas of the head, mesosoma, and metasoma covered with white squamiferous setae, absent on mesopleura, medial portion of mesoscutum, anterior half of scutellum, medial dorsal and anterior ventral areas of metasoma. Scape and pedicel orange-brown, anelli and first funicle segment dark brown, grading into black for rest of flagellar segments except for last club segment, which is orange-yellow. Hind tibiae yellow-orange, except for proximal dorsal patch which is dark brown. All tarsi yellow-orange, as are distal quarter of pro and meso-tibiae, and apex of hind femora. Finer white setae present on legs.
Head (Figure 5(e)) 1.44 times wider than high. Lateral ocellus closer to eye margin than to median ocellus (OOL:LOL: 0.42), situated directly adjacent to sharp occipital carinal crest, which curves inwards towards median ocellus. Scrobal impression shallow, glabrate. Interantennal projection small. Genal sulcus complete. Head elongate reticulate on face grading to imbricate on frons, with evenly dispersed white squamiferous setae present on face and frons, grading into more normal white setae on vertex, setae largely absent on posterior head including genae posterior of genal sulcus. Mandible tri-dentate (Figures 5(e) and 6(a)). Antenna (Figure 6(b,c)) with scape 3.85 times longer than wide, with flattened ventral expansion present on distal half. Pedicel 1.4 times longer than wide. Two anelli, first about half as long as, and slightly narrower than second. First funicular segment longer than wide, F2-F3 as wide as long, remaining segments wider than long, not laterally compressed. Club 1.4 times longer than wide, proximally almost as broad as preceding funicle segment, gradually narrowing to tip.
Mesosoma dorsally minutely reticulate, punctiferous where setae present, covered with white squamiferous setae, except for medial mesoscutum anterior of notauli, and lateral areas of axillae. Notauli incomplete, absent posteriorly. Scutellum (Figures 5(d) and 6(d,e)) without lateral glabrate area, devoid of white setae in anterior third, but with fine, brown setae. Propodeum (Figure 6(d)) laterally glabrate, medially reticulate with short medial carina anteriorly situated; metanotal trough with a single large metanotal fovea laterad of small central fovea, with narrow elongate fovea anteriorly situated, with three pit-like fovea present medially of central metanotal fovea. Mesopleuron (Figure 5(c)) dorsally reticulate, ventrally elongate reticulate, medially finely reticulate, without setae. Sternopleural suture fused with mesopleural suture. Metapleuron covered with a dense cluster of long white setae (Figure 5(c)), which extend to the proximal dorsal surface of the hind coxa. Leg segments laterally flattened; all tibiae with sharp dorsal margin. Hind femora with a distal ventral angulate extension, curving inwards to end of femur; hind tibiae with a proximal dorsal carina. Wings hyaline; fore wing (Figure 5(f)) with narrow transverse band of black, densely distributed, modified setae; fore wing 2.5 times as long as wide. Venation light yellowish-brown. Stigmal vein strong, distinctly curved, longer than post-marginal vein. Fore wing marginal fringe present apically, extending ventrally to anal angle. Costal cell: marginal vein: stigmal vein: postmarginal vein = 15:9:4:3.
Metasoma (fig.) elongate reticulate; T1 with transverse rows of scattered setae, absent medially, T3-T5 without setae for most of the dorsal medial surface; T6 with three interspersed rows of setae, only absent on midline. Posterior margin of T2 with shallow medial invagination; medial line present; posterior margin of T3-T7 straight, without medial incision or medial line. Ovipositor short. Each pygostyle with four setae, two extremely elongate, half as long as metasoma, the remaining pair half this length.
Male. Unknown.
Diagnosis. Tanaostigma ukumbusho is distinguished from other Tanaostigma by having a transverse band of strongly modified, dense, black setae on the fore wing, extending from the marginal vein to the anal angle (Figure 5(f)), similar to T. mulu, which, however, has a much weaker transverse band, a shorter stigmal vein and less elongate fore wing (compare Figure 3(f)). Tanaostigma ukumbusho has a stigmal vein almost 1.4X longer than the post-marginal vein and a fore wing 2.5X longer than wide (Figure 5(f)). Presence of modified setae is shared with the Neotropical species T. stanleyi, which however has a patterned appearance. Notauli incomplete, absent posteriorly, a character state shared with T. mulu, all other species have complete notauli. The stigmal vein is strongly curved (Figure 5(f)). The scutellum lacks the lateral glabrate area (Figure 6(d)); and posterior margin of T2-T4 without medial incision (Figure 2(f)). All three of these character states are shared with the other two African species and the Neotropical T. stanleyi, which in contrast to the black African species, is strikingly coloured with pink, orange and white areas on the pleural regions and face. The Oriental species, T. indica also has a curved stigmal vein, but this species has glabrate areas on the scutellum and medial incisions on the posterior tergite as in the Neotropical species. The remaining species of Tanaostigma have a straight stigmal vein, glabrate areas on the scutellum and medial incisions on the metasomal tergites.
Affinities. See under T. mulu.
Etymology. The species epithet ‘ukumbusho’ is Kiswahili (a widely spoken East African language) for ‘ memorial ’, and is chosen to honour the memory of John LaSalle. Noun in apposition.
Distribution. Kenya. Only known from Coast Province. Biology. Unknown.
Habitat. Open canopy forest.
description: Published as part of Noort, Simon van & Copeland, Robert S., 2020, First record of the genus Tanaostigma (Hymenopteraı Chalcidoideaı Tanaostigmatidae) from the Afrotropical region with description of three new species, pp. 703-722 in Journal of Natural History 54 (9) on pages 716-719, DOI: 10.1080/00222933.2020.1746426, http://zenodo.org/record/4290471