Leluthia (Euhecabolodes) ruguloscolyti
Creators: name: Saleh, Alaa T.
name: Gadallah, Neveen S.
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2024
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Hymenoptera
Braconidae
Leluthia
Leluthia ruguloscolyti

description: Leluthia (Euhecabolodes) aff. ruguloscolyti (Fischer, 1962)
(Figures 8A–D, 9 A–E, 10A, B)
Hecabalodes ruguloscolyti Fischer, 1962, p. 292, ♀, ♂.
Material examined. 5♂.
Diagnosis. Male: body length: 2.2–3.4 mm.
Body red brown, darkened in some parts of mesosoma and mestasoma (Figures 9A, B, 10A, B); legs pale brown to yellow (Figure 9C, D); antenna dark brown, somewhat lighter in pedicel and base of F1 (Figure 8D); palpi pale yellow; mandible black (Figure 8B); vertex medially and stemmaticum dark brown (Figure 8B, C). Forewing slightly darkened, with pterostigma and most of its veins dark brown, some, such as veins 1-SR+M, 1-A are pale brown (Figure 9E); hindwing with stigma-like enlargement very dark brown (Figure 9F).
Head 1.35× as wide as long; transversely wrinkled anteriorly and posteriorly (Figure 8B, C); antenna 26-segmented, 0.9× as long as body; F1 6.75× as long as apical width, 1.42× as long as F2; penultimate flagellomere 4.0× as long as apical width, last flagellomere with short spine apically (Figure 8D); malar space subequal to basal width of mandible (Figure 8B); mesoscutum coarsely longitudinally rugose, more or less smooth laterally (Figure 9A); scuto-scutellar sulcus distinctly broad, with a number of longitudinal ridges (Figure 9A); propodeum densely, irregularly rugose (Figure 9A); mesosomal sternites smooth and shiny (Figure 9B); mesopleuron transversely rugate dorsally, smooth and shiny medially and after the deep transverse sulcus that extends along its whole length ventrally (Figure 9B). Forewing (Figure 9E) without r-m vein, cu-a slightly but distinctly postfurcal; vein SR1 nearly straight, ending some distance before wing apex; pterostigma 3.4× as long as wide, about as long as or slightly longer than 1- R1; vein r about 0.2× as long as 3-SR+ SR1; 1-SR well-developed. Hindwing (Figure 9F) with prolonged stigma-like enlargement of ‘ Hecabolus ’ type (see Belokobylskij et al. 2023, p. 69, fig. 3B, C), 5.0× as long as wide, with a longitudinal fold medially along its whole length. Legs, with fore and mid tibia with longitudinal row of spines dorsally (Figure 9C, D); hind basitarsus 0.32× as long as hind tibia (Figure 9D). Metasomal T1 1.46× as long as its apical width, with two distinct keels at base that are convergent backwards, wholly longitudinally rugose, granulate between rugosity (Figure 10); T2 slightly shorter than its apical width, with median transverse furrow at end of basal third, that is slightly rounded medially, then obtusely directed downward laterally, with regular longitudinal rugae extending to near its apex, punctate in between; T3 faintly longitudinally rugate except its apical area (Figure 10A); T4 punctate, following tergites smooth (Figure 10A).
Distribution. Iran, Tajikistan, Turkey, Turkemenistan (Ghahari et al. 2022), Syria (new record).
Host records. Phoeosinus bicolour (Brullé) (Curculionidae) (Aubert 1966), and Scolytus rugulosus (Müller) (Curculionidae) on Prunus mahaleb L. (Rosaceae) (Fischer 1962); Amphicerus bimaculatus L. (Bostrichidae) on Punica granatum (present study).
Comments. This is a first record of the genus Leluthia for the Syrian fauna. It belongs to the subgenus Euhecabolodes by virtue of having the mesoscutum distinctly arched or highly elevated above the pronotum when seen in lateral view (based on Belokobylskij and Maetô 2006). Characters of the only male specimen agree with Tobias et al.’s key (1995, p. 57, couplet 5) in having the radial cell not reduced terminating near wing apex (Figure 9E), and it resembles Leluthia transcaucasica (as Doryctosoma transcaucasicum) in having vein r of forewing 2/3 (0.66×) as long as radiomedial vein (Figure 9E); palpi pale brownish. However, based on Belokobylskij and Maetô’s key (2006, p. 307, couplet 4), it was found that L. transcaucasica have recurrent vein (cu-a) antefurcal, which is not the case for the Syrian specimen, in which cu-a is distinctly postfurcal, resembling L. postfurcalis Belokobylskij and Maetô, 2006, but it differs from L. postfurcalis in having mesopleuron behind sternaulus smooth and shiny (striated behing sternaulus in L. postfurcalis). Going back to Tobias et al.’s key (1995), the wing of the Syrian specimen greatly resembles that of L. ruguloscolyti (= Doryctosoma ruguloscolyti) (Tobias et al. 1995, fig. 14(4)), which agrees with their key (couplet 8) in which the radial cell reduced a character that opposes their fig. 14(4), in addition vein r of forewing about 2/3 (0.66×) as long as vein 3-SR (= radio-medial vein), and body dark reddish brown. It differs from L. ruguloscolyti in having vein r 1/6 as long as rest of the radial sector (1/4-1/ 5 in L. ruguloscolyti). Because this is a male specimen, we treat it here as L. (E.) nr. ruguloscolyti until the female has been collected.
description: Published as part of Saleh, Alaa T. & Gadallah, Neveen S., 2024, Parasitoid wasps (Hymenoptera: Braconidae: Doryctinae) reared from grape cane borer beetle Amphicerus bimaculatus (Olivier) (Bostrichidae) inhabiting pomegranate trees Punica granatum L. (Lythraceae) in Syria, new records and new tritrophic associations, pp. 449-470 in Journal of Natural History 58 (13 - 16) on pages 459-463, DOI: 10.1080/00222933.2024.2314967, http://zenodo.org/record/11059669