Synopeas watsoni Buhl 2014, sp. n.
Creators: name: Buhl, Peter Neerup
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2014
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Hymenoptera
Platygastridae
Synopeas
Synopeas watsoni

description: Synopeas watsoni sp. n.
Figs 85–88
Etymology: Named in honour of the eminent South African biologist Lyall Watson (1939–2008).
Diagnosis:A small species, with head uniformly isodiametrically reticulate-coriaceous; female A4–A5 of equal length; A9 fully 1.5× as wide as long; notauli absent; scutellum in lateral view slightly below level of mesoscutum and only slightly pointed behind; fore wing 2.5–2.7× as long as wide; female metasoma shorter than mesosoma, 1.5× as long as wide and 1.4× as wide as high.
Description:
Female.
Body length 0.7–0.8 mm. Black, A1–A6 and legs light brownish, coxae, last segment of tarsi and sometimes apical 0.4 of hind tibiae slightly darker; A7–A10, mandibles and tegulae dark brown. Head from above (Fig. 85) 1.8–1.9× as wide as long, 1.15× as wide as mesosoma, dull, distinctly and uniformly reticulate-coriaceous (not transversely so); hyperoccipital carina distinct and complete. OOL equal to diameter of lateral ocellus; LOL= 3 OOL. Head in frontal view 1.15× as wide as high. Antenna (Fig. 86) with A1 0.75× as long as height of head, 1.0–1.1× as long as distance between inner orbits; A9 about 1.55× as wide as long. Mesosoma 1.5× as long as wide, 1.15× as high as wide. Sides of pronotum reticulate-coriaceous, smooth in lower half and along wide hind margin. Mesoscutum evenly and moderately densely setose, finely and uniformly reticulatecoriaceous, without notauli; hind margin medially slightly pointed to base of scutellum, at each side with 5–6 long setae over scuto-scutellar grooves. Mesopleuron smooth. Scutellum (Fig. 87) sculptured much as mesoscutum but more densely setose, slightly pointed behind but without a distinct tooth, dark brown here as are propodeal carinae, these being high and fused. Metapleuron with whitish pilosity all over (sparse in anterior 0.4). Fore wing clear, 2.5–2.7× as long as wide, 0.9× as long as entire body, surpassing tip of metasoma by a distance equal to length of T2, with fine and dense microtrichia; marginal cilia absent. Hind wing 6.8× as long as wide; marginal cilia slightly less than half the width of wing. Metasoma (Fig. 88) hardly 0.9× as long as mesosoma, and 0.9× as wide, 1.4× as wide as high. T2 with a weak, medial longitudinal depression between the two tufts of pubescence, otherwise smooth. T3–T6 with reticulate microsculpture and a few inconspicuous setae inserted in shallow punctures (eight on each of T5–T6, fewer on T3–T4).
Male.
Body length 0.65 mm.Antenna with A4 inconspicuously widened towards apex; A7–A10 forming a clava, A8–A9 each about 1.2× as wide as long; flagellar pubescence only slightly more conspicuous than in female. Metasoma 0.8–0.9× as long as mesosoma.
Comparison: This species does not fit well into Buhl’s (2011 b) key. It is most similar to S. fibigeri Buhl, 2011, but S. fibigeri has meshes on occiput slightly transverse and more distinct than on rest of head, which in frontal view is 1.25× as wide as high. Moreover, S. fibigeri has slightly longer OOL and slightly more elongate flagellar segments than S. watsoni, more extensive sculptured sides of pronotum, notauli evident posteriorly, scutellum at level of mesoscutum and having a stronger tooth, propodeal carinae slightly separated, fore wing only 2.35× as long as wide, longer than body, pubescence at base of metasoma hardly 0.25× as long as T1–T2 combined (in S. watsoni fully one-third of the length of T1–T2 combined), and it is lighter in colour than S. watsoni. Cf. also Buhl (2011 a).
Holotype: ♀ TOGO: Région des Plateaux, main road between Agbanon and Agoté, at creek Tomezuitoe (07°15'53"N 00°47'51"E), 15.iv. 2008, 360 m, creek bank at teak forest (Tectona grandis), shady cocoa plantation, swept, M. von Tschirnhaus.
Paratypes: 1♀ 2♂ Région des Plateaux, Plateau de Danyi, near Atigba (07°09'52"N 00°41'33"E), 14.iv. 2008, 775 m, remains of secondary rainforest, underwood, forest plantation, road side with much Sida acuta Burm. F., swept, M. von Tschirnhaus.
description: Published as part of Buhl, Peter Neerup, 2014, New species and new records of Platygastrinae and Sceliotrachelinae from Togo (Hymenoptera: Platygastridae), pp. 68 in African Invertebrates 55 (1) on pages 113-115, DOI: 10.5733/afin.055.0106, http://zenodo.org/record/7649696