Coccygidium transcaspicum
Creators: name: Gupta, Ankita
name: Soujanya, P. Lakshmi
name: Achterberg, Cornelis Van
name: Sekhar, J. C.
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2020
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Hymenoptera
Braconidae
Coccygidium
Coccygidium transcaspicum

description: Coccygidium transcaspicum (Kokujev, 1902) (Figs 1 & 2)   
 Phanerotoma transcaspica Kokujev, 1902   
 Zelemorpha transcaspica (Kokujev, 1902); = Z. opaca (Shestakov, 1928): van Achterberg & Maetô 1990.   
 Material examined: 3 ♀, 3 ♂, INDIA: Telangana: Hyderabad, 18.ix.2019, 17.325429”N 78.397010”E, ex larva of Spodop- tera frugiperda (J. E. Smith), coll. P. Lakshmi Soujanya, specimen code: ICAR / NBAIR /Brac/Microg/Coccy/18919.   
Female. Body length 8.6 mm, fore wing length 7.3 mm.  
Colour. Body yellowish brown; antenna dark brown, scape yellowish brown, darker on the margins and dorsally; hind leg largely brown, darker than fore and mid leg; hind femur entirely yellowish brown; apex of hind tibia rather brown but not well differentiated from remainder of tibia.  
Head. Frons punctate, smooth medially. Vertex smooth and shiny with very shallow punctations, stemmaticum me- dially brownish. Mandible with inner tooth minute, much shorter that outer tooth. OOL 0.8–0.9 × diameter of posterior ocellus and POL 1.0–1.3 × diameter of posterior ocellus; vein 1-M of fore wing gradually bent; height of eye 3.9–6.7 × as long as malar space in lateral view; malar space 0.9–1.1 × basal width of the mandible; basal cell near vein 1-M of fore wing sparsely setose; widened submedially and ca. 4.0 × as long as maximum width.  
Mesosoma. mesoscutum punctate and shiny, notauli coarsely crenulate. Hind femur ca. 3.4 × longer than its maxi- mum width; hind tibia comparatively robust and distinctly widened apically, l.1 × longer than hind femur. Fore and mid tibial spur 1.1 × longer than respective basitarsus. Hind basitarsus 1.4 × longer than inner tibial spur. Propodeum with median areola divided into three parts by two transverse tergites.  
Metasoma. Oval, tergites smooth and shiny. First tergite widening apically. Second tergite as long as wide or slightly longer. Ovipositor protruding, exerted part 1.4 mm.  
Male. Similar to female except for few variations. Body length 7.3 mm in habitus (lateral view), length of fore wing 5.9 mm. OOL 1.2 × diameter of posterior ocellus and POL 1.4 × diameter of posterior ocellus. Hind femur 3.5 × longer than its maximum width, hind tibia l.2 × longer than hind femur. Hind basitarsus 1.4 × longer than inner tibial spur.  
 Comments: Coccygidium transcaspicum can be easily confused with C. melleum (Roman, 1910); the latter is known from the Afrotropical region (incl. Yemen), UAE, and possibly Israel. Coccygidium melleum differs in the following char- acters of C. transcaspicum: malar space ca. 0.8 × basal width of mandible; POL of ♀ 0.4–0.8 × (OOL of ♀ 0.4–0.7 times) diameter of posterior ocellus (of ♂ about 0.9 ×); hind femur parallel-sided and ca. 4.6× as long as maximum width.
description: Published as part of Gupta, Ankita, Soujanya, P. Lakshmi, Achterberg, Cornelis Van & Sekhar, J. C., 2020, Coccygidium transcaspicum (Kokujev) (Hymenoptera: Braconidae) parasitizing larvae of invasive pest Spodoptera frugiperda (J. E. Smith) (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae) in India, pp. 293-297 in Zootaxa 4750 (2) on page 296, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4750.2.13, http://zenodo.org/record/3707321