Prococcobius platycephala Kresslein & Polaszek & Burks & Mottern & Lahey & Heraty 2025, sp. n.
Creators: name: Kresslein, Robert L.
name: Polaszek, Andrew
name: Burks, Roger A.
name: Mottern, Jason L.
name: Lahey, Zachary
name: Heraty, John M.
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2025
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Hymenoptera
Aphelinidae
Prococcobius
Prococcobius platycephala

description: Prococcobius platycephala Kresslein sp. n.
(Figures 10, 11)
urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act: EC8EF530-4437-4F8B-B2F1-9CCE3FDEAEF9
Diagnosis
Head prognathous with vertical medial sulcus (vms); vertex transverse; ocelli absent (Figures 10B, 11A); occipital carina interrupted by occipital foramen (Figure 11A). Mesosoma with pronotum (no1) divided by longitudinal suture (Figure 11C). Fore wing greatly reduced with only trace wing venation (Figure 11D). Gaster with two sets of internal gastral projections (stp) originating from the second and third gastral sternites (Figure 11F). Ovipositor longer than the length of the gaster (Figure 11E,F).
Description
Female. Colour. Antenna cream except Fu1 and base of clava grey-brown. Head cream except gena dark grey-brown; eye silver. Mesosoma cream except posterolateral corners of mesoscutum dark grey-brown. Fore wing lightly infuscate. Legs cream except hind coxa, trochanter, and femur dark grey-brown. Metasoma dark grey-brown. Third valvula dark. Antenna with seven segments, formula 1,1,3,2, inserted at clypeal margin; scape slightly laterally flattened, 2.8× as long as wide; pedicel 1.6× as long as Fu1; Fu1 1.2× as long as wide, subequal in length to Fu2 and Fu3; clava with truncated apex; flagellar segments with the following number of multiporous plate sensilla: Fu1: 2, Fu2: 2, Fu3: 2, Fu4: 3, clv: 7 (Figures 10A, 11A, B). Head prognathous with ∩ shaped sulcus (ffs) around scrobal depression and vertical medial sulcus (vms) across frontovertex; face sparsely setose, lacking sculpture; gena more densely setose; vertex (vtx) transverse; ocelli absent; occipital carina (occ) interrupted by occipital foramen (ocf) (Figure 11A); mandibles with 2 teeth and a truncation, mandibular rods globular basally. Mesosoma, 0.4× as long and 0.5× as wide as metasoma (Figures 10B, 11A); pronotum (no1) 1.5× as long as mesoscutum, divided medially by narrow suture (Figure 11C); mesoscutum (msc) 0.3× as long as wide with alutaceous sculpture, midlobe with 10 setae, side lobes narrow, each with 1 seta (Figure 11C); axilla (ax) not advanced beyond the transscutellar suture, each with a single seta (Figure 11C); mesoscutellum (mss) transverse with 2 pairs of setae, scutellar sensilla absent (Figure 10D); acropleuron (acr) undivided, strongly convex (Figure 11E), metanotum (no3) divided medially (Figure 11C). Fore wing greatly reduced and ovoid; wing disc asetose; costal cell with 3 basal setae; submarginal vein extending length of wing, with 5 setae; marginal vein strongly reduced with single sensillum apically; stigmal vein absent; marginal fringe absent (Figure 11D). Hindwing apparently absent. Tarsal formula 5-5-5. Hind leg with coxa, trochanter and femur strongly enlarged (Figure 11E). Gaster with 8 segments, each with a transverse line of short setae, posterolateral margin of each with distinctive crenulae (gtc); 2 pairs of internal projections (stp) present within gaster originating from second and third gastral sternites; Gt1–5, 7 with medial invagination (gti); cerci (cer) advanced anteriorly to posterior margin of Gt5 (Figures 10C, 11E). Ovipositor originating at base of gaster, 3.8× length of mid tibia, extruded just past gastral apex; third valvulae (3vl) 0.3× as long as ovipositor (Figure 11F).
Male. Unknown.
Material examined
Holotype: SOUTH AFRICA: KwaZulu-Natal: Eshowe, 21–23.iii.2005, Kolyada, V., garden, YPT [1♀, UCRC: UCRCENT498410]; deposited at UCRC. Notes. Collection label states that the type was collected in ‘garden’, but a specific habitat is not explicitly mentioned.
Etymology
From the Greek ‘platys’ meaning flat and ‘cephale’ meaning head.
Comments
Prococcobius platycephala is distinguished from Prococcobius polaszeki Hayat, 2015 by the colour of the head and mesosoma, the medial division of the pronotum (Figures 10A, 11C), and the number of setae in the fore wing costal cell (Figure 11D). Prococcobius platycephala can also apparently be distinguished by the absence of ocelli on the vertex (Figure 10B), though while the description of Prococcobius polaszeki includes the presence of an anterior ocellus (Hayat 2015) it cannot be seen in the provided figures and may be absent (Hayat 2015, fig. 1). The holotype of Prococcobius platycephala does not possess hindwings. Hayat (2015) describes Prococcobius polaszeki as having a membranous hindwing, though this cannot be seen in the published photographs. While we cannot completely exclude the possibility the hindwings were lost prior to mounting and examination, we have excluded this character from the generic diagnosis.
description: Published as part of Kresslein, Robert L., Polaszek, Andrew, Burks, Roger A., Mottern, Jason L., Lahey, Zachary & Heraty, John M., 2025, Nomenclatural spring cleaning: tidying Aphelinidae of taxa that do not spark joy, and a new species of Prococcobius Hayat (Aphelinidae: Coccophaginae), pp. 609-653 in Journal of Natural History 59 (9 - 12) on pages 634-637, DOI: 10.1080/00222933.2024.2436124, http://zenodo.org/record/14970885