Platyspathius (Platyspathius) venezuelicus Belokobylskij & Zaldívar-Riverón 2021, sp. nov.
Creators: name: Belokobylskij, Sergey A.
name: Zaldívar-Riverón, Alejandro
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2021
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Hymenoptera
Braconidae
Platyspathius
Platyspathius venezuelicus

description: Platyspathius (Platyspathius) venezuelicus sp. nov.
urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act: 9151CADC-510B-4010-B0E4-96F878ED791E
Figs 30–31
Etymology
Named after Venezuela, the country where the type material was collected.
Material examined
Holotype
VENEZUELA • ♀; “ Venezuela, Estado de Lara, San Javier, 23.V.2006, CNIN 1192”; IB-UNAM.
Paratypes
VENEZUELA • 1 ♀; same collection data as for holotype, but “CNIN 1627”; ZISP • 1 ♀; same collection data as for holotype, but “CNIN 1628”; IB-UNAM • 1 ♀ (metasoma missing); “ Venezuela, Estado de Lara, San Javier, Taracuya, 2006”; IB-UNAM.
Description
Female
MEASUREMENTS. Body length 2.5–3.9 mm; fore wing length 1.6–2.3 mm.
HEAD. width (dorsal view) 1.3–1.5 times median length, 1.2–1.3 times maximum width of mesoscutum. Head behind eyes (dorsal view) evenly and weakly roundly narrowed; transverse diameter of eye 1.2–1.4 times as long as temple. Ocelli small, arranged in triangle with base 1.2–1.3 times its sides. POL 1.5–1.7 times OD, 0.4–0.5 times OOL. Eye glabrous, 1.15–1.25 times as high as broad. Malar space 0.55–0.70 times height of eye, 1.1–1.3 times basal width of mandible. Face width 1.15–1.25 times height of eye and 1.2–1.3 times height of face and clypeus combined. Clypeal suture distinct, but shallow, with additional weak carina. Hypoclypeal depression rather small and round, its width 0.5 times distance from edge of depression to eye, 0.30–0.35 times width of face. Occipital carina complete dorsally, ventrally not joined with hypostomal carina being obliterated before base of mandible. Postgenal bridge rather wide. Head below eyes (front view) distinctly and weakly-roundly narrowed. Antennae slender, filiform, densely and shortly setose, more than 22-segmented (apical segments missing). Scapus 1.6–1.8 times as long as its maximum width. First flagellar segment 5.5–5.8 times as long as apical width, almost as long as or weakly longer than second segment. Subapical segments 2.8–3.0 times as long as their width.
MESOSOMA. Length of mesosoma 2.0–2.1 times its height. Pronotal keel present, distinct, situated near middle of dorsal side of pronotum. Pronotal lateral oblique depressions narrow, rather shallow, densely coriaceous, anteriorly with fine crenulation, posteriorly with short longitudinal striae. Mesoscutum (lateral view) distinctly, uniformly and roundly elevated above pronotum. Notauli narrow, distinct in anterior 0.5–0.7 and shallow to very shallow in posterior 0.3–0.5, usually complete, anteriorly crenulate-coriaceous, only finely coriaceous posteriorly. Prescutellar depression short and curved, with four fine or distinct lateral and distinct median carinae, coriaceous between carinae, 0.25–0.30 times as long as weakly convex scutellum. Scutellum 0.9 times as long as its maximum apical width. Subalar depression shallow, rather wide, entirely coriaceous, without rugosity. Sternaulus (precoxal furrow) very shallow, straight, finely coriaceous and without crenulation, running along anterior 0.6 of lower part of mesopleuron. Metanotal tooth absent. Metapleural antero-lower lobe wide, short, subpointed apically.
WINGS. Fore wing 3.8–4.0 times as long as its maximum width. Radial vein (r) arising weakly before middle of pterostigma, from its 0.45. Radial (marginal) cell not shortened. Metacarpus (1-R1) 1.1–1.2 times as long as pterostigma. Second radial abscissa (3-SR) 3.3–3.8 times as long as first abscissa (r) and forming with it weakly obtuse angle, 0.70–0.75 times as long as third abscissa (SR1), 1.4– 1.6 times as long as first radiomedial vein (2-SR). First medial abscissa (1-SR+M) sinuate. Second radiomedial (submarginal) cell not widened distally, its length 3.0–3.4 times maximum width, 1.35– 1.45 times length of the narrow brachial (subdiscal) cell. Nervulus (cu-a) weakly declivous. Distance from nervulus (cu-a) to basal (1-M) vein about 0.2 times nervulus (cu-a) length. Parallel vein (CU1a) interstitial. Mediocubital vein (M+CU1) submedially strongly curved towards anal vein (2-1A). Brachial (subdiscal) cell narrowed towards apex, apically gently closed on or weakly before level of recurrent vein (m-cu). Hind wing 5.0–6.0 times as long as wide. First abscissa of costal vein (C+SC+R) 0.55–0.60 times as long as second abscissa (1-SC+R). First abscissa of mediocubital vein (M+CU) 0.4 times as long as second and third abscissae combined (1-M). Recurrent vein (m-cu) strongly declivous towards base of wing, antefurcal, sclerotised.
LEGS. Hind coxa with distinct basoventral corner and very small tubercle. Hind femur 3.4–3.5 times as long as wide. Hind tibia with five apical spines on its outside apical margin. Hind tarsus as long as hind tibia. Hind basitarsus 0.7 times as long as second–fifth segments combined. Second segment of hind tarsus 0.5 times as long as basitarsus, 1.2–1.3 times as long as fifth segment (without pretarsus).
METASOMA. Length 1.1–1.3 times as long as head and mesosoma combined. Petiole dorsally distinctly convex in basal 0.20–0.25, then almost straight (lateral view), more or less evenly and linearly widened from base to apex (dorsal view), with small spiracular tubercles in basal 0.3 of petiole. Acrosternite of first segment rather short, 0.30–0.35 times as long as petiole tergite. Length of petiole 1.9–2.3 times its apical width, 1.5–1.7 times length of propodeum; maximum apical width of petiole about twice its minimum width. Second tergite without furrows. Median length of second tergite 0.8–0.9 times its basal width, 1.5–1.7 times length of third tergite. Second suture shallow, rather narrow, entirely finely crenulate with reticulation. Ovipositor sheath 0.7–0.8 times as long as metasoma, 2.3–2.5 times as long as petiole, 1.2–1.3 times as long as mesosoma, 0.60–0.65 times as long as fore wing.
SCULPTURE AND PUBESCENCE. Vertex finely and very densely aciculate-coriaceous, sculpture arranged in transverse curved and dense aciculation usually, sometimes partly with reticulation; frons reticulatecoriaceous, rugulose-aciculate medially. Temple entirely coriaceous, fine below. Face densely granulate with reticulation. Mesoscutum densely and finely reticulate-coriaceous, parts of lobes near notauli without rugae, with single or double fine narrow median carina in medioposterior third of mesoscutum. Scutellum densely and finely coriaceous. Mesopleuron very finely reticulate-coriaceous, distinctly coriaceous below sternaulus. Metapleuron finely reticulate-coriaceous, rugose posteriorly at short area. Propodeum densely and distinctly reticulate-rugulose, more coarsely in posterior half, without delineated areas, but with two long lateral and single median carinae in basal 0.7–0.8 of propodeum. Hind coxae coriaceous. Hind femur coriaceous distinctly dorsally to very weak ventrally. Petiole and second tergite very densely and distinctly reticulate-areolate, areolation very small and regular, second tergite basally without any striae. Second suture distinctly shortly crenulate with fine granulation between striae. Third tergite finely and densely reticulate-coriaceous, very weakly coriaceous posteriorly. Fourth to sixth tergites entirely very weakly areolate-coriaceous. Vertex mainly glabrous. Mesoscutum mainly glabrous, with sparse, short and semi-erect pale setae arranged narrowly along notauli and marginally. Hind tibia dorsally with sparse and rather long semi-erect white setae; length of these setae 0.5–0.8 times maximum width of hind tibia.
COLOUR. Body dark reddish brown, head almost entirely, mesosoma and metasoma in anterior halves reddish brown or at least paler than rest body. Antenna yellow or yellowish brown in basal third or half, darkened towards apex, dark brown or black in apical part. Palps dark brown. Legs reddish brown, partly dark reddish brown, middle coxa light reddish brown, middle and hind tibiae almost black, all tarsi entirely brownish yellow with dark apical segment; all tibiae without pale subbasal rings. Ovipositor sheath yellow or pale brown in basal third, black on rest part. Fore wing distinctly and rather strongly maculate, with rather narrow hyaline stripes: basally, on level of maximum narrowed submedial (subbasal) cell, under base of pterostigma (interrupted medially), and widely apically; with small subhyaline spots in discoidal (discal) and radial (marginal) cells. Pterostigma mostly dark brown, whitish yellow in its basal 0.3.
Male
Unknown.
Diagnosis
We could not distinguish external morphological differences between this new species and the very similar Old World P. ornatulus (Enderlein, 1912) (Figs 32–33). However, the uncorrected COI distances between them are considerably high (9.4%), and therefore we have decided to recognize them as separate species. The latter species occurs in the Oriental and Palaearctic regions, whereas P. venezuelicus sp. nov. represents the first species of the genus that has been recored for the American continent.
Distribution
Venezuela.
description: Published as part of Belokobylskij, Sergey A. & Zaldívar-Riverón, Alejandro, 2021, Reclassification of the doryctine tribe Rhaconotini (Hymenoptera, Braconidae), pp. 1-168 in European Journal of Taxonomy 741 on pages 86-90, DOI: 10.5852/ejt.2021.741.1289, http://zenodo.org/record/4649681