Apanteles alticella Liu & Chen 2020, sp. nov.
Creators: name: Liu, Zhen
name: He, Jun-Hua
name: Chen, Xue-Xin
name: Gupta, Ankita
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2020
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Hymenoptera
Braconidae
Apanteles
Apanteles alticella

description: Apanteles alticella Liu & Chen, sp. nov.   
(Figures 87, 103)  
 Description. Holotype. Female. Body length 2.2 mm, fore wing length 2.5 mm.   
 Head. Transverse in dorsal view, 2.1× as wide as long, at most as wide as mesoscutum. Vertex between eye and posterior ocellus shiny with superficial punctures. Temple slightly shiny, slightly constricted. Face 0.8× as high as wide, slightly shiny and superficially punctate, inner margin of eyes subparallel-sided. Ocelli not small, posterior tangent to anterior ocellus almost touching posterior ocelli, distance between fore and hind ocellus not larger than diameter of hind ocellus, POL:OD:OOL=4.0:2.0:4.0. Antenna distinctly shorter than body length, penultimate flagellomere 1.6× longer than wide.   
 Mesosoma. Length:width:height = 40.0:25.0:25.0. Disc of mesonotum shiny, with relatively dense and deep punctures, interspaces shorter than diameter of puncture, striate-punctation at posterior end of notaulic courses. Scutellar sulcus weakly curved, narrow with carinae in between. Scutellum highly shiny and polished entirely. Lateral polished field of scutellum reaching up to half length of scutellum, carinae on anterior part of the field somewhat obsolescent. Propodeum shiny, two short arms reaching out from orifice, with some coarse punctures anterio-medially, spiracle not enclosed with keels. Mesopleuron highly polished, anterior part with shallow and sparse punctures, some fine transversal striation at the top of the sternaulus.   
 Legs. Hind coxa slightly shiny, with indistinct hairy punctures dorsally. Spines on outer side of hind tibia short, not sparse. Spurs of hind tibia subequal, 1/3 length of hind basitarsus.   
 Wings. Pterostigma 3.2× as long as its widest part. Vein 1-R1 1.1× longer than pterostigma, 4.4× as long as its distance from apex of marginal cell. Vein r arising from apex of pterostigma, almost perpendicular to it, slightly longer than width of pterostigma, 1.3× longer than 2-SR, somewhat curved at junction, 2-M half length of 2-SR, slightly shorter than 1-SR, and as long as 2-SR+M, m-cu as long as 2-SR. First discal cell of fore wing 1.2× wider than high. Second submarginal cell of hind wing as wide as high. Vein cu-a curved. Hind wing broad, length of 1-M slightly shorter than distance between its distal extremity and apex of vannal lobe, and vannal lobe beyond its widest part concave and hairless.   
 Metasoma. Nearly as long as mesosoma (38.5:40.0). T1 narrow, strongly converged from base, 3.0× longer than hind width, concave at basal two fifths, turned-over part shiny, superficial punctate to smooth, without longitudinal channel. T2 shiny and polished, subtriangular, 3.0× wider than long in the middle, nearly straight apically. T3 2.0× longer than T2. Tergites posterior to T2 highly polished, shiny, and sparsely pubescent. Hypopygium slightly longer than apex of metasoma. Ovipositor sheath 0.8× as long as hind tibia, hairs sparse and long, ovipositor not thin, with distinct long apical attenuation.   
 Colour. Black, tergites posterior to T2 brown. Tegula dark brown. Palpi weakly brownish and spurs pale yellowish. Antenna and ovipositor sheath brown. Labrum and mandible reddish brown. Legs brown to black, except most parts of fore leg, apical third of mid femur, mid tibia with tarsus, and basal two thirds of hind tibia yellow. Wing membrane hyaline, 1-R1, C+SC+R, border of pterostigma, r, 2-SR and 2-M light yellow brown, other alar veins colourless, pterostigma hyaline.   
 Variation. Body length 1.9–2.2 mm, fore wing length 2.0– 2.5 mm.   
 Male. Unknown.   
 Material examined. Holotype: 1♀, Mt. Diaoluo, Hainan, 2007.V.29–VI.2, Xiao Bin, No. 200804636. Paratype: 1♀, ditto, 2007.V.28–VI.3, Weng Liqiong, No. 200804284.   
 Distribution. China (Hainan).   
 Etymology. The specific name “ alticella ” derives from the Latin “altus” and “cella”, referring to the second submarginal cell of hind wing abnormally high.   
 Remarks. This species is very similar to A. drupes Nixon, but differs in the following: ovipositor not thin, with distinct long apical attenuation (thin and without apical attenuation in latter); hind tibia at most reddish brown at apical third (proximal to middle in latter); and penultimate flagellomere 1.6× longer than wide (only 1.2× in latter).
description: Published as part of Liu, Zhen, He, Jun-Hua, Chen, Xue-Xin & Gupta, Ankita, 2020, The ater-group of the genus Apanteles Foerster (Hymenoptera, Braconidae, Microgastrinae) from China with the descriptions of forty-eight new species, pp. 1-205 in Zootaxa 4807 (1) on pages 174-177, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4807.1.1, http://zenodo.org/record/3927639