Clinocentrus karbi Gupta & van Achterberg 2023, sp. nov.
Creators: name: Gupta, Ankita
name: Achterberg, Cornelis Van
name: Pattar, Rohit
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2023
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Hymenoptera
Braconidae
Clinocentrus
Clinocentrus karbi

description: Clinocentrus karbi Gupta & van Achterberg sp. nov.
(Figs 1–2)
Type material. Holotype. Female on card; India: Assam: Karbi Anglong district; sweep net; 27.ii.2016; coll. Ankita Gupta; code—NIM/ NBAIR /Hym/Brac/Clin/270216-H (NIM). Paratypes- two females on card; same data as holotype; code NIM/ NBAIR /Hym/Brac/Clin/270216 P1 and P2 (NIM).
Key characters: ratio of vein r/3-SR = 0.9; second submarginal cell subquadrate; length of third antennomere nearly as long as fourth; length of third, fourth and penultimate 2.2, 2.5, 2.6 × their width, respectively; ovipositor nearly as long as metasoma; ratio of length of ovipositor/mid tibia 1.8.
Holotype. Body length 4.5 mm; antenna 32 antennomeres; fore wing 4.3 mm.
Body with eyes, ocellar region, prothorax (lateral), mesopleuron (anterior half), propodeum and dorsal metasoma black or dark brownish black; legs yellow except apical one third of femur, three quarters of tibia apically and tarsi brownish; pterostigma mostly dark brown, pale yellow basally, veins dark brown.
Head.—Thirty two antennomeres (Fig. 1B), setose, third and fourth antennomeres nearly of equal length, length of third, fourth and penultimate antennomeres 2.2, 2.5, 2.6 × their width, respectively; antenna 1.5 × longer than fore wing; length of eye in dorsal view 2.1 × as long as temple; temple narrowed posteriorly; occipital carina complete, angular/ concave in dorsal view; OOL:OD:POL = 43:32:27; frons flat, smooth (Fig. 2A); temple and vertex smooth (Fig. 2B); face medially with slight depression, few fine transverse rugae laterally; clypeus slightly convex, punctate; length of malar space 0.85 × as long as basal width of mandibles, 0.2 × of eye length in lateral view.
Mesosoma. Length of mesosoma 1.8 × its height; pronotum crenulate, dorsally and ventrally rugose (Fig. 2D); mesopleuron (Fig. 2C) anterior one third strongly crenulated and remaining part smooth and glabrous in posterior two third; mesoscutum smooth; notauli narrow, crenulate; scutellar sulcus wide, with one carina and few weak rugae; scutellum nearly smooth with few shallow punctures; propodeum irregularly reticulate-rugose, with median carina basally and areola obsolescent (Fig. 2F). Fore wing (Fig. 2G): 1-SR+M slightly curved, SR1 straight. Veins (relative length) r:3-SR: 2-SR: SR1 = 27:29:29.5:106; r-m = 13.2; 1-CU1:2-CU1 = 12:51.5. Vein m-cu far antefurcal and curved; second submarginal cell subquadrate. Hind wing vein 2-SC+R longer than wide (11.2); cu-a: 1-M: M+CU = 19.5: 60: 58; r/3-SR = 0.9.
Legs. Hind coxa almost smooth; length of femur, tibia, and basitarsus of hind leg 5.0, 10.3 and 9.2 × their width, respectively; length of hind tarsus 1.1 × as long as hind tibia; length of longer hind tibial spurs 0.3 × as long as hind basitarsus.
Metasoma. Length of first tergite 1.1 × its apical width, its surface longitudinally rugose (Fig. 2H), dorsal carina united at basal one third, connected to a distinct median carina; dorsope large; second tergite distinctly longitudinally rugose; third tergite weakly longitudinally rugose with transverse short rugae; length of second tergite 1.2 × as long as third tergite and third tergite narrowed posteriorly; fourth and its following tergites smooth and largely retracted (Fig. 2E); length of ovipositor sheath 0.5 × as long as fore wing and slightly shorter than metasoma.
Etymology. Named after the Karbi tribe, which is the main tribe in the Karbi Anglong and West Karbi Anglong districts of Assam.
Comments. The Indian species does not fit in the key to the Chinese species by Chen & He (1997). The new species shows similarity with C. cephalus, C. hubeiensis, C. nigricans and C. xinjiangensis in having vein r of fore wing 0.9 × as long as vein 3-SR. However, it can be clearly differentiated using the following characters: length of ovipositor sheath 0.7 × length of metasoma in C. xinjiangensis (vs nearly as long in C. karbi); length of third, fourth and penultimate segments 4.2, 3.2 and 2.4 × their width in C. cephalus; 3.8, 3.0 and 2.0 × in C. hubeiensis; and 4.0, 3.0, 2.5 in C. nigricans, respectively (vs 2.2, 2.5, 2.6 × in C. karbi).
Clinocentrus foveatus is similar to the new species because of the robust basal antennal segments and the similar shape of the metasoma. Comparing with the images of C. foveatus (Fig. 3; coll.mfn-berlin.de/u/49d382) kindly supplied by Stefanie Krause (Museum für Naturkunde, Berlin) the following differences in fore wing venation and propodeal sculpture are observed. The areolate portion of the propodeum is minimally developed to almost smooth at basal one third with presence of median carina in C. foveatus (vs propodeum completely irregularly reticulate-rugose in C. karbi); veins 2-M and 3-SR of fore wing straight in C. foveatus (vs clearly convex or curved in C. karbi); mesopleuron with oblique row of crenulae in C. foveatus (vs smooth in middle and apical region, without any oblique row of crenulae in C. karbi).
Clinicentrus compositus is easy to separate from the new species because of the elongated first metasomal tergite (about 2.0 × longer than its apical width in C. compositus (vs 1.1 × in C. karbi) and the inter-ocellar distance slightly greater than diameter of an ocellus (vs slightly smaller than diameter of one ocellus in C. karbi).
description: Published as part of Gupta, Ankita, Achterberg, Cornelis Van & Pattar, Rohit, 2023, First report of the genus Clinocentrus Haliday (Braconidae, Rogadinae) from India, with the description of a new species, pp. 196-200 in Zootaxa 5293 (1) on pages 196-200, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.5293.1.11, http://zenodo.org/record/7959509