Blacus (Blacus) longicornis Lu, Chai, Achterberg, Tang & Chen, 2024, sp. nov.
Creators: name: Lu, Qian-Yu
name: Chai, Hong-Fei
name: Achterberg, Cornelis Van
name: Tang, Pu
name: Chen, Xue-Xin
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2024
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Hymenoptera
Braconidae
Blacus
Blacus longicornis

description: Blacus (Blacus) longicornis sp. nov.
(Figs 13–14)
Material examined. Holotype: ♀, China, Ningxia, Jingyuan, Liupan Mtn, Hongxia Tree Farm, 2.VII.2008, Liu Jingxian, No. 200902283 (ZJUH).
Description. Female. Length of body 2.0 mm, length of fore wing 1.95 mm.
Head. Antennomeres 17, slender (Fig. 14C); length of first flagellomere 1.4 × length of second flagellomere; length of first, second and penultimate flagellomere 4.7, 3.3 and 1.5 × their width, respectively; length of maxillary palp 1.0 × height of head; occipital carina complete (Fig. 14A); frontal suture present; OOL: OD: POL = 9: 3: 4; length of eye in dorsal view 0.9 × length of temple; face superficially rugose; malar suture present, length of malar space 1.6 × basal width of mandible.
Mesosoma. Length of mesosoma 1.5 × its height; side of pronotum rugose ventrally, smooth dorsally (Fig. 14D); precoxal sulcus complete and wide, with long striae (Fig. 14D); notauli complete, moderately wide and rugose (Fig. 14E); mesoscutal lobes densely setose (Fig. 14E); scutellum superficially rugose, its lateral carina complete, not protruding apically; propodeal tubercles small; surface of propodeum reticulate-rugose, medial area absent (Fig. 14G).
Wings. Fore wing: parastigma distinctly differentiated from vein C+SC+R, first discal cell acute anteriorly; vein 3-SR+SR1 of fore wing straight; vein CUla of fore wing distinctly bent basally, distinctly below level of vein 2-CU1; 1-CU1: 2-CU1 = 6: 11; 2-M present (Fig. 14I).
Legs. Hind coxa rugose dorsally; length of femur, tibia and basitarsus of hind leg 4.6, 10.4 and 10.5 × their width, respectively.
Metasoma. Length of first tergite 1.7 × its apical width, widened apically, longitudinally rugose (Fig. 14F); remainder tergites smooth (Fig. 14F); length of ovipositor sheath 0.22 × length of fore wing, 0.9 × length of hind femur, 0.6 × length of hind tibia.
Colour. Reddish-brown; basal half of antenna (but scapus reddish-brown), clypeus and mandible dark yellow; palpi and all legs yellow; basal part of pterostigma and parastigma white; metasoma (but first tergite black), tegulae, pterostigma, veins, ovipositor and sheath brown; wing membrane subhyaline.
Male. Unknown.
Biology. Unknown.
Distribution. China (Ningxia).
Etymology. The specific name longicornis refers to the long and slender antenna and is derived from “ longus ” (Latin for long) and “ cornu ” (Latin for horn).
Notes. The new species is similar to B. (B.) imitator Papp, 1985, because antenna and hind femur are slender, parastigma distinctly differentiated from vein C+SC+R, vein CUla of fore wing distinctly bent basally, distinctly below level of vein 2-CU1, 1-CU1: 2-CU1 = 1: 1 and propodeal tubercle minute, but differs by having bicoloured antenna (unicoloured in B. (B.) imitator), vein 2-M of fore wing present (absent), first discal cell acute widely anteriorly (truncate), vein 3-SR+SR1 of fore wing straight (moderately curved), antenna comparatively slender (less slender), length of first metasomal tergite 1.7 × its apical width (1.9 ×), length of ovipositor sheath 0.22 × length of fore wing (approx. 0.43 ×), 0.6 × shorter than length of hind tibia (about 1.2 × longer than hind tibia).
description: Published as part of Lu, Qian-Yu, Chai, Hong-Fei, Achterberg, Cornelis Van, Tang, Pu & Chen, Xue-Xin, 2024, The first report of subgenus Blacus Nees, 1819 (Hymenoptera, Braconidae, Brachistinae) from China, pp. 501-535 in Zootaxa 5471 (5) on pages 516-518, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.5471.5.1, http://zenodo.org/record/12207563