Cratocentrus fastuosus
Creators: name: Abul-Sood, Medhat I.
name: Gadallah, Neveen S.
name: Hossni, Mohammed T.
name: Delvare, Gérard
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2018
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Hymenoptera
Chalcididae
Cratocentrus
Cratocentrus fastuosus

description: Cratocentrus fastuosus (Masi, 1944)
(Figs 1, 32‒38)
Cerachalcis fastuosa Masi, 1944: 123 –125. Original description ♀ ♂. Algeria, Oran and Libya, Cyrenaica. = Cerachalcis carambycida [sic] Masi, 1944: 126 –127. Steffan, 1957: 239.
Cratocentrus fastuosus: Steffan, 1957: 239; Steffan, 1959: 313.
Type material. Cerachalcis fastuosa. Paratypes, 2 ♀, one entire on a minutien, labelled 'Cyneraica R. U. Agraria Geo C. Krüger Gerges Lb.' / ' Cerachalcis fastuosa' [manuscript] / 'co-typus' / 'Museo Civico di Genova, the second only with remains of the gaster, partly dissected (MCSN) (Fig. 66). Cerachalcis carambycida. Holotype ♀ (MNHN) (see Fig. 65 for the labelling).
Other material. EGYPT: Meadi [sic] (Maadi), 26.3.1930, H. Priesner leg. (1 ♂) (NMP); Kafr El-Hamam (Sharqia), 16.10.2015, Abul-Sood leg (1♀) (EFC). MOROCCO: Tarhazoute, 20 km N Agadir, 04.v.1989, H. Tussac leg. (1 ♀ 1 ♂) (GDPC); Moulay Idriss, ruins of antic city of Volubilis, N34°04'34" W05°33'14", 15.v.2000, H. Tussac leg. (1 ♀) (GDPC); ' Maroc Rabat 22.7.38, Ch. Rungs leg.' (1 ♀) (MNHN). SAUDI ARABIA: Jizan hot springs 25/3/1980 K.M. Guichard leg (1 ♂) (NMP). SPAIN: Alméria, Mojacar, 13.vi.1994, on Zizyphus lotus, M. Tussac leg. (1 ♀) (GDPC).
Comment. The holotype of C. fastuosa could not be traced in MNB.
Diagnosis. Female. Setation silvery on whole body (Figs 1, 32). Frons with adpressed setation not completely covering integument and mixed with sparser suberect setae (Fig. 33). Scape reddish. Teeth on vertex sharp. Pronotal carina well expanded, only narrowly broken mesally (Fig. 32). Dorsum of pronotum with 2 transverse rows of large areolae mesally having their anterior margins raised into crests. Mesoscutal fasciae moderately expanded (Fig. 32). Setation on posterior slope of axillae not very dense. Mid lobe of mesoscutum with large areoles posteriorly. Fore wing distinctly infuscate at apex (Fig. 1). GT5 and GT6 with well expanded and well delimited fasciae but those on GT5 widely separated (Figs 1, 32). Ovipositor sheaths relatively short, only 2.3× as long as the carinate dorsal edge of syntergum (Fig. 1). Male with all flagellomeres somewhat transverse (Fig. 35) and syntergal projection short, with the usual pair of lateral points at apex (Figs 37, 38).
Recognition. Cratocentrus fastuosus can be separated from the Afrotropical species by the entirely silvery setation of the whole body (Fig. 1), the presence of elongate fasciae along the notauli (Fig.32) and the relatively short ovipositor sheaths (Fig. 1). It is distinguished from the Palaearctic species by the reddish scape, the sharp teeth on the vertex (Fig. 33) and the well expanded pronotal carina (Fig. 32).
Distribution. North Africa: Morocco, Algeria, Libya and Egypt. Arabian Peninsula: Saudi Arabia. Europe: Spain (new record for Europe).
Hosts. The type of C. carambycida was reared from Derolus mauritanicus (Buquet, 1840) [= Cerambyx nerii]. Steffan (1959: 313) also quoted Icosium tomentosum Lucas, 1854 another long-horn beetle and Trachypteris picta (Pallas, 1773) [= Melanophila] (Buprestidae).
description: Published as part of Abul-Sood, Medhat I., Gadallah, Neveen S., Hossni, Mohammed T. & Delvare, Gérard, 2018, The subfamily Cratocentrinae (Hymenoptera: Chalcididae): reappraisal of their morphological characters and review of the West Palaearctic species, with the description of two new species, pp. 490-516 in Zootaxa 4377 (4) on pages 500-502, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4377.4.2, http://zenodo.org/record/1165794