Aulacus atriceps Kieffer 1911
Creators: name: Jennings, John T.
name: Parslow, Ben A.
name: Austin, Andrew D.
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2018
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Hymenoptera
Aulacidae
Aulacus
Aulacus atriceps

description: Aulacus atriceps Kieffer, 1911
Figs 6, 56.
Aulacinus atriceps Kieffer 1911: 220, 221.— Kieffer 1912: 350, 356; Hedicke 1939: 25.
Aulacus atriceps Smith 2001: 269, comb. nov.; Jennings 2010 [on-line checklist].
Material examined. Holotype. ♀, " Tasmania. A.M. Lea. 1904–245" "Lea 6504". (BMNH 3 a.86). Left flagellomeres 3–12 and right hind tarsomeres 4–5 and claw missing.
Other Material examined. Tasmania: 3♀, Hobart, no date, [A.M.] Lea (BMNH); 3♀, 3♂, no data, [A.M.] Lea (ASCU). Australia: 1♂, no label (MVMA).
Description. FEMALE. Length. 7.9 (7.2–8.4) mm, excluding ovipositor.
Colour. Head black, meso- and metasoma orange, flagellomeres 2–3 and 12 with variable amounts of brown, flagellomeres 4–11 white. Wings hyaline except for brown spot apically on marginal and submarginal cells of fore wing (Fig. 6A).
Head. 1.6 (1.4–1.7)× wider than long when viewed dorsally(Fig. 6C); face rugulose, pubescence long; weak sub-antennal groove; frons without lateral medial carina above toruli, rugulose, with long pubescence; vertex and gena rugulose, with scattered short setae; posterior margin of head not concave in dorsal view; occipital carina absent; malar space 0.27 (0.23–0.3)× height eye; clypeus 2.5× as wide as high, margin sinuate, with small medial process; distance from lateral ocellus to eye margin 0.8 (0.7–0.9)× distance between lateral ocelli; scape 1.5× length pedicel; first flagellomere 1.25× as long as scape, 0.55 (0.5–0.6)× as long as second flagellomere.
Mesosoma. Propleuron rugose, pubescence long, ventro-lateral carina present; pronotum rugose; mesoscutum in lateral view rounded antero-dorsally (Fig. 6E), medial and lateral lobes rugose-strigate with scattered short setae, admedial lines weak; notauli distinct, carinate, narrow and deep; scutellum and axillae rugose, scutellum anteriorly with a single large depression; metapostnotum scrobiculate, posterior margin convex; mesopleuron rugose, with long pubescence; mesepimeron broad, carinate; metapleuron rugose, with short pubescence; propodeum coarsely rugose, almost areolate, posterior margin scrobiculate; hind coxa strigate dorsally, ovipositor guide somewhat distal, oblique (Fig. 6F), fringe of long setae on distal margin, no setae in groove; hind trochanter imbricate, with scattered short setae; prefemur on hind leg present; hind femur imbricate, with scattered short setae; hind tibia imbricate, pubescence short, with scattered stout emergent setae; hind femur 0.74 (0.71–0.80)× length hind tibia; hind tibia with ventro-apical pecten of short robust spines; hind tarsomeres 1–4 with ventro-apical pecten of short robust spines, tarsomere 1, 2.4 (2.3–2.5)× length tarsomere 2; tarsomere 2, 1.54 (1.50–1.57)× length tarsomere 3; tarsomere 3, 1.8 (1.75–2.0)× length tarsomere 4; tarsomere 4, 0.75 (0.7–0.8)× length tarsomere 5; hind tarsal claw 0.45× length tarsomere 5; fore wing veins 2r-m and 3r-m spectral medially, hind wing venation complete, R+Rs, M+Cu, Cu, r-m and 2-M spectral, with 3 hamuli.
Metasoma. Ovate, 1.3 (1.2–1.4)× length of mesosoma (Fig. 6B); T1 and T2 narrow, glabrous; ovipositor 6.0 (5.5–6.5) mm.
MALE. Similar to female except last few metasomal segments with variable amounts of dark brown dorsally and laterally; metasoma narrower and 1.7× length mesosoma; basiparameres broad, imbricate; digitus broad, slightly shorter than basiparameres.
Distribution. Aulacus atriceps seems to be confined to Tasmania (Fig. 56) but given the specimen from MVMA has no data label, we cannot be certain of this.
Biology. Nothing is known of the biology of this species.
Comments. Aulacus atriceps keys out with A. boonanghiensi. Both species have an ovate metasoma and an oblique, medial ovipositor guide on the hind coxae. The two species are, however, quite different in colouration. The former species has a black head and orange mesosoma and metasoma, flagellomeres 2, 3 and 12 with variable amounts of brown, and flagellomeres 4–11 white, whereas in the latter species, the head and mesosoma are black, scape and pedicel orange, flagellomeres brown, legs orange, metasoma black except somites 1–3 orange, with variable amounts of black anteriorly on T1.
description: Published as part of Jennings, John T., Parslow, Ben A. & Austin, Andrew D., 2018, Systematics of the parasitoid wasp genus Aulacus Jurine (Hymenoptera: Evanioidea: Aulacidae) from Australia, pp. 1-113 in Zootaxa 4538 (1) on pages 17-18, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4538.1.1, http://zenodo.org/record/3771367