Revision of the Afrotropical species of Pristomerus (Ichneumonidae: Cremastinae), with descriptions of 31 new species Author Rousse, Pascal B06C2640-700A-429B-AA2F-1BE09251C845 Natural History Department, Iziko South African Museum, PO Box 61, Cape Town, 8000, South Africa. & Stellenbosch University, Department of Botany and Zoology, Evolutionary Genomics Group, Private Bag X 1, Stellenbosch, 7602, South Africa. & Email: rousse. pascal @ wanadoo. fr (corresponding author) & urn: lsid: zoobank. org: author: B 06 C 2640 - 700 A- 429 B-AA 2 F- 1 BE 09251 C 845 rousse.pascal@wanadoo.fr Author Noort, Simon van 7CCD166F-F1FA-43DA-B582-4E84EAF59AD1 Natural History Department, Iziko South African Museum, PO Box 61, Cape Town, 8000, South Africa. & Department of Biological Sciences, University of Cape Town, Private Bag, Rondebosch, 7701, South Africa. & urn: lsid: zoobank. org: author: 7 CCD 166 F-F 1 FA- 43 DA-B 582 - 4 E 84 EAF 59 AD 1 text European Journal of Taxonomy 2015 2015-05-28 124 1 129 journal article 22420 10.5852/ejt.2015.124 19721b2c-e043-4635-a299-6b1517b4e649 2118-9773 3780218 8E33A9C0-0940-4EF8-8105-7B71D9282635 Pristomerus venda sp. nov. urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act: 3F426943-BF91-4A98-95B1-7B7778F96B02 Fig. 41 Diagnosis Moderately small; background colour yellow to testaceous with variable dark brown to black dorsal markings; head sparsely to moderately punctate; inner margins of eyes subparallel; clypeus strongly transverse; malar line short; antenna with 29–30 flagellomeres, penultimate flagellomere subquadrate; mesosoma moderately to densely punctate, pronotum hardly smoother postero-dorsally, and speculum ventrally smoother; propodeum with area superomedia sometimes weakly carinate postero-laterally; female femoral tooth absent; ovipositor moderately long, apically strongly sinuous. Male darker with ocelli, hind femur and femoral tooth strongly enlarged, inner margins of eyes strongly diverging ventrally, and area superomedia slightly more slender. Differential diagnosis Rather small and mostly yellowish-orange; differentiated from most other Afrotropical species by the combination of the absence of a femoral tooth in females, the short malar line, the strongly transverse clypeus and the rather long ovipositor. It is closely related to P. moramora and P. kelikely , from which it may be differentiated by the colour and antenna length characters given in the key (see comments). Type material Holotype ZIMBABWE : ♀ “Salisbury [ Harare ] S. Rhodesia Jan–March–1969 Nat. Museum S.R. coll. B.L. Mitchell , South African Museum ex National Museum Bulawayo 1981, ex Phthorimaea operculella SAM–HYM–P001224” ( SAMC ). Paratypes ZIMBABWE : 3 ♂♂ , 1 ♀ , same label data. Description Female ( 2 specimens ) B 6.6–6.8; A 4.0; F 4.6–4.8; POL 0.9; OOL 1.1; CT 2.0; ML 0.4; Fl n-1 1.1 ; ASM 2.2; OT 1.7–1.8; FFT 0. COLOUR. Head yellow with face testaceous, and frons, vertex, temples and occiput darker brown, frons sometimes with a mid-longitudinal yellow stripe; mesosoma yellowish-orange with pronotum paler and axillary troughs slightly infuscate; metasoma yellowish-orange with basal tergites variously dark marked; legs yellow to yellowish-orange; wings hyaline, venation brown; ovipositor sheath black. HEAD. Face moderately and deeply punctate; inner margins of eyes subparallel; clypeus strongly transverse, moderately punctate and centrally smoother; malar line short; frons and vertex sparsely punctate, temple coriaceous; antenna with 29–30 flagellomeres, penultimate flagellomere subquadrate. MESOSOMA. Mesosoma moderately elongate; entire mesosoma densely punctate, except: pronotum posterodorsally very shallowly punctate, and speculum ventrally smoother; mesopleuron with an oblique striate furrow below speculum; punctures somewhat confluent along notaulus line; notaulus weak; punctation of scutellum distinctly sparser than on mesoscutum; posterior vertical side of scutellum longitudinally striate; area superomedia somewhat elongate, sometimes hardly carinate laterally. Legs . Femoral tooth absent. METASOMA. Apical half of tergite 1, tergite 2 and base of tergite 3 longitudinally aciculate, following tergites coriaceous; thyridium elliptic and wide, its main axis longitudinal; ovipositor moderately long, its apical half strongly sinuous. Male ( paratypes ) B 6.2–6.6; A 3.8–4.0; F 4.4–4.6; POL 0.5; OOL <0.1. Darker with vertex and occiput centrally blackish, mesosoma dorsally brownish with scutellum yellow and axillary troughs black, hind femur sometimes dark brown, entire tergite 2 and apical half of tergite 1 dark brown; ocelli strongly enlarged, lateral ocellus nearly touching eye; area superomedia slightly more slender; femoral tooth long and acute, followed by a series of denticles; otherwise similar to female. Fig. 41. Pristomerus venda sp. nov. Holotype, ♀. A . Habitus, lateral view. B . Head, mesosoma, dorsal view. C . Head, anterior view. D . Propodeum, dorsal view. E . Mesosoma, lateral view. F . Hind tibia, lateral view (inset: data labels). Host records Reared from the potato tuber moth, Phthorimaea operculella (Zeller, 1873) ( Lepidoptera : Gelechiidae ). Distribution Zimbabwe . Comments Pristomerus venda sp. nov. females are likely to be very difficult to differentiate from some P. kelikely and P. moramora . However, we keep it as a separate species because it could be unambiguously associated with males. These males exhibit two of the usual features of sexual dimorphism in Pristomerus spp. which are absent in the males of P. kelikely and P. moramora (ventrally diverging eyes and enlarged ocelli). See P. kelikely for further comments about this species-complex.