Microgastrinae (Hymenoptera: Braconidae) of Reunion Island: a catalogue of the local species, including 18 new taxa and a key to species
Author
Rousse, Pascal
Author
Gupta, Ankita
text
Zootaxa
2013
3616
6
501
547
journal article
10.11646/zootaxa.3616.6.1
b0b459e7-66d3-4f39-9c2f-56b6c1e130de
1175-5326
217943
E1F586D6-28D6-445A-986F-5C08839E834E
Genus
Dodogaster
Rousse
gen. nov.
(
Fig. 11
)
Diagnosis.
Areolet of fore wing closed and large. Propodeum with a mid-longitudinal carina extending from base to mid-length. Areola closed, costulae complete. Tergum 1 with margins sub-parallel. Tergum 2 quadrate and wider than apex of tergum 1. Hypopygium mid-ventrally desclerotised. Ovipositor sheath setose all along.
Description
.
Head
. Maxillary palpus slightly elongate. Mandible falcate, thin and long, abruptly narrowed from basal quarter, upper tooth twice longer than lower. Clypeus semi-circular. Tentorial pits deep. Face transverse. Inner margins of eyes parallel. Head regularly curved behind eyes in dorsal view. Flagellomeres 1–12 with placodes on two ranks.
Mesosoma
.
Slightly depressed dorso-ventrally. Pronotum with ventral and dorsal furrows present. Notauli indistinct. Propodeum with areola complete with costulae strong and a mid-longitudinal carina. Fore wing with areolet closed, quadrangular (2/Rs very short), twice longer than high.
Hind
wing with 2r–m present but almost indistinct. Apical margin of vannal lobe regularly rounded and setose all along.
Metasoma
. Tergum 1 rectangular, elongate, basally constricted. Tergum 2 sub-rectangular, transverse, wider than apex of tergum 1, its apical margin convex. Tergum 3 very short and semi-lunar in shape. Following tergites without dorsal sclerotisation. Hypopygium large, distinctly protruding beyond metasomal apex, mid-longitudinally desclerotised. Ovipositor sheath setose all along.
Comments
. The appearance of the female genitalia place this genus in Mason’s (1981) “Microlepidoptera suite”, with
Apanteles
group of genera.
Dodogaster
shows some similarities with several genera (
e.g. Choreas
) but the combination of the features listed in its diagnosis clearly differentiate it from any of them. Furthermore,
Dodogaster
shows morphological similarities with the small South African genus
Exulonyx
:
body dorso-ventrally depressed, maxillary palpi elongate, shape and carination of propodeum, shape of metapleuron, etc. On the other hand,
Exulonyx
does not share some critical features of
Dodogaster
like the medially desclerotised hypopygium, the presence of r
–
m on fore wing and the smoothly sculptured
mesosoma
. Whether or not these features should be considered as synapomorphies or homoplasies is yet unclear, making the phylogeny of most
Microgastrinae
still unresolved (Whitfield
et al.
2002).
Etymology
. In line with
Kiwigaster
(Fernández-Triana
et al.
2011), the name refers to the Dodo bird, an endemic and emblematic figure of the Mascarene Islands.
Distribution records
.
Reunion
.
Genotype
.
Dodogaster grangeri
sp. nov.