Corresponding author: Gavin R. Broad (
Academic editor: S. Schmidt
A new species of the cryptine genus
The subfamily
There are six described species of
Morphological terminology follows
Apical flagellomere with truncate hammer. Face with horn just below and between antennal sockets. Clypeus with median tooth. Mandible with lower tooth longer than upper. Epomia short and weak. Mesoscutum short, slightly wider than long and no longer than area of propodeum behind anterior transverse carina. Groove between metapleurum and propodeum wide, crossed by carinae. Propodeum lacking pleural carina between anterior transverse carina and hind coxa. Propodeal spiracle elongate. Fore tibia swollen. First tergite with pronounced basal, lateral teeth; with elongate, dorsal depression at level of spiracles. Second tergite strongly punctate. Ovipositor lower valve with vertical teeth, dorsal lobe enclosing upper valve. Fore wing vein
Female, exact label data: ‘Pak Sha O, HK 50Q KK 242 849. 70m C. Barthélémy, 22.iii.10 Ref: 0386.A.Hy.1’, ‘Hong Kong Ex
Female. First flagellomere 7.0× as long as apically wide (basal ‘annellus’ section excluded). Frons largely polished, with weak punctures ventral to ocelli and some oblique wrinkling in a V-shape ventral to anterior ocellus. Vertex with conspicuous punctures, separated by more than twice their diameter. Facial horn, just below and between antennal sockets, large, pointed oval in dorsal view, protruding by distance slightly greater than inter-antennal distance (
Pronotum mostly smooth, transversely striate lateromedially with short transverse striae along posterior edge. Mesoscutum polished, weakly granulate anteriorly, with isolated punctures anteriorly, medially. Notauli strong to level of anterior edge of notauli, fading then. Scutellum with punctures on smooth background, separated by about their own diameter. Mesopleuron densely punctate, punctures small and separated by about their diameter, except transversely striate anterodorsally and medially, speculum and subalar prominence weakly punctate on smooth background. Metapleuron strongly punctate posterodorsally, sparsely punctate medially. Pleural carina absent except basally. Juxtacoxal carina strong but with narrow interruptions anteriorly and posteriorly. Submetapleural carina complete. Propodeum with area anterior of anterior transverse carina polished, punctate in posterior half; anterior transverse carina strong, complete; remainder of dorsal surface reticulate, transversely striate medially (
Mainly black with copious ivory/white markings (
Male. Similar to female, differs (in addition to the obvious sexual differences) only in the more extensive ivory area on the mesopleuron, extending anteriorly as lateral and median stripes on the mesosternum, and in the less modified antenna tip (simply pointed).
Holotype female of
The traps consisted of hollow bamboo canes of varied length and diameter that were cut so that one end was closed by a nodal septum. Clusters of four to seven cut canes were bundled together and hung from low branches on various bushes and trees. Dimensions of traps are given in
Upon collection, segments were placed in Ziploc® bags and opened in the laboratory for content examination, the data are summarised in
Trap physical dimensions and dates of Collection.
Trap reference | Date set | Date collected | Trap diameter (mm) | Trap length (mm) |
SLT.025.A1 | 17-Apr-09 | 22-Feb-10 | 10 | 250 |
SLT.025.A4 | 17-Apr-09 | 22-Feb-10 | 10.5 | 253 |
NTC.028.A4 | 17-Apr-09 | 10-Jul-09 | 11 | 250 |
PSO-093.A3 | 12-Apr-10 | 03-Jun-10 | 7.5 | 165 |
PSO-117.A2 | 23-Jun-10 | 26-Sep-10 | 9 | 225 |
PSO-117.A6 | 23-Jun-10 | 31-Oct-10 | 8 | 225 |
Contents of each trap.
Trap reference | Host sub-family | Host species | No. of host cells | No. of cells parasitized | Parasitoid emergence date | Males | Females |
SLT.025.A1 |
|
7 | 3 | 20-Mar-2010 & 22- Mar-2010 | 3 | ||
SLT.025.A4 |
|
6 | 1 | 20-Mar-10 | 1 | ||
NTC.028.A4 |
|
1 | 1 | 01-Aug-09 | 1 | ||
PSO-093.A3 |
|
|
3 | 1 | 13-Jun-10 | 1 | |
PSO-117.A2 |
|
2 | 1 | ? | ? | ? | |
PSO-117.A6 |
|
5 | 2 | 3-Apr-2011 & 04- Apr-2011 | 2 | ||
Totals | 24 | 9 | 4 | 4 |
At opening on 10 July 2009, trap NTC-028.A4 contained a single cell with a prepupal larva of
At opening on 22 February 2010, trap SLT-025.A1 contained seven cells with four prepupal larvae of
Trap SLT-025.A4 contained six cells with five pre-pupal larvae of
Trap PSO-093.A3 contained three cells fabricated by
In all cases the parasitoid pupae were positioned head towards the trap entrance. By 14 March 2010, the
Four out of six parasitised nests were of
The parasitoid’s cocoons were 15.7-18.4 mm long (mean = 17.6 mm; n = 5) and 4.1-6.4 mm in diameter (mean = 5.3; n = 5). They were composed of a thin single layer of finely spun silk (0.06 mm thick; measured with a precision s/s calliper), shiny and brownish in colour yet translucent, affixed to the cell walls with numerous silk strands (
There was no apparent spatial determinism in the location of the parasitised cells. Additionally, both male and female eumenine wasps emerged from the two SLT traps, so there was no apparent host sexual preference by the parasitoid.
As evidenced by trap NTC-028.A4 and PSO-117.A6,
There was a 1:1 female to male ratio (n = 8) in the reared specimens.
The emergence of
Trap NTC-028.A4 at opening.
Trap SLT.025.A1 at opening.
Trap SLT.025.A4 at opening.
The emergence sequence of an adult
Cell 4 of trap SLT-025.A4 showing the coloration of the pupa inside the cocoon.
Larva of
Habitus of female
Although most host records of gabuniines are from wood-boring
We are extremely grateful to Jun-ichi Kojima and Lien Nguyen, Ibaraki University, Japan, who identified the two eumenine hosts, and Graham Reels, Hong Kong who provided structural comments on an early version of the manuscript. Two anonymous reviewers provided detailed and useful reviews.