Diolcogaster claritibia (Papp, 1959)

(Figs 5–6, 16 D–16E)

Microgaster claritibia Papp, 1959: 405 .

Protomicroplitis orontes Nixon, 1965: 254 .

Protomicroplitis claritibia; Nixon, 1968: 69.

Diolcogaster claritibia; Fernández-Triana et al. 2014b.

Material examined. 11 ♀ (DPPZ): 1♀, IRAN, Sistan-o Baluchestan province, Mirjaveh county (29°00' N; 61°27' E, 851 m), 08.vii.2011, swept from Medicago sativa, S. Seddighi; 1 ♀, Kerman province, Jiroft county, Karimabad village (28°40’N; 57°44’E, 687 m), 06.iv.2012, pan trap among citrus trees, N. Amirinasab ; 1 ♀, same label data, 03.iv.2014, swept from Cucumis sativus, N. Amirinasab; 2 ♀, Sistan-o Baluchestan province, Zabol county, (31°07'15" N; 61°30'12" E, 482 m), 20.iv.2013, swept from weeds, Z. Rahmani ; 4 ♀, North Khorasan province, Maneh county, (37°40'0.33"N; 57°11'43.08"E, 703 m), 07.v.2014, Malaise trap in natural ecosystem, Z. Rahmani ; 1 ♀, same label data, but 03.v.2014, swept from weeds, Z. Rahmani; 1 ♀, same label data, but 08.v.2014.

Additional material. 9 ♀ and 4 ♂ (HNHM, all determined by J. Papp, otherwise indicated): HOLOTYPE of Microgaster claritibia, ♀, HUNGARY, Domos, on Lepidium, Apajpuszta (47°6'N, 19°5'E), 7.v.1952 , A. Moczar, Hym. Typ. No. 451, Museum Budapest (Fig. 16D); 1 ♀, Paratype, same label data, Hym. Typ. No. 450, Museum Budapest, Det.: G.E.J. Nixon, 1958 as Microgaster claritibia (Fig. 16E) ; 1 ♀, SPAIN, 5.x.1983; 1 ♀, Canary Islands, La Gomera, San Sebastian (43°19'N, 1°58'W), 17.iii.1950, M. Lindberg ; 1 ♀, TUNISIA, Tunis, Carthago (36°51'N, 10°19'E) ; 1 ♀ and 3 ♂, TURKEY, Adana (36°59'N, 35°19'E), 20.vi.1979, A. Beyarslan; 2 ♀, Aetep, Oguzeli (36°57'N, 37°30'E), 7.v.1995, A. Beyarslan ; 1 ♀, UKRAINE, Sudl, Umg. Berdiansk (47°6'N, 37°26'E), 2.v.1966, N. Gulinov ; 1 ♂, Kiev, airport (50°20'N, 30°53'E), 18.v.1975, S. Toth ; 7 ♀ (NHMW): “ Allotype ” of Microgaster claritibia, ♀, AUSTRIA, Rechnitz Bgld (47°18'N, 16°26'E), 2.viii.1958, M. Fischer ; 1 ♀, Wien III (48°12'N, 16°23'E), 16.vii.1958, M. Fischer; 1 ♀, same label data, 11.vi.1958; 4 ♀, same label data, 15.vi.1958 .

Redescription. FEMALE. 5 ♀ (Iran), length of body 2.0– 2.3 mm (Fig. 5A), length of antenna 2.2–2.5 mm (Fig. 5B), length of fore wing 2.1–2.4 mm (Figs 6 F–6G).

Colour. Antenna brownish black (Fig. 5B); medio-tergites 4–8 darker than latero-tergites and mostly dark brown or blackish brown (Fig. 6D); all coxae black, metafemora dark brown, pro- and mesotibia entirely yellow, metatibia yellow anteriorly, brown medially and dark brown posteriorly about 0.8 (Figs 5A, 5C).

Head. Head height 4.5× temple length (Figs 5 E–5F); subapical antennal flagellomeres somewhat moniliform and longer than wide, length of second, 12th, 13th, 14th, penultimate and apical flagellomeres 2.0, 2.3, 2.2, 2.0, 2.1 and 2.4× as long as their width, respectively (Fig. 5B); gena in lateral view slightly smaller than eye width (Fig. 5F); malar space medium-sized (Fig. 5D); clypeal maximum width 1.6× oculo-mandibular line (Fig. 5D); interocular line 3.5× oculo-mandibular line (Fig. 5D); eye height 2.6× its width, 2.1× temple length and 3.4× oculomandibular line (Figs 5 D–5E); OD and POL 0.5× and 1.1× OOL, respectively (Figs 5E).

Mesosoma . Mesoscutum finely and densely punctate, with whitish setae (Fig. 6A); scutellum weakly and sparsely punctate (Fig. 6A); propodeum shiny, rugose posteriorly and laterally, the rest largely smooth with an irregular medio-longitudinal carina, traces of transverse carina defined with rugose pattern, length of anterior half of propodeum 1.2× of posterior half of propodeum (Fig. 6D).

Legs. Metacoxa large, 2.8× as long as wide, not surpassing posterior margin of T2 (Fig. 5A); metafemora 3.7× as long as wide and 1.8× length of metatibia (Figs 5A, 5C); metatibial inner spur 0.5× as long as basitarsus (Fig. 5C).

Wings (Figs 5 F–5G). Fore wing vein R1 about 0.8× pterostigma length, pterostigma 2.5× as long as wide, vein r 1.0× as long as vein 2RS, not curved, vein r-m 1.8× 3RSa, subbasal cell less than half as long as vein 1M. Hind wing evenly covered with brown setae, vein cu-a curved.

Metasoma. T1 medial length 1.9× its width anteriorly, 1.5× its width posteriorly (Fig. 6C), anterior half of T1 parallel-sided, then widening towards posterior margin, T1 with a median sulcus, anterior half smooth and shiny, sparsely punctate, posterior half with strong rugae and medium-sized setae (Fig. 6C); T2 with a median field, well protruding, laterally weakly sloping, its width 3.5× medial length at posterior margin, T2 with weak rugae medially, smooth and shiny laterally (Figs 6 C–6D); T3 longer than T2 and completely smooth (Fig. 6D); setose part of ovipositor sheaths 0.3× as long as metatibia (Fig. 6E).

Ecological notes. No hosts known in Iran. It was reared from Plutellidae (Yu et al. 2016) . Flight period March to October, with peak in May. Mostly collected in April and May.

Distribution in Iran. Golestan (Gadallah et al. 2015); Sistan-o Baluchestan, Kerman and North Khorasan provinces (new records).

Geographic distribution (Figs 17 B–17C). Holarctic: Afghanistan, Armenia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Canada (Alberta, Manitoba, Ontario), Finland, former Yugoslavia, Georgia, Greece, Hungary, Iran, Kazakhstan, Lithuania, Moldova, Russia (Chita, Krasnodar Krai), Spain, Tunisia (new record), Turkey and Ukraine (new record).

Similar species. The most similar species is D. tegularia (Papp, 1959) from Hungary and D. mayae (Shestakov, 1932), which can be easily separated by a series of diagnostic characters (Table 3).

MALE. Unknown from Iran.

Remarks. Our examined specimens were similar to specimens from Cyprus, France and Jordan, listed in Fernandez-Triana et al. (2014) and differ from Canadian specimens by the sculpture of T1–T2, mesoscutum and scutellum, the shape of the median field of T2 and the length/width ratio of T1. Generally, the examined specimens combine morphological characteristics of both European and Canadian specimens. In addition, we observed some intraspecific variations, e.g., specimens identified by J. Papp have only fore legs light yellow and the other legs black, while the Iranian specimens have all legs tricoloured, dark brown (coxae), brown (femora and tarsi) and yellowish brown (tibiae).