Piyumoides indicus Amal & Girish Kumar, 2024

Amal, Sreedharan, Girish Kumar, Puthuvayi & Hegde, Vishwanath D., 2024, Discovery of the Oriental genus Piyumoides Leclercq, 1963 (Hymenoptera, Crabronidae) in the Indian subcontinent with the description of a new species, Journal of Insect Biodiversity and Systematics 10 (1), pp. 91-98 : 93

Piyumoides indicus Amal & Girish Kumar sp. nov. ( Figs 1A–D, & Figs 2A–F)

https://zoobank.org/ urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act:7DF9A0E6-DCEB-4B34-BDD5-70C069E9F04C

Material examined. Holotype female, India: Kerala, Palakkad district, Parambikulam Tiger Reserve, Anappady (10°26'43.2024" N, 76°48'33.8724" E), 19.viii.2023, Coll. V. D. Hegde & Party, ZSIK Regd. No. ZSI/ WGRC /I. R.-INV.25290.

Diagnosis. This species can be recognized by the following combination of characters: median carina of clypeus complete; propodeal enclosure without bordering carinae, and without distinct basal striae; occipital carina not reaching hypostomal carina; all femora black; mandibles almost entirely black; mesoscutum, mesopleuron, mesosternum, and propodeum black; and metasoma ferruginous with few black patches. Piyumoides indicus sp. nov. is closely allied to P. hewitti ( Cameron, 1908) by having a propodeal enclosure without bordering carinae, without distinct basal striae, and having a vestigial pygidial plate. But it distinctly differs in having: (1) All femora black (in P. hewitti femora and tibiae of all legs entirely yellow); (2) Mandibles almost entirely black (in P. hewitti mandibles entirely ferruginous); and (3) Median carina of clypeus complete (in P. hewitti median carina evanescent at apex).

Description. Holotype, female ( Fig. 2A). Length 5.5 mm. Body black with ferruginous and yellow markings. Ferruginous as follows: mandibular teeth, metasoma (except the base of T1 and S1, T2–T4 posteromedially black), and hind tibia. Yellow as follows: scape, labial palpi, maxillary palpi, band on pronotal collar, pronotal lobe, inner side of tegula, basal band on scutellum, all trochanters, apex of femora, fore and mid tibiae, and all tarsi. Flagellar segments and outer side of tegula blackish brown. Wings ( Fig. 3C) hyaline, veins blackish brown, pterostigma dark blackish brown. Setae silvery.

Head. Mandibles microsculptured except bifid apex ( Fig. 2B); median lobe of clypeus elongated, apex triangularly projected, with medial carina reaching anterior margin ( Fig. 2C); scapal basin smooth and glossy without lateral carinae; head with transverse frontal carina, broken medially ( Fig. 2D); frons flat, with minute sparse punctures, almost smooth ( Fig. 2D); POL 0.89× OOL; POL as long as OD; punctation of vertex and genae almost as that of frons; occipital carina high, somewhat strongly crenate, disappearing posteriorly well before hypostomal carina. Antenna ( Fig. 3A) with scape bicarinate, with one distinct carina, second carina feebly indicated; relative length of antennal segments: Scape: Pedicel: F1: F2: F3: F4: F5: F6: F7: F8: F9: F10 = 110: 109: 146: 136: 127: 101: 124: 107: 106: 111: 203.

Mesosoma . Mesosoma ( Fig. 3B) rather dull; mesoscutum including anterior portion strongly and densely punctate, intervals between punctures more or less as long as their diameter; notauli and admedian lines present; parapsidal lines distinct; anterior margin of scutellum slanting towards mesoscutum, but not formed as a distinct furrow and not crenulate; scutellum with fine punctures, each puncture bearing one hair; mesopleuron rather smooth and glossy, finely, uniformly, and sparsely punctate, intervals between punctures larger than their diameter; verticaulus present. Propodeum ( Fig. 3D) glossy, with a shallow alveolus at posterior surface, after that a median carina reaching posterior margin, and two carinae present posterio-laterally. Legs with fore-tarsus relatively short; middle basitarsus with few spines on interior side; length of fore-tibia: fore-tarsus: fore-basitarsus = 16.3: 17.5: 7.9; length of middle tibia: middle tarsus: middle basitarsus = 18: 25.5: 11; length of hind tibia: hind tarsus: hind basitarsus = 24: 31.5: 14.

Metasoma. Metasoma ( Fig. 3E) subsessile; T1–T4 with fine, superficial coriaceous punctation; T5 with more superficial punctation; T1 basally about one-third with a medial furrow, around it impunctate, smooth, and glossy; median length of T1 1.45× its maximum width; T6 ( Fig. 3F) microsculptured, with pygidial plate vestigial, lateral margins weakly carinated.

Male. Unknown.

Biology. Unknown.

Habitat. Moist deciduous forest.

Etymology. The species is named after the country where it was collected.

Distribution. India (Kerala) ( Fig. 4)