Hedychridium personatum Rosa, 2024

Rosa, Paolo, Farhad, Afrouz, Talebi, Ali Asghar, Ameri, Ali, Baiocchi, Daniele, Halada, Marek & Rakhshani, Ehsan, 2024, The Iranian Chrysididae (Hymenoptera), the current state of the art, with an updated checklist and description of eleven new species, Journal of Insect Biodiversity and Systematics 10 (4), pp. 827-951 : 840-843

Hedychridium personatum Rosa , sp. nov. ( Figs 3A–F, 4A–D)

https://zoobank.org/ urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act:9661EA3C-E56F-4233-A272-81ED779BE9EC

Material examined. Holotype ♀; IRAN, Hormozgan province: Bandar Abbas, Zakin , 27°28'53"N, 56°18'27"E, 680 m, 23.V.2011, leg. A. Ameri ( TMUC).

Diagnosis. Hedychridium personatum sp. nov. belongs to a new species-group characterised by the combination of the following characters, such as (in order of importance): metapectal-propodeal complex with a unique structure of the metapostnotum, the median area delimited by metanotum and the metapostnotal-propodeal suture, strongly raised and angulate, mask-shaped ( Fig. 3F); third tergum with swollen apical margin ( Fig. 4C), as in the genus Hedychrum Latreille ; apex of clypeus medially with wide, brown, triangular truncation, laterally with two yellowish-hyaline substraight expansions ( Figs 3B, C); elongate pedicel (l/w = 3.1) and first flagellomere (l/w = 4.7) ( Fig. 3B). The following diagnostic characters are shared with one or more species-groups, but in different combinations: head transversal ( Fig. 3B) (l/w = 1.8, measured from anterior ocellus to anterior clypeal margin/the widest eye distance); scapal basin narrow, transversely deeply striate ( Fig. 3B); metaleg with second tarsomere elongate, as long as third tarsomere; antennae light brown with scape weakly metallic ( Fig. 3B); legs with femur and tarsi yellowish; costal vein, stigma, medial vein + cubitus medio-distally dark brown, other veins light brownish ( Figs 3A, F).

Description. Holotype ♀ ( Figs 3A–F, 4A–D). Body length 4.1 mm, wing length 3.1 mm ( Fig. 3A).

Head. Head transversal ( Fig. 3B) (l/w = 1.8, measured from anterior ocellus to anterior clypeal margin/the widest eye distance); vertex, ocellar area, brow between anterior ocellus and scapal basin with shallow and small punctures (0.1–0.3× MOD), denser towards compound eye and between scapal basin and eye, with dense punctures until malar space; area between brow apically and on upper margin of scapal basin dotted, without large punctures; scapal basin with median area transversely deeply striate (2.4× MOD), laterally micropunctate ( Fig. 3B), each puncture bringing short white seta; punctation from posterior ocelli to temples scattered, with wide impunctate area postero-laterad posterior ocelli; fovea adjacent to posterior ocellus deep and elongate, as long as ocellus ( Fig. 3C); posterior ocelli connected by thin line; subantennal space short, 0.7× MOD; apex of clypeus medially with wide, brown, triangular truncation, laterally with two yellowish-hyaline substraight expansions; clypeus largely polished or with scattered dots. Distance between anterior ocellus and upper margin of scapal basin = 2.0× MOD. OOL 1.4× MOD; POL 1.5× MOD; MS 1.0× MOD; relative length of P:F1:F2:F3 = 1.0:1.2:0.7:0.7.

Mesosoma . Medial pronotal furrow shallow, as median, wide antero-depression; pronotum with small punctures (0.2–0.3× MOD), from contiguous to largely separated by 1 puncture diameter, with transversally weakly wrinkled interspaces medially; punctation on mesonotum similar, with small to medium punctures up to 0.5× MOD distinctly separated; weakly wrinkled interspaces on mesoscutum and weakly rugose on scutellum; notauli formed by deep, metallic, sub-rectangular foveae, as large as largest punctures on mesoscutum; parapsidal signum deep and distinct; mesoscutellum antero-medially largely polished; scutellar-metanotal suture deep, elongate and almost overposed and continuing the mesoscutal-scutellar suture; posterior propodeal projections straight angled, blunt; mesopleuron without sulci, with large punctures contiguous along margins. Radial 1 vein short and as long as Radial 2 vein; Radial 2 continues towards wing margin as thin vein; medial vein gently arched.

Metasoma. Frontal declivity straight, without depressions; first tergum with even, dense, contiguous, and small punctures; second tergum with small and dense punctures on basal half, becoming smaller and scattered on second half, whereas along margins punctures are larger and denser ( Fig. 4B); third tergum with very small, aligned punctures on basal half, becoming larger and denser towards apical margin; apical margin swollen before extended, dark hyaline marginal rim ( Fig. 4C); second sternum fully green metallic on second half, with small, dense puncture.

Colouration. Body entirely green metallic; antennae light brown with scape weakly metallic ( Fig. 3B); tegula brown, non-metallic; legs with femur and tarsi yellowish; costal vein, stigma, medial vein + cubitus medio-distally dark brown, other veins light brownish ( Fig. 3A–F).

Vestiture. Head and mesosoma with short, dense greyish to whitish setae as long as 1× MOD; metasoma laterally with longer, erect setae (1.5× MOD).

Male. Unknown.

Etymology. The specific epithet personatum derives from the Latin adjective personatus (masked) and refers to the mask-shaped metapostnotum, strongly raised and angulate, which is the modified structure of metapectal-propodeal complex characterizing this self-standing species-group.

Distribution. * Iran (Hormozgan).

Remarks. The newly described Hedychridium personatum species-group can be immediately separated from other groups by the shape of the metapectal-propodeal complex, which is a key character. Only another species-group within Hedychridium , namely the plagiatum group, has a highly modified metapectal-propodeal complex not conform to the type species of the genus Hedychridium . It was already observed that the plagiatum group is the most basal of all the Elampini genera, based on multigene molecular analyses ( Pauli et al., 2019) and we expect that also the personatum group can be considered as a monophyletic group. The classification of the genus Hedychridium requires major revision, including the revalidation of Semenov-Tian-Shanskij’s (1954) genera, currently placed in the synonymy of Hedychridium by Linsenmaier (1968) and Kimsey & Bohart (1991). The structure of the metapectal-propodeal complex was always neglected in the study of Chrysididae , but it is a key character, as in the sister family of Bethylidae ( Kawada et al., 2015; Lanes et al., 2020), based on morphological examination of all the Old World species-groups.