Chrysis titanica 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 : 906-908

Chrysis titanica Rosa , sp. nov. ( Figs 16C, 34A–H, 35A–G)

https://zoobank.org/ urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act:D235865C-127D-48A2-A112-CC639C9670E6

Material examined. Holotype ♂; IRAN, Kerman province: env. Jebel Barez Mts, 2500m, 35 km N of Balvard, env. of Shaldan village , 6.vi.2017, leg. J. Simandl ( MSNM) . Paratypes: 1♀: same data, locality and collector ( PRC) ; 1♂, Kerman province: env. Jebel Barez Mts, 2500m, 35 km N of Balvard, env. of Shaldan village , 6.vi.2017, leg. J. Simandl ( MHC) ; 2♂♂, 1♀, East Azerbaijan province: 10 km E Shabestar, Sis , 38°15'36"N, 45°51'36"E, 1540m; 19.vi.2010, leg. Michal Halada ( MHC) .

Diagnosis. Chrysis titanica sp. nov. belongs to the succincta species group and is related to another two species known for the Middle East, Chrysis coa Invrea, 1939 , and Caucasus, Chrysis vinokurovi Rosa, 2017 . The male can be immediately recognised by the unique shape of its genital capsule ( Figs 16C, 34A), with inner margins on gonocoxae subparallel, fully covering the aedeagus, excluding its pointed apical part, and ending with a convex upper margin and short gonostylus (vs. inner margins oblique, leaving the aedeagus fully exposed and with elongate gonostylus in the other two species: C. coa ( Figs 16D), C. vinokurovi , see online images at Chrysis .net; it can be also separated by the shape of the black spots on second tergum, which are round and clearly separate medially ( Fig. 34H) (vs. rectangular and fully fused medially), whereas it can separated from Iranian males of C. coa by the trisinuate apical margin ( Fig. 34G) (vs. continuous in C. coa ). The female can be separated from C. coa by bisinuate apical margin with median protrusion ( Fig. 35E) (vs. simple, continuous, arched) and from C. vinokurovi for the sparse and large punctures on the metasoma (vs. small and dense punctures) and the colour pattern typical of C. succincta , with green head and mesosoma, and red scutum, and metasoma (vs. dark blue to black on head and mesosoma, with golden anterior margin of pronotum; with a large, median black spot on first and second tergum basally, and apical margin after pit row blackish, contrasting with the red colour of third tergum). Finally, both male and female of C. titanica measure 11.0 mm, being the largest species in the succicnta group (vs. C. vinokurovi maximum length recorded = 10.0 mm and C. coa = 9.0 mm).

Description. Holotype ♂ ( Figs 16C, 34A–H). Body length 11.0 mm, wing length 5.5 mm ( Fig. 34A).

Head. Brow, vertex and ocelli area with dense and small punctures (0.2–0.3× MOD); punctures sparser and larger between posterior ocellus and compound eye, with small punctures on interspaces; posterior ocelli with postero-lateral deep and elongate fovea, as long as ocellum length, appearing as two large foveae medially fused each other ( Fig. 34D); transverse frontal carina with unique shape in this species-group, weakly raised, circular and embracing anterior ocellus ( Fig. 34C); scapal basin deep and densely micropunctate, each puncture bearing white, long seta; scapal basin impunctate below declivitous part and along median longitudinal line; impunctate and polished on preclypear area; malar space finely and densely punctate; genal carina sharp, fully developed from occiput to mandibular insertion; subantennal space short, 0.7× MOD; apex of clypeus straight, slightly arcuate upwards with parallel, narrow dark brown rim. Distance between anterior ocellus and upper margin of scapal basin = 2.2× MOD. OOL 2.1× MOD; POL 2.0× MOD; MS 0.8× MOD; relative length of P:F1:F2:F3 = 1.0:1.9:1.0:1.0.

Mesosoma . Medial pronotal furrow as deep line, reaching half pronotal length; pronotal punctures dense, contiguous with small punctures intermixed, punctures as large as those on temples or slightly larger; punctures on mesonotum widely spaced ( Fig. 34A), with polished interspaces up to 1 puncture diameter, relatively denser on lateral areas of mesoscutum; notauli formed by deep, black, sub-rectangular foveae, as large as larger punctures on mesoscutum and decreasing towards anterior margin; parapsidal signum deep and elongate; scutellum antero-medially largely polished, on average with larger punctures, distinctly spaced and small punctures on interspaces; scutellar-metanotal suture deep, formed by longitudinally elongate foveae; metanotum with larger, deeper and denser punctures; posterior propodeal projections sub-parallel, pointing downwards; mesopleuron with episternal sulcus formed by large sub-square foveae, larger than other punctures on segment, as large as two mesopleural punctures together ( Fig. 34B).

Metasoma. First tergum with even, larger punctures on basal half, equally spaced, becoming smaller on marginal area; second tergum with large, even punctures covering almost all segment ( Fig. 34G), denser antero-dorsally, with small punctures on interspaces; longitudinal median carina on second tergum weak, but visible as golden-red line ( Fig. 34F); third tergum with similar punctures, pits of pit row round, black, considerably deep and large, as large as two of the larger punctures together; apical margin with three undulations and with narrow, brownish rim ( Fig. 34G); spots on second sternum oval, relatively small compared to similar species, medially separated by at least 1× MOD ( Fig. 34H).

Colouration. Body entirely green, with golden-green reflection on face and vertex, lateral areas of mesoscutum and metasoma dorsally; third tergum red, probably due to post mortem effect (whole metasoma expected to be red in nature); metasomal venter red; scape, pedicel and first flagellomere metallic green, rest of flagellum blackish; wings ambrate medially, with dark brown veins.

Vestiture. Head and mesosoma dorsally with short, sparse whitish setae as long as 1.0 to 1.5× MOD; legs with long (1.5× MOD), erect and whitish setae; metasoma laterally with sparse, whitish setae.

Female (Paratype). Body length 11.0 mm, wing length 6.2 mm ( Fig. 34A, 34B).

Head. Brow, vertex and ocelli area with slightly larger punctures (0.3–0.4× MOD); similar punctation on temples and with elongate fovea, as long as ocellum length; transverse frontal carina weakly raised, similar to male; scapal basin deep and polished, laterally punctate, each puncture bearing short, white seta; malar space densely punctate, as clypeus laterally; genal carina sharp similar to male; subantennal space short, 0.8× MOD; apex of clypeus straight, slightly arcuate upwards with parallel, narrow dark brown rim. Distance between anterior ocellus and upper margin of scapal basin = 2.5× MOD. OOL 1.6× MOD; POL 1.8× MOD; MS 1.0× MOD; relative length of P:F1:F2:F3 = 1.0:1.2:0.6:0.6.

Mesosoma . Medial pronotal furrow, punctures on pronotum and mesonotum and metanotum, posterior propodeal projections and other characters as in male.

Metasoma. Sculpture as in male, apical margin of third tergum appearing triangulate, with two lateral blunt corners and a median protrusion apically truncate; apical margin bordered by brownish rim; spots on second large, covering ¾ of sternum length, medially fused and with oblique margin ( Fig. 35G).

Colouration. Female with mesoscutum golden-red to golden-greenish.

Vestiture. Head and mesosoma dorsally with short, sparse whitish setae as long as 1.0 to 1.5× MOD; legs with long (1.5× MOD), erect and whitish setae; metasoma laterally with sparse, whitish setae. Pubescence denser in female.

Etymology. The specific epithet titanica (feminine adjective) is related to the exceptional size of this species, reaching 11.0 mm.

Distribution. * Iran (Kerman, East-Azerbaijan).