Wilkinsonellus daira ( Nixon, 1965 )

Li, Huan, Meng, Yuhao, Lu, Geng, Liu, Zhen & Polaszek, Andrew, 2025, Three new species and one new record of Wilkinsonellus Mason (Hymenoptera, Braconidae) from the Australo-Oriental region, ZooKeys 1240, pp. 177-193 : 177-193

Wilkinsonellus daira ( Nixon, 1965)

Fig. 1

Apanteles daira Nixon, 1965: 198. Holotype in NHMUK (examined).

Wilkinsonellus daira Mason, 1981: 122; Long and van Achterberg 2003: 221; Long and van Achterberg 2011: 124; Arias-Penna et al. 2014: 30; Fernández-Triana et al. 2020: 995.

Material examined.

Holotype • 1 ♂; Keravat , New Britain; 10. v. 1952; bred from Hibiscus leaf folder (J. H. Barett); Com. Inst. Ent. Coll. No.; 3017, B. M. TYPE HYM 3 c. 1884.

Diagnosis.

Male: legs fulvous throughout except metatarsus infuscate (Fig. 1 a, i ); the transverse, posterior tangent to anterior ocellus not touching posterior pair; antennal sockets very deep, their anterior margins strongly raised, forming a sharp keel medially; head above strongly shiny with a few scattered punctures (Fig. 1 b ); face strongly transverse, very shiny with large, scattered punctures, with vague striation towards eye margin (Fig. 1 c ); mesoscutum very shiny with scattered punctures; notauli indicated by a row of larger, more irregularly shaped punctures; propodeum with strong medial carina and various, strong secondary carinae (Fig. 1 e ); vein 1 - R 1 about 1.5 × longer than its distance from the apex of marginal cell (Fig. 1 g ); petiole of T 1 linear but dilated posteriorly, with deep groove throughout; T 2 + T 3 smooth, shiny; T 2 with a hardly defined, raised median swelling that is elongate and more or less parallel-sided (Fig. 1 f ) (based on Nixon, 1965).

Notes.

Nixon (1965) mentioned that this species was characterized by its very large size, colour, and lobed claws. Based on our examination of the holotype, the body length is 5.2 mm, fore wing length is 5.3 mm (Fig. 1 a ), the body is entirely brown-yellow with head slightly paler (Fig. 1 a, b ). Other supplementary characters we add here to the holotype description: antenna distinctly shorter than body length, with penultimate flagellomere 2.1 × as long as wide (Fig. 1 d ); fore wing with vein r 1.3 × 2 - SR, m-cu 0.9 × 2 - SR + M and 1.3 × 2 - SR, 1 - CU 1 0.6 × 2 - CU 1 and 1.3 × cu-a (Fig. 1 g ); hind wing with short setae on vannal lobe posterior margin, cu-a distinctly curved posteriorly (Fig. 1 h ).

Figures

Figure 1. Wilkinsonellus daira (Nixon, 1965), male, holotype a habitus, lateral view b head, dorsal view c head, frontal view d antenna and holotype labels e mesosoma, dorsal view f metasoma, dorsal view g fore wing h hind wing i hind leg.