Record of the Genus Litus Haliday ( Hymenoptera : Chalcidoidea : Mymaridae ) from India , with description of two species

The mymarid genus Litus Haliday is recorded from India for the first time, and two new species, L. huberi Rehmat & Anis, sp. nov., and L. triapitsyni Rehmat & Hayat, sp. nov. are described from material collected from the state of Assam.


Diagnosis
Female.Body robust, highly sclerotized; head and thorax strongly sculptured.Mandible unidentate or bidentate, sometimes longer than malar space.Antennal formula, 1161; funicle segments without longitudinal sensilla; clava unsegmented, usually with 4 longitudinal sensilla.Mesoscutum usually with distinct notauli; scutellum with distinct anterior and posterior parts, the latter longer than the former; mesopostphragma projecting into gaster and usually with apex rounded.Fore and hind wings long and narrow, with very long marginal fringe; marginal vein of fore wing long.Legs with coxae usually strongly reticulate; tarsi 5-segmented.Petiole broader than long.Gaster with first tergite long; ovipositor length variable, either short or long, and hidden or slightly to strongly exserted at apex.

Species and distribution
The genus Litus contains 12 extant species including the two described here.It is nearly cosmopolitan, known from all the zoogeographical regions, except Australia and New Zealand.The Oriental Region species we know till now are from Thailand (L.sutil The species L. enocki Howard (1896) from Sri Lanka has been transferred to Camptoptera by Triapitsyn & Berezovskiy (2004).

Etymology
The species is named after Dr. J. Huber, Canadian Forest Service, Ottawa, Canada.

DESCRIPTION
Female: Length, 0.41mm (Measured from card-mounted holotype before mounting it on slide).Body except distal three tergites of gaster which are brownish-yellow, dark brown to black, shiny; ovipositor sheaths dark brown.Mandibles pale yellow.Antennae dark brown.Fore wing lightly infuscate, hyaline in apical third; hind wing sub-hyaline.Legs with coxae black; femora and tibiae brown to dark brown; tarsi brownish.
Head: Frontovertex broad, about two-thirds of head width (34:53.5);frons with a slightly curved line of prominent denticles (Image 3); clypeus with a median apically pointed lobe (Fig. 1); antennal toruli removed from transverse trabecula by a distance slightly greater than diameter of a torulus; ocellar triangle with apical angle strongly obtuse; posterior ocelli nearly touching supraorbital trabecula; frons with several minute tubercles.Vertex with wide-meshed reticulations; temples strongly reticulate.Mandible unidentate, long, longer than malar space (Image 4; in Figure 1 mandibles appear shorter as the figure was drawn in dorso-lateral view).Antenna as in Image 1; scape, in lateral view as in triapitsyni, Rehmat & Hayat sp.nov., but appears basally straight as it is oriented ventrally; first, fifth and sixth funicle segments (F1, F5, F6) quadratic, F2-4 slightly longer than broad, F2 longest; clava un-segmented, about 2.3x as long as broad, slightly shorter than preceding 5 funicle segments combined, and with 4 longitudinal sensilla.
Thorax: Compact, strongly sclerotized (characteristic of the genus); pronotum not visible in dorsal view of thorax, strongly reticulate, the cells laterally elongate and medially convergent; mesoscutum short, not more than half the length of scutellum, with raised reticulate sculpture, and with 2+2 setae, mesoscutum without notaular lines; posterior scutellum with prominent raised reticulate sculpture (Image 5) compared to sculpture on anterior scutellum; propodeum posterior half behind transverse ridge narrowed and with prominent longitudinal ridges (Image 5).Fore wing disc (=blade) narrow, apically pointed (Image 2); and about 17.5x as long as broad (width measured at broadest point), if width of the blade is measured, the fore wing nearly 22x as long as broad; disc almost bare, except for 2-3 setae just distal of venation, and a row of 5 setae along posterior margin in middle of disc; venation characteristic of Litus species.Hind wing 24.5x as long as broad, similar to that in triapitsyni Rehmat & Hayat, sp.nov.(as in Image 9), disc with a line of setae.Legs with coxae strongly sclerotized.