The genus Cyrtoptyx
Delucchi (Hymenoptera: Chalcidoidea: Pteromalidae) from India, with a
description of a new species from the southern Western Ghats of Kerala
P.M. Sureshan
Zoological Survey of
India, Western Ghat Regional Centre, Jafferkhan Colony, Eranhipalam P.O.,
Kozhikode, Kerala 673006, India
Email:
pmsuresh43@yahoo.com
Date of publication (online): 26 May 2012
Date of publication (print): 26 May 2012
ISSN 0974-7907 (online) | 0974-7893 (print)
Editor: Mohammad Hayat
Manuscript details:
Ms # o3040
Received 19 December 2011
Final received 15 March 2012
Finally accepted 27 April 2012
Citation: Sureshan, P.M. (2012).
The genus Cyrtoptyx Delucchi
(Hymenoptera: Chalcidoidea: Pteromalidae) from India, with a description of a
new species from the South Western Ghats of Kerala. Journal of
Threatened Taxa 4(5): 2578–2581.
Copyright: © P.M. Sureshan 2012.
Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License. JoTT allows unrestricted use
of this article in any medium for non-profit purposes, reproduction and
distribution by providing adequate credit to the authors and the source of
publication.
Acknowledgement:
I am
grateful to Dr. K. Venkataraman, Director, Zoological Survey of India, Kolkata
and C. Radhakrishnan, Officer-in-charge, Zoological Survey of India, Kozhikode
for providing all the facilities for the work and constant encouragement. I am also grateful to Dr. Jhon S.
Noyes, The Natural History Museum, UK, and Dr. Xiao Hui, Institute of Zoology, Chinese
Academy of Zoology, Beijing for providing relevant literature for my work. I am also thankful to Mr. C. Bijoy and
Ms. Dhanya Balan, junior research fellows, ZSI, Kozhikode for helping to
prepare the photographs and the electron scan pictures of the specimens. Thanks are also due to the Chief
Wildlife Warden, Kerala and the forest officials of Waynad forest division for
granting the permission to conduct faunisitic surveys and make collections and
as well for the various help rendered during the field work.
Abstract:
A taxonomic account on Cyrtoptyx
Delucchi (Hymenoptera: Pteromalidae) is given and a new species, C. wayanadensis, is
described from the southern Western Ghats of Kerala, India. The affinities of the new species with
the related species are discussed.
Keywords: Cyrtoptyx,
Hymenoptera, Chalcidoidea, Pteromalidae, new species, Kerala, India.
The genus Cyrtoptyx Delucchi (1956) belongs to the
pteromalid subfamily Pteromalinae. Noyes (2011) lists a total of nine described
species from the world, but from India (Tamil Nadu) and Pakistan, only one
species, C. latipes
(Rondani), was recorded by Bouček et al. (1979). During the faunal exploration surveys conducted in the
forested tracts of the southern Western Ghats of Wayanad District, Kerala,
interesting specimens of Cyrtoptyx
were collected by sweeping over vegetations from a patch of
moist deciduous forest located at the foothills of Banasura peak. The specimens were identified as
belonging to an undescribed species and are described hereunder.
The morphological terminology used in the
paper follows that of Bouček (1988).
The type material of the new species is deposited in the Zoological
Survey of India, Western Ghat Regional Centre, Kozhikode, Kerala (ZSIK).
Cyrtoptyx
Delucchi, 1956
Cyrtoptyx Delucchi, 1956: 240, 252. Type species Dinarmus robustus
Masi, 1907, by original designation.
Diagnosis: Body stout, metallic, generally bluish
black, dark metallic green or bronze tinged; anterior margin of clypeus
shallowly emarginate; antennal formula 11353 in female and 11263 in male; clava
with sutures straight, area of micropilosity restricted to the third segment;
mesosoma convex; pronotal collar almost as broad as mesoscutum, not margined
anteriorly or at the most with a weak carina in the middle; mesoscutum with
notauli incomplete; propodeum without nucha, with distinct median carina; forewing with PMV longer than STV (at
least 1.8x); metasoma sessile, lanceolate; hind margin of T1 produced.
Hosts: Cyrtoptyx species are mainly parasitoids of Dacus flies (Diptera:
Tephritidae), Curculionidae, Anthribidae
(Coleoptera), Gelechiidae, Coleophoridae, Tortricidae, Pyralidae (Lepidoptera),
Cynipidae and some Hymenoptera
(Noyes 2011).
Species
and distribution: World species nine (Noyes 2011). These are: Cyrtoptyx bruchi (Blanchard 1940)
from Argentina; C. flavida
Xiao, Chen & Huang, 2003, from Beijing, China; C. gallicola Dzhanokmen, 1976, from Kazakhstan; C. gilloni Rasplus,
1989, from the Ivory Coast; C.
latipes (Rondani, 1874) from the holarctic, oriental and
afrotropical regions; C.
lichtensteini (Masi, 1922) from the Holarctic and Afrotropical
regions; C. pistaciae
(NikolÕskaya 1935) from the palaearctic region; and C. robustus (Masi, 1907) from the palaearctic
region. Delucchi (1956) considered
C. cynipidis
(Masi, 1922) as a probable synonym of C. robustus, and this was followed by Graham
(1969).
Comments: Cyrtoptyx
closely resembles the genera Oxysychus
Delucchi and Ischyroptyx
Delucchi in general morphology. It
differs from Oxysychus
in having pronotal collar only weakly carinate in the middle, clava with the
area of micropilosity limited to
its apical segment and propodeum not much flat (in Oxysychus, pronotal collar with a
complete fine carina, clava with area of micropilosity extending all along its
length and propodeum between spiracles almost flat or weakly carinate). Cyrtoptyx differs from Ischyroptyx in having
MV not thickened and at least 1.8x as long as STV, forewing hyaline or
subhyaline, hairs on thorax thin and not conspicuous (in Ischyroptyx,
MV slightly thickened from base, at most about 1.4x as long as STV, forewing
often with slight broad infumation and hairs on mesosoma curved and broad,
usually white and conspicuous).
Cyrtoptyx wayanadensis sp.
nov.
(Images
1-7)
Material
examined: Holotype: Female, 19.xi.2011, 11067.7Õ40ÓN
& 75093.5Õ06ÕÕE, altitude 834m, foot hills of Banasura peak,
south Wayanad forest Division, Wayanad District, Kerala, India, coll. P.M.
Sureshan (ZSI/WGRS/IR-INV-2145)
Paratypes: Three females, one male, data same as holotype except
Reg. Nos.: Females: ZSI/WGRS/IR-INV-2146, 2233, 2234; Male:
ZSI/WGRS/IR-INV-2235) (one female paratype used for SEM, ZSI/WGRS/IR-INV-2146).
Etymology: The species name is derived from the name of
the district (Wayanad) where the specimens were collected.
Description: Female: Length 3.0–3.9 mm (holotype
3.9mm). Colour: Head metallic
blue; eyes cupreous; ocelli
yellow; antennae yellowish-brown with scape, pedicel and anelli more yellowish;
mandibles yellow with apical half brown; mesosoma metallic blue; tegulae pale
yellowish-brown; wings hyaline; veins pale yellowish-brown; stigmal knob dark
brown; discal pubescence brown;
coxae concolorous with mesosoma except middle coxae brown; femora
yellowish-brown except fore femora brown; rest of legs yellowish-white with
tips of tarsi brown; gaster blackish-brown with metallic blue bands laterally
in the middle of tergites and base of T1 dorsally;
Head (Images 2, 5) distinctly reticulate with
moderately dense white pubescence; in dorsal view head width 1.9x length;
temple narrow, 0.2x eye length; POL 1.62x OOL; occiput not margined. In front view head width 1.3x height;
scrobe deep, not reaching median ocellus; clypeus radiately striated, anterior
margin very slightly emarginate; malar grooves indicated; malar space 0.6x as
long as eye in profile; eye length 1.3x width in profile; eyes separated 1.4x
their length at level of toruli; both mandibles with 3 teeth. Antennae (Images 3, 4 ) inserted above
middle of face, distinctly above lower ocular line; toruli separated 0.32x
their individual diameter; scape exceeding well above median ocellus, little
shorter than eye and 4.9x as long
as pedicel; pedicel plus flagellum 1.3x as long as head width; pedicel 1.6x as
long as broad; third anellus little longer than second; anelli together 0.62x
as long as pedicel; funicular
segments slender, elongated, with uniform thickness, decreasing in length; F1
longest, F2 0.9x F1, F5 shortest, 0.64x F1; F1 and F2 with five irregular rows
of sensillae, other segments with four rows of sensillae, clava little wider
than funicle, 2.7x as long as
broad and 1.51x as long as F5; area
of micropilosity restricted to tip of clava; sutures almost straight ;
pubescence moderately long.
Mesosoma: (Image 6) In dorsal view 1.52x as long as
broad, uniformly reticulate punctate with moderately dense white curved hairs,
reticulation closer on sides.
Pronotum not carinate anteriorly, sharp edged in the middle. Mesoscutum 1.7x as broad as long,
notauli incomplete. Scutellum as
long as broad, frenum not separated.
Dorsellum distinctly reticulate, little elevated. Propodeum finely reticulate, median
area more polished, nucha absent, posterior margin deeply emarginate, median
carina complete, anterior margin of propodeum with a transverse depression,
traversed by rugae; plicae indicated posteriorly; spiracle elongate ovate,
almost touching hind margin of metanotum; callus with long white hairs. Prepectus short, finely reticulate,
almost equal to length of tegula.
Mesopleuron almost completely reticulate except for a narrow triangular
smooth area beneath wings. Metapleuron reticulate punctate. Forewing length 2.5x width, basal part
almost bare, basal vein
represented by few hairs in the upper end; speculum open below; costal cell hairy on upper half and
distal end; stigma moderately capitate.
Relative lengths of SMV, 18; MV, 12; STV, 5; PMV, 10. Fore and hind coxae distinctly
reticulate; mid coxae finely reticulate; hind coxae with tuft of white hairs on
the anterior-lateral margin, 1.5x as long as broad; hind femora 3.3x as long as
broad; hind tibiae with two unequal spurs.
Metasoma: (Image 7) Gaster lanceolate, 1.4x as long as
head plus mesosoma combined in profile; in dorsal view 2.9x as long as broad,
slightly collapsing dorsally, posterior margin of T1 slightly produced; T2
almost straight, T3-T5 concave; surface of T2 onwards finely transversely
striate reticulate; ovipositor sheath slightly protruded; tergites moderately
and densely pubescent on dorso-lateral areas; hypopygium reaching middle of T4.
Male: (Image 1) Length 2.6mm. Colour metallic greenish-blue. Differs from female in having antennae
with two anelli and five long funicular segments with dense pubescence; gaster
compressed, with an elongated
brownish-yellow spot in the base dorsally and completely yellow
ventrally.
Remarks: This species is unique in having long
slender antennae in both the sexes.
In the nature of gaster, forewing venation and general morphology it
resembles C. latipes
(Rondani) but differs from it in the nature of antennae which are long and
slender, combined length of pedicel plus flagellum 1.3x as long as head width,
F1 and F2 with five irregular rows of sensillae, other segments with four rows
of sensillae, gaster with hind margin of T1 only slightly produced. (in C. latipes, antennae not long and slender combined
length of pedicel plus flagellum slightly shorter than head width, F1–F3
with three rows of sensillae and F4 and F5 with two rows of sensillae, hind
margin of T1 moderately produced.).
It also resembles C.
flavida Xiao et al. 2003, but differs from it in having
antennae inserted above middle of face, funicular segments with more than two rows of sensillae, gaster
2.9–3.1x as long as broad with hind margin of T1 slightly produced, and
body metallic blue (in C.
flavida, antennae inserted middle of face, each funicular
segments with two rows of sensillae, hind margin of T1 moderately produced,
body black with metallic gloss).
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