Ooencyrtus hayatii Singh, sp. nov.

Ooencyrtus hayatii Singh sp. nov.

(Figs 32 – 38)

Diagnosis. Female body yellow except head, pronotum and proximal fourth of mesoscutum dark brown, and metasoma slightly brownish at middle; antenna with all funicle segments longer than wide except F6 quadrate. Frontovertex at level of median ocellus one-fifth head width.

Description. FEMALE. Length, holotype 1.24 mm, paratype 0.85 mm.

Color/Sculpture. Body (Figs 32, 33) light yellow except pronotum mostly and small area just behind pronotum dark brown, and metasoma light brownish at middle. Head dark brown, mouth margin slightly lighter; ocellar area with faint reticulate sculpture; scrobes, malar area with longitudinally elongate reticulate sculpture; frontovertex with about 12–16 setae in two rows apart from a row of setae along inner margin of eye; gena, inter-torular prominence, and mouth margin with short, sparse setation; eyes gray, sparsely setose, setae as long as a facet. Mandible dark brown. Antenna light yellow. Mesosoma pale yellow; pronotum dorsally and centrally on face as dark brown as head, lighter on periphery, transversely reticulate with about 20 light brown setae along posterior margin; mesoscutum with distinct horizontally reticulate sculpture within basal third, posteriorly with weak reticulate sculpture, with about 70–80 long, light brown to pale yellow setae; scutellum with weak reticulate sculpture, with about 20 long, pale yellow setae, one pair medially and another longer pair distally. Wings hyaline, veins light yellow. Legs completely pale yellow. Metasoma yellow with pale brown especially across middle third.

Structure. Head, in dorsal view (Fig. 35), with anterior margin and occipital margin slightly concave; eyes over-reaching occipital margin posteriorly; inner eye margins converging from occipital end toward median ocellus, almost parallel just beyond median ocellus, and then diverging anteriorly; frontovertex 2.5× as long as wide (255: 99), at level of median ocellus 0.2× as wide as head width (99: 480); ocelli in acutely angled triangle, apical angle about 45°; POL slightly longer, OCL 0.8×, and OOL 0.1× as long as diameter of median ocellus (48: 34: 5: 43). Head, in frontal view (Fig. 34), distinctly wider than long, about 1.1× (480:433) as wide as long; 4.84× (480: 99) as wide as frontovertex at median ocellus; inner margins of eyes almost parallel at level of median ocellus, diverging out smoothly towards occipital margin but drastically from dorsal margin of scrobes toward malar sulcus; eye 1.76× (310: 176) as long as wide; scrobes shallow, meeting dorsally; toruli half their length below line joining ventral eye margins, distance between torulus and median ocellus 1.48× (274: 185) length of scrobe; torulus 1.48× (52: 35) as long as wide; ITD 1.86×, TMD 0.67×, and TED 1.57× as long as length of torulus (= 97: 35: 82: 52). Head, in profile (Fig. 36), with anterior margin conical but evenly rounded; malar space 0.32× (141: 433) head height; eye 1.28× (301: 235) as high as wide. Antenna (Fig. 37) with scape spindle shaped, widest at center, 4.9× (202: 41) as long as wide; pedicel long, conical, 2.16× (80: 37) as long as wide; funicle 6- segmented, all segments longer than wide except F6, with F1 narrowest, 0.5× as long as pedicel and 1.5× (39: 26) as long as wide, F2 1.46× (44: 30), F3 1.4× (44: 31), F4 1.43× (46: 32), F5 1.31× (46: 35) as long as wide, and F6 quadrate to slightly wider than long (35: 37); club 3-segmented, pointed apically, 2.3× (138: 46) as long as wide.

Mesosoma (Fig. 38) slightly longer than wide (520: 474), as wide as head (474: 480); pronotum a short, transverse strip dorsally, 19× (387: 20) as wide as long; mesoscutum slightly convex from side to side, 1.74× (436: 250) as wide as long, with posterior margin greatly overlapping axillae, mesally separating axillae by 0.77× length of an axilla (62: 80); scutellum convex, sides rounded, slightly wider than long (262: 226), shorter than mesoscutum (226: 250); propodeum a transverse strip, about 17× as wide as median length. Fore wing (Figs 8, 9) with marginal vein as long as stigmal vein (58), postmarginal vein 0.6× stigmal vein (36:58). Middle leg with tibial spur 0.72× as long as basitarsus (117: 161).

Metasoma (Fig. 32) slightly wider than long (495: 474), shorter than mesosoma (474: 520), pointed apically, with cercal plates situated at basal third; last tergite U-shaped; hypopygium reaching half length of metasoma (246: 474); ovipositor sheaths not exserted, ovipositor 1.18× as long as middle tibia (539: 455); third valvulae 0.18× length of ovipositor length (102: 539).

MALE. Unknown.

Variation. There is very little variation among females except for size as given in the description.

Material examined. Holotype (NFIC-FRI; Accession No. NFIC-FRI-21911), female (dissected and mounted on a slide under eight covers) labeled “ INDIA, Karnataka, Bannadapaare, Makuta near Virajpet (N 12°04' 39.2"; E 75°43'33.6") in the Western Ghats; 26.vi.2003; YB Srinivasa; ex. canopies of Vateria indica, located at an altitude of 128 m amsl; collected by canopy fogging”. Specimen was dried with HMDS, photographed and then dissected.

Paratype (1♀, slide mounted); other data same as for the holotype, labeled Acc. No. NFIC-FRI-21911.

Host. Unknown.

Distribution. Western Ghats, Karnataka, India.

Etymology. Species named after the Prof. Mohd. Hayat for his remarkable contributions on Indian Encyrtidae.

Comments. This appears to be a unique species, females being completely yellow except for the following being dark brown: head, pronotum and proximal fourth of mesoscutum, and a spot at each side of metasoma adjacent to cercal plates. It does not run exactly to any species in available keys to Ooencyrtus by Huang & Noyes (1994), Noyes (1985), Prinsloo (1987), Trjapitzin (1989) or Hayat (2006). The new species is apparently similar to O. macula Huang & Noyes (1994) and O. nanus Prinsloo (1987) in body color but quite different from both. It differs from O. macula mainly by the following characters (characters in bracket are those of O. macula): antenna with F6 quadrate to wider than long (longer than wide), fore wing hyaline (with median infuscate band), mesopleuron and propodeum pale yellow (mesopleuron mainly brown anteriorly, propodeum laterally), ocelli in acutely angled triangle, apical angle about 45° (30°), club longer than combined length of F4–6 (slightly shorter). It also resembles O. nanus Prinsloo (1987) in body color, but differs on the basis of the following main characters (characters in bracket are those of O. nanus): mesopleuron and propodeum pale yellow (mesopleuron mainly brown posteriorly, propodeum brown laterally), head 5× as wide as frontovertex (about 3×), lateral ocellus touching eye margin (lateral ocellus its own diameter away from eye margin), scape 4.9× as long as wide (6.5×) and club longer than combined length of F4–6 (distinctly shorter).