Apanteles lamingtonensis Slater-Baker, Fagan-Jeffries, Fernández-Triana, Portmann & Oestmann, 2025

Apanteles lamingtonensis Slater-Baker, Fagan-Jeffries, Fernández-Triana, Portmann & Oestmann sp. nov.

Fig. 5 B View Figure 5 ( distribution), Fig. 45 (holotype View Figure 45 )

Type material.

Holotype. Australia • ♀; QLD, Lamington NP ; - 28.21, 153.139; 15–25 Jan. 2007; C Lambkin, N. Starick leg.; Malaise trap; IBISCA Plot # IQ- 500 - C rainforest; BOLD Process ID: AUMIC 436-18 ; QM: T 208354 . Paratypes. Australia • ♀; QLD, Lamington NP ; - 28.21, 153.139; 15–25 Jan. 2007; C Lambkin, N. Starick leg.; Malaise trap; IBISCA Plot # IQ- 500 - C rainforest; BOLD Process ID: AUMIC 435-18 ; QM: T 208352 . • ♀; QLD, Lamington NP ; - 28.188, 153.121; 10–20 Apr. 2007; Lambkin, Marcora, Starick leg.; Malaise trap; IBISCA Plot # IQ- 700 - A rainforest; BOLD Process ID: AUMIC 439-18 ; QM: T 208353 GoogleMaps .

Examined material.

Australia • ♀; ACT, Canberra, CSIRO Black Mountain, close to Botanic Garden fence ; - 35.2736, 149.102; 31 Jan. – 6 Feb. 2018; T. Pleines & J. Rodriguez leg.; Malaise trap; BOLD Process ID: AUMIC 1149-24 ; ANIC: 32-085546 GoogleMaps . • ♀; as previous except: 2 Apr. – 17 Aug. 2017; BOLD Process ID: AUMIC 1000-24 ; ANIC: 32-085547 GoogleMaps .

Diagnostic description.

Size: Total body length: 2.0 mm; fore wing length: 2.1 mm. Head: anterior scape colour slightly paler than head colour; F 2 L / W ratio: 3.0; F 14 L / W ratio: 0.9. Mesosoma: scutoscutellar sulcus with six pits; mesoscutellar disc mostly smooth, or with very shallow scattered indentations; propodeal areola complete, or mostly so; propodeum mostly smooth; coxae colour (pro, meso, meta): dark all; metafemur colour mostly dark. Wings: centre of pterostigma pigmented to same degree as the outer edges; fore wing r vein length / 2 RS vein length ratio: 1.3. Metasoma: T 1 shape mostly parallel, T 1 medial length / anterior width between 1–2 × longer than wide; T 1 mostly rugose; T 2 mostly smooth; ovipositor sheath length / metatibia length ratio: 1.0.

Apanteles lamingtonensis can be diagnosed from the other species with a dark metacoxa and metafemur, the outer side of metatibia mostly dark with a discrete proximal paler area, antennae of similar length to the body, an ovipositor> 0.6 × metatibia length, and the pterostigma uniformly pigmented (no hyaline centre or large pale spot), by infuscation on fore wing that covers most of membrane, and T 3–6 with setae reduced to a single row.

Etymology.

The epithet is an adjective formed from the type locality, Lamington National Park.

Distribution.

Apanteles lamingtonensis is currently known from the east coast of QLD and potentially from the ACT (see Remarks).

Molecular information.

Sequences of Apanteles lamingtonensis are currently in BIN BOLD: ADL 3013. The COI sequences are at least 5 % divergent from any of the other species treated here, or any available sequence on BOLD. The wg sequence of paratype AUMIC 439-1 (no wg available for the holotype) is at least 3 bp different to any other species. The molecular delimitation of this species is poorly resolved, with COI divergence <2 %, and the sequences of both the QLD and ACT material group in a single BIN. However, COI ASAP groups the species with A. magicus , COI PTP splits one sequence (not examined material, a sequence on BOLD from QLD) from the other A. lamingtonensis material, there are two wg haplotypes 5 bp different that match the wg PTP split (split between QLD and ACT individuals), and the wg ASAP analysis groups the species with A. ferripulvis . In short, molecular delimitation failed to reach any sort of concordance.

Remarks.

It is important to note that the individuals from the ACT are much darker (the classic black / dark brown colouration found in most Australian Apanteles ) than the holotype, the antennae are uniformly dark brown, and they have less infuscation on the membrane (so that they become difficult to separate from the wing infuscation of species like A. alatomicans ). There is also slight variation in the rugosity of the propodeum, with the ACT specimens with more rugose sculpturing on the anterior 1 / 2 of the propodeum. With the incongruence of the molecular delimitation, including the wg barcodes being 5 bp different to the individuals from Lamington NP (the type locality) it is very possible that the ACT specimens are actually a different species. For now, we assign the ACT material to A. lamingtonensis but do not include them in the type series, and hope that greater sampling effort can help better define the species boundaries.