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

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

Fig. 6 D View Figure 6 ( distribution), Fig. 18 (holotype View Figure 18 )

Type material.

Holotype. Australia • ♀; NT, Gregory NP, Limestone Gorge ; - 16.0503, 130.402; 6–13 Jun. 2001; ME Irwin, FD Parker, C Lambkin leg.; Malaise in dry gully; BOLD Process ID: AUMIC 048-18 ; ANIC: 32-130194 . GoogleMaps

Diagnostic description.

Size: Total body length: 1.6 mm; fore wing length: 1.7 mm., Head: anterior scape colour similar or only very slightly paler than head colour; F 2 L / W ratio: 1.9; F 14 L / W ratio: 1.2. Mesosoma: scutoscutellar sulcus with ten 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 paler (more hyaline) than 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; mostly smooth; T 2 mostly smooth; ovipositor sheath length / metatibia length ratio: 1.0.

Apanteles allapsus can be separated from the other species of Apanteles in Australia that have a dark metacoxa and metafemur and the pterostigma with outer border darker than centre, centre of pterostigma pale or transparent / hyaline by having most fore wing veins pigmented, including 1 CUa, 1 CUb, M + CU, and 1 M pigmented for most of their lengths, T 1 smooth; propodeal areola slightly rounded, and the propodeum relatively smooth.

Apanteles allapsus can be separated from the described species known from Pakistan as follows: from A. angustibasis (Gahan, 1925) by having the ovipositor sheath / metatibia ratio ~ 1.0, and the antenna similar length to the body ( A. angustibasis has the ovipositor and antenna quite short – images of the holotype examined); from A. angalti Muesebeck, 1956 by having the T 2 comparatively more transverse (images of the holotype examined), from A. cypris Nixon, 1965 and from A. significans (Walker, 1860) by having the pterostigma pale / hyaline in the centre (both A. cypris and A. signficans have the pterostigma uniformly pigmented with a pale spot in proximal corner; images of the holotype of A. cypris were examined, and illustration of A. significans Nixon (1965 ; fig. 58 )); and from A. telon Nixon, 1965 (original description used) by more complete carination of the propodeal areola ( A. telon has the areola reduced), a shorter ovipositor sheath ( A. telon described as having the sheath 1.5 × longer than metatibia), and much smaller in size ( A. telon is> 3 mm long). We are unable to locate the description or images of A. quadratus Anjum & Malik, 1978 , and therefore cannot compare versus this species.

Etymology.

The species epithet is a participle in the nominative case and is Latin for a ‘ gliding approach / a flowing near’ and is an oblique reference to the comparatively smooth T 1 and propodeum of this species, and also to the collection locality of Limestone Gorge.

Distribution.

Apanteles allapsus is known from one specimen from northern NT, and potentially from Pakistan (see note in ‘ Molecular Information’.

Molecular information.

The holotype of Apanteles allapsus is currently in BIN BOLD: ADL 2832, which also contains three private sequences from male specimens originating from a Malaise trap in Pakistan, with a maximum divergence of 1.4 %. We have not been able to examine the specimens (other than images on BOLD), but this low divergence suggests that A. allapsus may also occur in Pakistan. The COI sequences in that BIN are at least 6 % divergent from any of the other species treated here, or any available sequence on BOLD. The wg sequence of the holotype is ≥ 5 bp different to any other species. All species delimitation methods delimited A. allapsus as a discrete species.