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

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

Fig. 4 B View Figure 4 ( distribution), Fig. 20 (holotype View Figure 20 )

Type material.

Holotype. Australia • ♀; NT, Gregory Nat Park 8.3 km N Humbert Junction; - 16.0406, 130.455; 6–12 Jun. 2001; ME Irwin, FD Parker, C Lambkin leg.; Malaise in dry bed nr flowing ck; BOLD Process ID: AUMIC 051-18 ; ANIC: 32-130197 . GoogleMaps

Diagnostic description.

Size: Total body length: 2.4 mm; fore wing length: 2.2 mm. Head: anterior scape colour much paler, dramatically different colour than head (a bright orange in holotype); F 2 L / W ratio: 2.8. Mesosoma: scutoscutellar sulcus with 11 pits; mesoscutellar disc mostly smooth; propodeal areola complete, or mostly so; propodeum mostly rugose; coxae colour (pro, meso, meta): dark all; metafemur colour uniformly pale (a bright orange in the holotype). Wings: centre of pterostigma pigmented to same degree as the outer edges; fore wing r vein length / 2 RS vein length ratio: 1.5. 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; hypopygium without defined ventral pleats; ovipositor sheath length / metatibia length ratio: 0.4.

Apanteles apollo can be separated from other species of Apanteles in Australia that have the metacoxa dark and the metafemur uniformly pale by the ovipositor sheaths short (<0.5 × metatibia length), the hypopygium without defined ventral pleats and T 1 and T 2 as in Fig. 20 B View Figure 20 . It is also one of the few species with the scape considerably paler than the head colour when viewed from the anterior side of the head.

Due to this species potentially being identified as Parapanteles , we also diagnose it against the three species of Parapanteles known from Australia. Images of the holotypes and the treatment in Nixon (1965) were referred to. Apanteles apollo can be separated from all three species by having the metafemur pale (all Parapanteles known in Australia have the metafemur dark) and additionally from Parapanteles folia ( Nixon, 1965) by having the pterostigma uniformly pigmented ( Apanteles folia has the pterostigma more hyaline in the centre); from Parapanteles hyposidrae (Wilkinson, 1928) by having a comparatively narrower T 1; and from Parapanteles masoni Austin & Dangerfield, 1992 by having the propodeum rugose ( P. masoni has the propodeum relatively smooth with complete carina).

Etymology.

This species is named for Apollo, an Olympian god from Greek mythology.

Distribution.

Apanteles apollo is currently only known from one specimen from Gregory National Park in the NT.

Molecular information.

Apanteles apollo is currently BIN BOLD: ADL 5064. The COI sequences are at least 7 % divergent from any of the other species treated here, or any available sequence on BOLD. The wg sequence of the holotype is ≥ 26 bp different to any other species. All molecular species delimitation methods separated Apanteles apollo as a distinct species. The phylogenetic position of the species is unresolved, falling outside the main Apanteles clade in the concatenated analysis of COI and wg of Australian species (Fig. 2 View Figure 2 ). However, in the tree of global Apanteles COI sequences, the sequences cluster within the larger clade that contains many Australian species.

Remarks.

This species is potentially better placed in Parapanteles because of the short ovipositor sheaths and the comparatively solid hypopygium without ventral pleats. However, Parapanteles is currently poorly defined and until a more conclusive revision of the genus is completed, we feel it is more useful to place A. apollo in Apanteles because of the molecular data clustering it with morphologically ‘ true’ Apanteles . We note, however, that this species would be an ideal candidate to include in phylogenomic studies of microgastrine genera limits as it may well belong in a different genus.