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

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

Fig. 4 C View Figure 4 ( distribution), Fig. 41 (holotype View Figure 41 )

Type material.

Holotype. Australia • ♀; NSW, Lord Howe Island, Lidgbird, East shelf. ; - 31.5636, 159.085; 9–16 Feb. 2017; C. A. Reid leg.; Malaise trap; BOLD Process ID: AUMIC 1205-24 ; AM: K. 377411 . GoogleMaps

Diagnostic description.

Size: Total body length: 3.0 mm; fore wing length: 2.9 mm. Head: anterior scape colour similar or only very slightly paler than head colour; F 2 L / W ratio: 2.5; F 14 L / W ratio: 1.2. Mesosoma: scutoscutellar sulcus with nine pits; mesoscutellar disc mostly smooth, or with very shallow scattered indentations; propodeal areola complete, or mostly so; propodeum mostly smooth posteriorly, mostly rugose anteriorly; 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: 1.7. Metasoma: T 1 shape mostly parallel, T 1 medial length / anterior width between 1–2 × longer than wide; mostly rugose; T 2 mostly smooth; ovipositor sheath length / metatibia length ratio: 1.4.

Apanteles insulanus can be separated from most other species of Apanteles in Australia that have a dark metacoxa and metafemur and the pterostigma without a pale centre, the ovipositor sheath length> 0.6 × metatibia length and the antenna of similar size to the body length by the pterostigma having a small pale spot proximally, the metatibia displaying a gradient of colouration from pale to dark, the colours merging in the centre, T 1 with strong sculpture over at least most of posterior 1 / 2 of tergite, mesoscutellar disc with at most scattered punctures along margins, and fore wing vein 1 M much less pigmented (often transparent / pale) compared to pigmentation of vein 1 CUa. Compared to A. brockhedgesi , A. insulanus has the scutoscutellar sulcus comparatively wider and with comparatively larger pits. The species can currently be best separated from A. ramsaris by DNA barcoding, and placement of the unknown sequence in the context of a phylogeny with the holotype barcodes of both species.

Etymology.

The species epithet is a Latin adjective meaning ‘ of or pertaining to an island’ and relates to the collection locality.

Distribution.

Apanteles insulanus is currently only known from one specimen collected on Lord Howe Island as part of an Australian Museum expedition.

Molecular information.

The holotype of Apanteles insulanus is the only sequence in BIN BOLD: AFQ 4216. The COI sequences are at least 2.4 % divergent from any of the other species treated here, or any available sequence on BOLD. The wg sequence of the holotype is at least 2 bp different to any other species. Most delimitation methods resolved A. insulanus as a discrete species, except for wg ASAP and PTP, which grouped the species with A. ramsaris .

Remarks.

We do not have a strong morphological character to separate A. insulanus from A. ramsaris , and as both the COI and wg sequences have low divergences, it is possible these species are conspecific. However, because of the concordance among the majority of the molecular delimitation methods, and the disparate collection localities (Riverland SA and Lord Howe Island) we split this group into two species for now.