Pristaulacus chiangmaiensis Turrisi & Ghafouri Moghaddam 2026, sp. nov.

Information from the abstract

Pristaulacus chiangmaiensis Turrisi & Ghafouri Moghaddam sp. nov. Figs 1, 2 Material examined. Thailand: Holotype • ♀, Chiang Mai, Huai Nam Dang National Park Visitor ctr., 19°18.803'N, 98°36.408'E, pan trap, 24–25.iv.2008, T 5648, Anuchart & Thawatchai leg. (MZUF). Thailand: Paratype • ♀, Nan, Pua, Doi Phu Kha National Park 1, 19°12.236'N, 101°04.667'E, 1341 m, hill Evergreen Forest, Malaise trap, Global Malaise Program, GMP # 37716, 21.iv.2023, CCDB-47579-C 06, BBTH 6392-23, BOLD: AFR 2955, B. A. Butcher leg. (CUMZ). Etymology. The name is derived from the type locality, Chiang Mai, a noun in apposition. Diagnosis. Medium sized species, body length: 12.0 mm. Color mainly blackish, with clypeus, A 1 and base of mandible yellowish orange; legs almost entirely orange, hind legs mostly darker, hind tarus yellowish orange; metasoma almost entirely orange except dorsally with a narrow blackish medial band; head, in dorsal view, 1.2 × wider than long; occipital carina moderately broad, 0.4 × diameter of an ocellus, lamelliform, interrupted medially; median occipital groove moderately wide and deep, U-shaped; lateroventral margin of pronotum with one well developed, acute, straight anterior tooth-like process; anterior margin of mesonotum, in lateral view, widely rounded, not overhanging pronotum; fore wing with a moderately broad substigmal dark brown spot, apex infuscate; fore wing vein 2 - rs + m short (0.2 × vein m-cu 2 length); hind coxa elongate subcylindrical, 2.6 × longer than wide; tarsal claws with four tooth-like processes; metasoma pyriform, strongly compressed laterally; petiole very elongate, 4.8 × longer than wide; ovipositor length 1.3 × fore wing length. Description (holotype ♀). Body length: 12.0 mm; antenna length: 6.3 mm; fore wing length: 8.9 mm; ovipositor length: 11.4 mm. Color. Mainly black, except: clypeus and A 1 yellowish orange; mandible with basal third yellowish orange, remainder parts reddish brown; maxillo-labial complex reddish brown with extensive orange marks; wings hyaline, slightly yellowish throughout, with a small irregular light brown substigmal spot about as wide as half stigma length, extended posteriorly to SM 2 and apex very weakly infuscate; fore and mid legs almost entirely orange with basal third of coxae dark reddish brown; hind leg with coxa, trochanter and tibia (excluding proximal and distal parts) blackish brown, remaining parts orange, femur reddish brown dorsally, tarsus yellowish orange with pretarsus partly darker; metasoma almost entirely orange except a subquadrate blackish brown medial spot on each tergites; valvula 3 of ovipositor dark brown; setae yellowish throughout. Head. Shiny; vertex with mixed fine to moderately coarse, deep and dense punctures (distance between punctures 1.0–1.5 × punctures diameter); frons with moderately coarse, deep and very dense punctures (distance between punctures 0.5–1.0 × punctures diameter); clypeus with very coarse, deep and dense to very dense punctures (distance between punctures 0.5–1.0 × punctures diameter); gena with fine, deep and scattered punctures (distance between punctures 2.0–3.0 × punctures diameter), coarser, deeper and denser behind eye margin; malar area with moderately coarse, deep and dense to very dense punctures (distance between punctures 0.5–1.0 × punctures diameter); head, in dorsal view, 1.2 × wider than long; malar space 0.3 × eye height; gena from above, moderately developed, 0.7 × eye length, widely rounded behind eye and sharply convergent posteriorly; lower interocular distance equal to eye height inner margin of eyes subparallel; eye very wide, ovoidal; eye, in lateral view, 1.3 × longer than wide; postocular length equal to oculo-ocellar length; ocellar area width 1.8 × length; occipital margin sharply convex, occipital groove well developed, U-shaped, wide and deep; occipital carina moderately broad, lamelliform, 0.4 × diameter of an ocellus; A 3 5.8 × longer than wide; A 4 8.8 × longer than wide; A 5 9.7 × longer than wide; A 3 0.6 × longer than A 4; A 3 0.7 × longer than A 5; A 4 1.2 × longer than A 5; setae erect and moderately dense on vertex and upper frons; recumbent and very dense on lower frons and clypeus; semierect, moderately dense and long on gena, setae 0.7 × longer than diameter of anterior ocellus; recumbent and moderately dense on malar area. Mesosoma. Elongate, 2.0 × longer than high, coarsely sculptured, shiny; pronotum transverse-carinate medially to areolate-rugose, anterior margin straight without processes, lateroventral margin weakly arched with one well developed, acute, straight anterior tooth-like process, posterior margin straight, not angulate, without process; propleuron polished and shiny with fine, superficial and scattered punctures (distance between punctures 3.0–4.0 × punctures diameter), punctures coarser and denser laterally and dorsally; prescutum triangular, well defined by raised carinae, with narrow base, weakly concave, transverse-carinate; mesosocutum transverse-carinate; dorsally not prominent, weakly convex; anterior margin of mesonotum, in lateral view, widely rounded, not overhanging pronotum; notauli well defined, deep and wide, meeting each other at transscutal articulation; mesoscutellum not prominent, weakly convex, transverse-carinate on disc, longitudinally-carinate on sides, areolate-rugose on the posterior half; mesopleuron areolate-rugose, subalar area coarsely punctate; metanotum areolate-rugose; propodeum areolate-rugose, anterior margin longitudinally-carinate; ventral parts of mesosoma transverse-carinate to areolate-rugose; vein 2 - rs + m short, 0.2 × vein m-cu 2 length; fore coxa polished-punctate, with coarse, superficial and scattered to moderately dense punctures (distance between punctures 2.0–3.0 × punctures diameter); mid coxa transverse-carinate on dorsal surface, polished to transverse-carinulate-punctate on ventral surface, punctures moderately coarse to coarse, superficial and moderately dense (distance between punctures 2.0 × punctures diameter); hind coxa elongate subcylindrical, 2.6 × longer than wide, transverse-carinate on dorsal surface, polished-punctate to transverse-carinulate on ventral surface, punctures fine, superficial and scattered (distance between punctures 3.0–4.0 × punctures diameter); hind coxal groove transverse, narrow, subapical; inner and outer spurs of mid and hind tibiae subequal; hind basitarsus moderately slender, 7.7 × longer than wide; hind basitarsus 1.2 × longer than tarsomeres 2–5; tarsal claw with four tooth-like processes; setae: erect, moderately long and moderately dense on mesonotum, recumbent, long, and very dense on posterior half of scutellum and metanotum, erect, short and very dense on dorsal surface of propodeum; semi erect to recumbent, long and dense on sides and ventral surface, denser on sides of pronotum; erect, very long and moderately dense on hind surface of propodeum; semi erect to recumbent, long and dense on propleuron, setae length 0.8 × fore pretarsus length. Metasoma. Pyriform, strongly compressed laterally, very long and slender, metasoma length / mesosoma length: 1.7; petiole very slender and elongate, 4.8 × longer than wide; cuticle very finely microsculptured; metasomal segments 1 + 2 shiny, with very few, sparse fine, superficial punctures; remaining segments shiny with very fine, deep and moderately dense punctures on tergites; S 7 shiny with very sparse coarse and deep punctures; ovipositor 1.3 × longer than fore wing; metasomal segments 1 + 2 glabrous; remaining tergites with recumbent, short and dense setae; sternites with recumbent long and moderately dense setae. Intraspecific variation. Paratype ♀, body length: 11.4 mm; antenna length: 5.9 mm; fore wing length: 8.5 mm; ovipositor length: 10.8 mm. Color and color pattern almost the same as holotype. A 1, clypeus, mandibles and legs are slightly darker, orange in respect to the holotype. Distribution. Thailand (Chiang Mai, and Nan provinces). Host. Unknown. Molecular data. The DNA barcode of the paratype specimen differs by 12.95 % from the closest Aulacidae sequence in BOLD (BOLD: AGK 4756), which corresponds to P. vilhelmseni. Our genetic distance analysis corroborated this result, revealing a 14.3 % divergence between P. chiangmaiensis and P. vilhelmseni (Suppl. material 1: table S 2). Remarks. The new species belongs to the Pristaulacus comptipennis species-group and is not obviously related to any known species. It is mainly distinguished by the combination of the color pattern along with shape and punctuation of the head along with the relative length of the ovipositor. Its color pattern and habitus resemble Pristaulacus alius Long, 2024, described from Vietnam based on male sex only (Pham et al. 2024) and P. sharkeyi Turrisi & Smith, 2011 described from Thailand. The resemblance is however only superficial since the shape of the head and of the medial occipital groove, the punctuation, and the color of the setae immediately separate the two species. In detail, relevant diagnostic morphological features: head transverse, 1.2 × wider than long (1.1 × in P. alius); gena moderately developed, widely rounded, 0.7 × eye length (gena slightly longer than eye length in P. alius); punctures of the vertex of the head coarse (fine in P. alius); setae whitish throughout and fore wing with a wide dark brown spot (setae goldish and fore wing without dark brown substigmal spot in P. alius). Based on our current knowledge, these differences are not due to sexual dimorphism, which in aulacids does not affects the features above outlined. P. chiangmaiensis sp. nov. is easily distinguished from P. thailandensis Turrisi & Smith, 2011 by the color pattern, the punctuation of the head, the shape of the mesosoma and the relative length of ovipositor, as follows: clypeus yellowish, hind tarsus yellowish orange, metasoma almost entirely orange with a narrow band on tergites (clypeus blackish, hind tarsus dark brown, met

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