Orgilus ferus Muesebeck 1970

Mont., N. Mex., Idaho, Utah, Wash., Calif.

Orgilus ferus

This species most closely resembles lunaris, new species, but is distinguished especially by its black tegulae and wing bases, more receding temples and hyaline wings.

FEMALE.—Length about 3.8 mm. Head slightly wider than thorax, in dorsal view nearly twice as wide as long; face about 1.3 times as wide as eye height, shiny, with scattered shallow punctures on the lower part and rugulose on the upper part; malar space longer than clypeus and just about half as long as eye height; anterior tentorial pits much below level of lower eye margins; cheeks weakly alutaceous; temples smooth and polished, gradually receding, about 0.75 as wide as eyes; occipital carina narrowly interrupted medially; ocellocular line twice as long as diameter of an ocellus; antennae 30- or 31-segmented in the available specimens, none of the segments as broad as long.

Mesoscutum smooth and shiny, without distinct punctures; notauli sharply impressed, foveolate, very coarsely so posteriorly, and meeting in a small rugulose area; prescutellar sulcus large and deep, the septa very low, the foveae very small; disc of scutellum convex, polished; propodeum strongly convex, rugulose punctate, the stubs of the carinae at the posterior margin weak or indistinct; side of pronotum rugulose, weakly so toward upper margin; mesopleuron smooth and polished, the longitudinal furrow evenly and finely foveolate; metapleuron rugulose posteriorly below, largely smooth anteriorly above. Hind coxa about half as long as hind femur, rugulose above, at least toward base, largely smooth on outer side; hind femur very nearly five times as long as broad; inner calcarium of hind tibia more than half as long as metatarsus; tarsal claws simple. Radial cell on wing margin slightly shorter than stigma; second abscissa of radius on a line with intercubitus; stub of third abscissa of cubitus a little longer than second abscissa; nervulus a little postfurcal; hind wing just over four times as long as wide; lower abscissa of basella not longer than nervellus.

Abdomen barely longer than thorax; first tergite about 1.2 times as long as broad at apex, very finely rugulose punctate but with the smooth basal area extending caudad medially to the middle of the tergite, the dorsal keels not developed; second tergite about 0.75 as long as broad at base, finely confluently punctate except along posterior margin where it is smooth; third tergite with a transverse punctate area on basal half; second suture very fine but distinct; remainder of dorsum of abdomen smooth and polished; ovipositor sheath about as long as distance from base of scutellum to end of abdomen.

Black; scape entirely black or blackish; flagellum more or less brownish toward base; palpi black; legs reddish testaceous, with the basal segments of the trochanters of all legs, the dorsal edges of all femora more or less, the middle and hind tibiae in part, and all the tarsi, somewhat darkened; tegulae black, wing bases piceous; wings hyaline.

MALE.—Essentially like the female. Antennae 30- or 31-segmented in the available specimens, the segments of the apical half considerably longer than in the female; the legs darker than in the female, all coxae usually black and the fore- and middle femora more extensively darkened.

HOLOTYPE.—USNM 70164.

DISTRIBUTION.—Known only from the type-series which comprises the following: Holotype female and 1 male collected by M. C. Lane at Lind, Washington, 7 May 1923 and 15 May 1922, respectively; 1 female and 1 male, Lind, Washington, 11 June 1919, F. W. Carlson; 1 female, Park Valley, Utah, 17 July 1929, G. F. Knowlton; 1 female, Wellsville, Utah, 29 June 1929, G. F. Knowlton; 2 females, Melba, Idaho, June and July 1957, H. W. Homan; 1 female, Hollister, Idaho, 11 July 1929; 2 females, Taos, New Mexico, 9000 feet, June 1960, “Burks and Kinser,” and 1 female, Walker Pass, Kern County, California, 26 April 1949.