Saltasega distorta Krombein 1983

Saltasega distorta

This species is known from a short series of males captured together with the type series of both sexes of S. bella, new species. These specimens are very similar in coloration to males of that species but have a stockier build and comparatively broader heads. The differences between males of the two species are discussed in detail in the remarks under S. bella. They appear to be distinct species based on the available material. It is possible, however, that S. distorta is just an extreme variant of S. bella and that a longer series of males might exhibit intergradation between the two. If, indeed, S. distorta is a good species, I anticipate that the presently unknown female will differ from the female of S. bella in having a comparatively broader head and stockier build.

HOLOTYPE.—; Sri Lanka, Central Province, Kandy District, Kandy, Udawattakele Sanctuary, 1800 ft (547 m), 23–25 Sep 1980, on leaf litter, K.V. Krombein, P.B. Karunaratne, L. Jayawickrema, V. Gunawardane, P. Leanage (USNM Type 100457).

MALE.—Length 2.8 mm. Black, head and thorax closely punctate but interspaces shiny, the following creamy to pale yellow: mandible except apex, clypeus, tegula, legs except tarsi, and declivous area of first metasomal tergum; apex of mandible, scape and first laterotergum light red; tarsi brown. Wings clear, stigma and veins light brown. Vestiture cinereous, short, relatively dense and suberect on head and thorax, sparser and subdecumbent on abdomen.

Head (Figure 54) width 1.2 times distance from clypeal apex to posterior ocelli, 2.1 times ocellocular distance at anterior ocellus, and 1.6 times dorsal length; ocelli in a flatter (more acute) triangle than in S. bella, postocellar distance 1.4 times lateral ocellar distance and 2.0 times ocellocular distance; vertex slightly convex.

Pronotum with a well-developed groove on posterior half, its median length 0.58 times greatest width and 0.7 times combined lengths of scutum and scutellum; latter sclerite 0.7 times as long as scutum and slightly shorter than postscutellum; distal linear extension of stigma half as long as the enlarged basal section.

Punctures of first and second metasomal terga small, most of them separated by about the diameter of a puncture; second sternum similarly punctate.

FEMALE.—Unknown.

PARATYPES.—All USNM; 6, same locality as holotype, other data as follows: 2, 21–22 Sep 1980, K.V. Krombein, P.B. Karunaratne, T. Wijesinhe, L. Jayawickrema, V. Gunawardane; 3, same data as holotype; 1, 600 m, 12–14 Oct 1980, K.V. Krombein, P.B. Karunaratne, T. Wijesinhe, L. Jayawickrema, V. Gunawardane. Paratypes will be deposited in the Colombo and British museums.

Paratypes are 2.5–2.6 mm long and are very similar in coloration. Two specimens have part of the ocellar area indented, and two have part of the occipital area indented. Other differences are as follows: head width is normally 1.1–1.2 times distance from clypeal apex to posterior ocelli (0.7–0.8 in specimens having part of head indented), 2.1–2.2 times interocular distance at anterior ocellus, and 1.4–1.8 times dorsal length; pronotum with median length 0.56–0.60 times greatest width, and 0.6–0.7 times combined lengths of scutum and scutellum; latter sclerite 0.5–0.7 times as long as scutum and 0.86–0.95 times as long as postscutellum.

This Indo-Australian subfamily contains only the single genus Loboscelidia Westwood. The group has been recorded previously from Viet Nam and Singapore eastward through Indonesia to the Bismarck Archipelago, New Guinea, and eastern Australia, and northward to the Philippines and Taiwan. Two new species have been collected recently in the lowland rain forest of the Sinharaja Jungle, Sri Lanka, on foliage close to the ground, an area where the average annual rainfall is about 3900 mm.

Loboscelidia Westwood

Loboscelidia Westwood, 1874:171.

Loboscelidoidea Rye, 1876:365 [incorrect spelling].

Laccomerista Cameron, 1910:21.

Loboscelidia subgenus Scelidoloba Maa and Yoshimoto, 1961:529.

The synonymy given above was proposed by Day (1979:29).

Loboscelidia is unique among Hymenoptera in having fimbriae on the sides of the head and vertex, pronotum, and propleura. Earlier authors interpreted these as striated membranes, although Fouts (1922:622) came close to the actual condition when he described that on the head of L. antennata Fouts as being “a striated membrane of the appearance of matted hairs.” Actually, the fimbria is composed of flattened setae with broad bases, as may be seen clearly in Figures 34c, 67, 68. The edges of the setae overlap, giving the fimbria the striate appearance.

Presumably the Ceylonese Loboscelidia are parasitic in eggs of walking sticks in leaf litter on the ground. Hadlington and Hoschke (1959) and Heather (1965) reported rearing species of Loboscelidia from eggs of Ctenomorphodes tessulatus (Gray) collected in leaf litter in New South Wales and Queensland, Australia, respectively. Loboscelidia females are collected very rarely, suggesting that they are usually beneath leaf litter searching for host eggs. The greatly enlarged tegulae and lack of a costa and stigma in the fore wing indicate that Loboscelidia is undoubtedly a very weak flier.