Australoodera chenghuang Li & Xu & Wang & Chen & Wu & Peng 2025, sp. nov.

2.1 Australoodera chenghuang Li & Peng sp. nov. Zoobank: urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act: 31CCFBD4-C9FD-4A71-A7A6-090DB16C328F Figs 4, 5 Type material. Holotype ♀: CHINA, Dashuikeng, Fujian Tianbaoyan National Natural Reserve, Sanming City, Fujian Province, 17 June 2021, 1070m, Malaise trap, DNA 898 (FAFU). Paratype 1♀: CHINA, Zhejiang Tianmushan National Natural Reserve, Lin’an, Hangzhou City, Zhejiang Province, 19 May 2015, Malaise trap, DNA 459 (FAFU). Etymology. The species name is derived from the Chinese mythical creature Cheng-huang (乘*), a yellow or white fox with horns on its back. The name refers to the long, hair-like setae of the mesoscutellum, although the characteristic is not unique to this species. Noun in apposition. Description. HOLOTYPE, FEMALE. Body length 3.1 mm (ovipositor sheaths excluded). Head (Fig. 4D–F) uniformly brown except clypeus slightly lighter; frons, parascrobal region, scrobal depression, and interantennal prominence with slight golden green and blue metallic luster; temple, occiput, and gena with slight purple, slightly metallic luster. Setae (Fig. 4D–F) of vertex, temple, and occiput brown to dark brown, short, hair-like; setae of lower face white, hair-like, those on frons and parascrobal region with comparatively long, white, hair-like setae. Face with frons and upper parascrobal region mesh-like coriaceous (Fig. 4D,E), vertex and temple transversely reticulate-imbricate, lower parascrobal region reticulate, scrobal depression, interantennal prominence, and lower face transversely reticulate-imbricate. Clypeus (Fig. 4E) shallowly incurved, maxillary palps dark brown, labial palps slightly lighter. Eyes sparsely setose. In frontal view (Fig. 4E), head 1.2× as wide as high, distance between eyes below 1.6× distance between eyes above; in dorsal view (Fig. 4D), 1.62× as wide as long, interocular distance 0.4× head width, and 1.3× eye width; in lateral view (Fig. 4F), malar space 0.5× eye height; distance between toruli 0.7× distance from torulus to clypeal edge, and 1.3× distance between torulus and an eye. OOL:POL:LOL:MPOD = 1.0:3.8:1.7:2.4. Scrobal depression dorsally not delimited (Fig. 4D,E). Antenna with scape yellowish brown, outer surface with one oblique longitudinal white stripe tapered basally (Fig. 4C); pedicel and flagellum dark brown, first to fourth flagellomeres with white setae dorsally (Fig. 4A,C); relative length(width): scape 91.6(16.7); pedicel 27.4(11.6); first to eighth flagellomeres: 9.5(10.0), 29.3(11.4), 33.3(13.5), 33.0(13.7), 29.8(14.9), 27.9(15.1), 23.7(15.6), 24.2(15.6); clava 57.7(17.4). Mesosoma brown with at most obscure metallic luster except posterior part of mesoscutum with bright blue luster, axillae and anterior part of mesoscutellum yellowish brown, prepectus brown anteriorly and dorsally but broadly white ventrally, with dorsal brown region tapered posteriorly, the two distinctly coloured oblique regions sharply delimited (Fig. 4G,H). Pronotum divided medially, and with anterior margin deeply concave (Fig. 4G), sparsely setose with light brown, hair-like setae except for several white setae on posterior margin. Mesoscutum (Fig. 4G) with anterior convex region of medial lobe finely reticulate-rugose, depressed posterior region reticulate-rugose, and lateral lobe slightly, transversely, reticulate-rugose; mesoscutum uniformly setose with brown hair-like setae except for white setae on anterior convex region of mesoscutal medial lobe. Mesoscutellar-axillar complex (Fig. 4G) longitudinally reticulate to reticulate-rugose posteriorly, mesoscutellum (Fig.4G) with distinct, brown, bristle-like setae together forming an erect crest, except anteriorly with short white setae. Acropleuron (Fig. 4H) bare, with longitudinal, finely striate-reticulate sculpture. Mesopectus sculptured as for acropleuron, with anterior one-third sparsely setose with white hair-like setae, posterior two-thirds with brown setae. Metapleuron with long, white, hair-like setae (Fig. 4H). Metanotum (Fig. 4I) convex and band-like; propodeum (Fig. 4I) with plical region short medially, plical furrow triangular, slightly concave paramedially. Front leg (Fig. 4B) brown except coxa, trochanter, and base of femur pale brown, tarsus yellowish brown. Middle leg (Fig. 4B) with coxa, trochanter, and tibia yellowish white, femur light brown, spur and tarsus light yellowish brown (Fig. 4K). Hind leg (Fig. 4B) with coxa light brown except basal part light brown, trochanter light brown, femur and tibia brown, tarsus yellowish brown. Fore wing costal cell (Fig. 4J,L) ventrally with three rows of dark hair-like setae along leading margin, dorsally bare except for dark setae near parastigma; submarginal vein dorsally with one row of setae; basal cell (Fig. 4L) setose basally and apically, but more sparsely setose medially; disc with speculum along basal bold between parastigma and mediocubital fold; disc slightly infuscate, darker brown near stigma, setae of disc short and light brown anteriorly, longer, denser and darker basally; relative length of cc:mv:pmv:stv = 4.2:3.3:1.9:1.0. Gaster (Fig. 4A) uniformly brown with slight purplish green metallic luster; ovipositor sheaths (Fig. 4B) longer than gaster, yellowish brown with light yellowish brown subapical band. MALE. Unknown. Variation. The body length of the paratype is 3.7 mm (excluding the ovipositor sheaths), slightly longer than the holotype, the metallic luster on the mesonotum of the paratype is less pronounced and duller (Fig. 5A). In frontal view, the head is 1.2× as wide as high, and the distance between the eyes below is 1.7× the distance between the eyes above; in dorsal view, the head is 1.9× as wide as long, the interocular distance is 0.4× the head width and 1.3× the width of an eye; in lateral view, the malar space is 0.4× the eye height; the distance between the toruli is 0.9× the distance between the torulus and clypeal edge, and 1.4× the distance between the torulus and an eye. OOL:POL:LOL:MPOD = 1.0:3.9:1.6:2.3. The relative length(width) of antennal segments are as follows: scape = 110.6(18.3), pedicel 30.6(12.2), and the first to eighth flagellomeres are: 10.0(10.0), 38.6(11.1), 38.1(14.4), 39.2(16.1), 33.6(16.4), 31.9(17.2), 30.0(20.0), 26.7(20.0), clava 71.4(22.5). The relative length of cc: mv: pmv: stv is 4.5:3.1:2.0:1.0 (Fig. 5C). The fore wing of the holotype appears to have a bare region behind the marginal vein, but this is actually due to breakage of the setae. Additionally, the basal cell is more sparsely setose medially compared to the paratype (cf. Figs 4L, 5C). Distribution. ORINETAL: China (Fujian, Zhejiang). Host. Unknown. Remarks. Females of this species are easily distinguished from those of other described Australoodera species by the following key characteristics: 1) the mesoscutum is brown with a bright blue metallic luster (Fig. 4G), a trait not found in any other described species; 2) the basal cell of the fore wing is extensively setose (Figs 4L, 5C), whereas A. varicornis has a bare basal cell; 3) the marginal vein is slightly shorter than the costal cell but is at least 0.6 times its length (Fig. 5C) (in contrast, both A. albolata Gibson and A. narendrani Gibson have marginal veins that are noticeably shorter—usually no more than 0.5 times the costal cell’s length—and are roughly equal to or shorter than the postmarginal vein); and 4) the pedicel and flagellum are dark brown, with the first to fourth flagellomeres bearing distinct white setae dorsally (Fig. 4C) (in comparison, A. bicinctipilum has uniformly dark flagellomeres, A. varicornis has white setae on the fourth to eighth flagellomeres, A. narendrani has yellowishorange setae on the fifth to eighth flagellomeres, and A. albolata has brownish-yellow flagellomeres, with the sixth to eighth flagellomeres slightly lighter). Additionally, the mesoscutellar tuft of setae (Fig. 4H) readily differentiates females of this species from those of both described Neotropical species, A. albolata and A. narendrani, which only have short, scattered mesoscutellar setae (Gibson 2004: figs 7‒9). This is the first described species of Australoodera from China and the Oriental region, although Gibson (1995) recorded the genus from the region, and there are reasons to believe that it is more speciose in the Oriental region. We found two photos of Australoodera sp. on the iNaturalist website, uploaded by Janus Olajuan Boediman (Fig. 6), taken at the Erbazi Botanical Garden, Xindian District, New Taipei City, Taiwan province. These photos support our conjecture that Australoodera has a wider distribution than previously speculated.This female has ovipositor sheaths almost as long as its body, significantly longer than that of A. chenghuang. Moreover, the body colour ranges from very dark brown to black, suggesting it could represent a new species yet to described. The photographer mentioned that the wasp was ovipositing on an unknown tree. DNA barcode. The DNA barcode presented here is the first published sequence for the genus (there is one private sequence on the Barcode of Life Data System database).