Hedychridium personatum Rosa & Farhad & Talebi & Ameri & Baiocchi & Halada & Rakhshani 2024, sp. nov.

Hedychridium personatum Rosa, sp. nov. (Figs 3A–F, 4A–D) https://zoobank.org/ urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act: 9661EA3C-E56F-4233-A272-81ED779BE9EC Material examined. Holotype ♀; IRAN, Hormozgan province: Bandar Abbas, Zakin, 27°28'53"N, 56°18'27"E, 680 m, 23.V.2011, leg. A. Ameri (TMUC). Diagnosis. Hedychridium personatum sp. nov. belongs to a new species-group characterised by the combination of the following characters, such as (in order of importance): metapectal-propodeal complex with a unique structure of the metapostnotum, the median area delimited by metanotum and the metapostnotal-propodeal suture, strongly raised and angulate, mask-shaped (Fig. 3F); third tergum with swollen apical margin (Fig. 4C), as in the genus Hedychrum Latreille; apex of clypeus medially with wide, brown, triangular truncation, laterally with two yellowish-hyaline substraight expansions (Figs 3B, C); elongate pedicel (l/w = 3.1) and first flagellomere (l/w = 4.7) (Fig. 3B). The following diagnostic characters are shared with one or more species-groups, but in different combinations: head transversal (Fig. 3B) (l/w = 1.8, measured from anterior ocellus to anterior clypeal margin/the widest eye distance); scapal basin narrow, transversely deeply striate (Fig. 3B); metaleg with second tarsomere elongate, as long as third tarsomere; antennae light brown with scape weakly metallic (Fig. 3B); legs with femur and tarsi yellowish; costal vein, stigma, medial vein + cubitus medio-distally dark brown, other veins light brownish (Figs 3A, F). Description. Holotype ♀ (Figs 3A–F, 4A–D). Body length 4.1 mm, wing length 3.1 mm (Fig. 3A). Head. Head transversal (Fig. 3B) (l/w = 1.8, measured from anterior ocellus to anterior clypeal margin/the widest eye distance); vertex, ocellar area, brow between anterior ocellus and scapal basin with shallow and small punctures (0.1–0.3× MOD), denser towards compound eye and between scapal basin and eye, with dense punctures until malar space; area between brow apically and on upper margin of scapal basin dotted, without large punctures; scapal basin with median area transversely deeply striate (2.4× MOD), laterally micropunctate (Fig. 3B), each puncture bringing short white seta; punctation from posterior ocelli to temples scattered, with wide impunctate area postero-laterad posterior ocelli; fovea adjacent to posterior ocellus deep and elongate, as long as ocellus (Fig. 3C); posterior ocelli connected by thin line; subantennal space short, 0.7× MOD; apex of clypeus medially with wide, brown, triangular truncation, laterally with two yellowish-hyaline substraight expansions; clypeus largely polished or with scattered dots. Distance between anterior ocellus and upper margin of scapal basin = 2.0× MOD. OOL 1.4× MOD; POL 1.5× MOD; MS 1.0× MOD; relative length of P:F1:F2:F3 = 1.0:1.2:0.7:0.7. Mesosoma. Medial pronotal furrow shallow, as median, wide antero-depression; pronotum with small punctures (0.2–0.3× MOD), from contiguous to largely separated by 1 puncture diameter, with transversally weakly wrinkled interspaces medially; punctation on mesonotum similar, with small to medium punctures up to 0.5× MOD distinctly separated; weakly wrinkled interspaces on mesoscutum and weakly rugose on scutellum; notauli formed by deep, metallic, sub-rectangular foveae, as large as largest punctures on mesoscutum; parapsidal signum deep and distinct; mesoscutellum antero-medially largely polished; scutellar-metanotal suture deep, elongate and almost overposed and continuing the mesoscutal-scutellar suture; posterior propodeal projections straight angled, blunt; mesopleuron without sulci, with large punctures contiguous along margins. Radial 1 vein short and as long as Radial 2 vein; Radial 2 continues towards wing margin as thin vein; medial vein gently arched. Metasoma. Frontal declivity straight, without depressions; first tergum with even, dense, contiguous, and small punctures; second tergum with small and dense punctures on basal half, becoming smaller and scattered on second half, whereas along margins punctures are larger and denser (Fig. 4B); third tergum with very small, aligned punctures on basal half, becoming larger and denser towards apical margin; apical margin swollen before extended, dark hyaline marginal rim (Fig. 4C); second sternum fully green metallic on second half, with small, dense puncture. Colouration. Body entirely green metallic; antennae light brown with scape weakly metallic (Fig. 3B); tegula brown, non-metallic; legs with femur and tarsi yellowish; costal vein, stigma, medial vein + cubitus medio-distally dark brown, other veins light brownish (Fig. 3A–F). Vestiture. Head and mesosoma with short, dense greyish to whitish setae as long as 1× MOD; metasoma laterally with longer, erect setae (1.5× MOD). Male. Unknown. Etymology. The specific epithet personatum derives from the Latin adjective personatus (masked) and refers to the mask-shaped metapostnotum, strongly raised and angulate, which is the modified structure of metapectal-propodeal complex characterizing this self-standing species-group. Distribution. * Iran (Hormozgan). Remarks. The newly described Hedychridium personatum species-group can be immediately separated from other groups by the shape of the metapectal-propodeal complex, which is a key character. Only another species-group within Hedychridium, namely the plagiatum group, has a highly modified metapectal-propodeal complex not conform to the type species of the genus Hedychridium. It was already observed that the plagiatum group is the most basal of all the Elampini genera, based on multigene molecular analyses (Pauli et al., 2019) and we expect that also the personatum group can be considered as a monophyletic group. The classification of the genus Hedychridium requires major revision, including the revalidation of Semenov-Tian-Shanskij’s (1954) genera, currently placed in the synonymy of Hedychridium by Linsenmaier (1968) and Kimsey & Bohart (1991). The structure of the metapectal-propodeal complex was always neglected in the study of Chrysididae, but it is a key character, as in the sister family of Bethylidae (Kawada et al., 2015; Lanes et al., 2020), based on morphological examination of all the Old World species-groups.