The Wharton Lab

Opius gabrieli Fischer, 1968: 77–78 (key); 84-85 (description). Holotype female in
AEIC (examined).
Opius gabrieli: Fischer 1971: 68 (catalog).
Opius (Merotrachys) gabrieli: Fischer 1977: 655–657, 675–676 (key, redescription); Fischer 1978: 166 (range expansion, allotype); Fischer 1979: 264–266 (key); Yu et al. 2005, 2012 (electronic catalogs).

This species was described from the female holotype plus one additional female and two male paratypes, all from the same locality in Brazil. Fischer (1978) recorded two additional males from “Carauru,” Brazil, designated one of these as the allotype, and incorrectly stated that the male was new (i.e. previously unknown). Carauru is an inadvertent misspelling of Caruaru.

Face (Fig. 2) finely but distinctly punctate, punctures separated by nearly 2 x their diameter, strongly shagreened adjacent eye margin, otherwise smooth between punctures. Eye in lateral view 2.0–2.5 x longer than temple; temples in dorsal view not or only weakly receding. Female antenna broken, male from original description with 50 flagellomeres, from subsequent description with 53 flagellomeres; setae on basal flagellomeres thin, pale. Mesoscutum very weakly declivitous (Fig 3), nearly on same plane as pronotum; notaulus extending laterally towards tegula as groove bordered by distinct supramarginal carina. Propodeum coarsely, carinately rugose (Figs 6, 8), with short, deep median trough anteriorly separated from broad, irregular, ill-defined areola posteriorly. Fore wing 3RSa very weakly curved, nearly straight, 1.3–1.4 x longer than 2RS; m-cu interstitial to weakly antefurcal. T1 sharply declivitous anteriorly (Fig. 6), pit delimited posterior-medially; surface shagreened; dorsal carinae (Fig. 8) weakly sinuate, nearly parallel-sided throughout, very weakly diverging subapically then weakly narrowing to apex, not distinctly transversely carinate between dorsal carinae. T2 mostly distinctly shagreened, smoother laterally, T3 faintly shagreened medially, smooth laterally. Ovipositor short; ovipositor sheath about 0.4 x length of mesosoma. Head, body, hind coxa and femur light orange except T3–6 infumate to completely black; wing lightly infumate. Color is completely orange for a majority of the body except for the posterior portion of the metasoma (Figs 1, 7, 8); more specifically, the color transitions abruptly to black starting from the fourth abdominal tergum (T4) onwards.

Opius gabrieli is nearly identical to O. ingenticornis , O. melchioricus , and the newly described O. rojam . All four species have very short ovipositors (as in Fig. 1), heavily sculptured propodea (as in Figs 6, 8), thinner, pale setae on the basal flagellomeres (Fig. 2), and are predominantly orange. Opius antennatus , O. matthaei , O. petri , and O. raphaeli are darker but otherwise share these features and together these eight species form a larger subgroup within the ingenticornis species group. Opius gabrieli is most readily recognized by the black apical metasomal terga relative to O. ingenticornis , O. melchioricus , and O. rojam . O. ingenticornis and O. rojam are more uniformly orange and the face is more completely shagreened than in the other two species whereas O. melchioricus has the tegula black with dark transverse lines across the posterior margins of the meso- and metathorax. Opius filiflagellatus provides an interesting contrast since the propodeum is extensively carinately rugose and the metasoma is intensely shagreened anteriorly as in O. ingenticornis , but the setal pattern on the basal flagellomeres do not match those of the subgroup delineated here.

Additionally, as in all other members of the ingenticornis species group, this species can be further characterized as follows: Mandible short, broadly triangular, dorsal margin strongly angled ventrally, broadly exposing labrum (Fig. 2). Clypeus shaped as a broad crescent, nearly hemispherical, flat to weakly protruding ventrally, ventral margin shallowly concave, rarely appearing truncate. Malar sulcus distinct, complete. Antenna unusually long (Fig. 1), approximately twice longer than body; first flagellomere slender, longer than second, with long, narrow plate sensilla. Occipital carina broadly absent dorsally, the gap in dorsal view at least as wide as distance between eyes; carina well developed laterally and ventrally, widely separated from hypostomal carina ventrally. Pronope (Fig. 4) deep, wide, posterior margin at least weakly overlapping base of mesoscutum, thus obliterating posterior transverse sulcus medially; vertical carina absent on pronotum laterally. Mesoscutum without midpit; notaulus short, curved, pit-like anteriorly, narrowing and evanescent posteriorly. Propodeum with median depression at least anteriorly, never with median longitudinal carina. Mesopleuron without sternaulus, precoxal sulcus unsculptured, absent or very faintly indicated; hind margin of mesopleuron not obviously crenulate on dorsal 0.5. Fore wing 2CUb arising from or near middle of first subdiscal cell. Hind wing with RS distinctly infumate; m-cu absent. T1 with dorsal carinae parallel or nearly so, extending from base to apex; laterope large, deep; dorsope absent.

Brazil, Teresópolis (type locality) and Caruaru.

Fig. 1 shows the data label from the holotype.

Second label is a white Opius gabrieli sp. n. det Fischer holotype label. There is also a yellow institutional label.

This page was assembled largely by Xanthe Shirley and Bob Wharton. It is part of a revision of the Opius ingenticornis species group conducted by Sophia Daniels, Xanthe Shirley, Danielle Restuccia and Bob Wharton, published by Wharton et al. (2013). We thank David Wahl (American Entomological Institute, Gainesville, FL) for loans and general assistance associated with examination of holotypes, as well as Max Fischer and Dominique Zimmermann (NHMW), Henri Goulet (CNC) and Paul Marsh (formerly USDA, Washington, D. C.) for facilitating other loans and work with material in their care. Matt Yoder provided guidance on databasing issues associated with our use of mx. This work was conducted at Texas A&M University and was supported in part by NSF DEB 0949027, with REU supplement 1213790. Page last updated May, 2013.

This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant Number DEB 0949027 and associated REU supplement 1213790.
Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.