Areopraon Mackauer 1959

Genus Areopraon Mackauer, 1959

Type species. Praon lepelleyi Waterston, 1926.

The genus Areopraon consists of 11 species, ten of which distributed in the Palaearctic zoogeographic region and with one species from the Oriental region (Takada 1968, Yu et al. 2016, Tian et al. 2018). However, according to Tomanović et al. (2006), two species known from the fauna of Japan and described on basis of only males (Takada 1968) may belong to other genus. Prior to this study, six species were recorded in the Russian fauna (Davidian 2019).

The parasitoids of the genus Areopraon are characterized by the following main diagnostic features: fore wing usually with the first abscissa of medial vein (1-SR+M), ovipositor sheaths covered by dense or sparse setae and without thickened apical bristles. The most species of this genus also distinguish by usually completely setose mesoscutum, but sometimes with bare areas on its lateral lobes; notauli long and usually not fused in posterior part of mesoscutum; propodeum with central areola or pair of long or short carinae diverging forwards from its distal part and directed to sides upper spiracles; pterostigma of fore wing with elongated basal and short apical parts; and hypopygium in lateral view mainly without transverse striation.

Among known Areopraon species, A. thailandicum Starý, 2008 described from Thailand stands apart as a distinctive species (Starý et al. 2008). It is distinguished by the following characters (see Figs 1C, 1D, 2F): antenna with 12 antennomeres, mesoscutum almost entirely glabrous, notauli deep and long, arcuately fused before posterior margin of mesoscutum, propodeum with two short and divergent anteriorly carinae. In the fore wing of this species, the pterostigma is wide and forms an isosceles triangle, metacarpus (1-R1) 0.3 × as long as pterostigma, recurrent vein (m-cu) absent, and the first medial abscissa (1-SR+M) discolored. A distinct transverse vein divides the submedial (subbasal) cell into two different sizes cells and there is a fine second transverse anal vein (a) (Fig. 2C). The petiole of A. thailandicum is short, 1.2 × longer than its width at level of spiracles, with two longitudinal carinae. According to original description of this species (Starý et al. 2008), “distal dorsal part of second metasomal tergite with very prominent horizontal longitudinal protuberance”. However, anterior margin of the second tergite in the new species is without such anterior area (“anterior transverse protuberance”). Previously this character was indicated by Tomanović et al. (2009) as additional diagnostic feature of the genus Areopraon, but actually it is present not in all known species.

Two new species of the genus Areopraon close to A. thailandicum Starý were found in the fauna of the Russian Far East and they are described below.