Ooencyrtus pistaciae Hayat & Mehrnejad, sp. nov.

(Figs 1–16)

Female. Holotype. Length, 0.94 mm. (0.86–0.96 mm, n = 7; 1 female on slide, 1.07 mm). Body (Fig. 1) completely dark brown to black; frontovertex dark brown, with coppery shine; inter-torular area violet; greenish on face and malar space; mouth margin coppery. Antenna with radicle dark brown; scape dark brown, apically yellow; pedicel brown in basal half and yellow in distal half; funicle and basal segment of clava brownish yellow, distal two segments of clava brown. Mesosoma with mesoscutum medially dark coppery, sides shiny brassy metallic green; scutellum dark coppery, nearly apical third smooth and coppery, with sides and apical fourth less shiny metallic green; tegula dark brown; metanotum and propodeum black; mesopleuron largely violet. Wings hyaline; fore wing with infuscation around marginal and postmarginal veins; discal setae in about basal half largely translucent. Legs, including fore coxae, yellow or yellowish white; mid coxa brown on ventral surface; hind coxa and hind femur except apices, dark brown; fore and mid femora pale brownish yellow with white apices, fore and mid tibiae and hind tibia a little darker yellow, with apices white; last segment of tarsi brown. Gaster dark brown; TI with some coppery and greenish shine; third valvula (= gonostylus) dark brown.

Head, in dorsal view (Fig. 2), 3.47× as broad as frontovertex width, or frontovertex width 0.28× head width; ocellar triangle with apical angle slightly acute; POL 5× OOL, and 2× OCL (5:1:2.5); head, in frontal view, 1.1× as broad as high [paratype, on slide, 1.21× as broad as high, Fig. 3.]; scrobes inverted U-shaped, margins rounded; antennal torulus with upper margin below lower margin of eye, and separated from mouth margin by height of torulus; eye height 1.81× malar space; frontovertex with raised, polygonal reticulate sculpture, on face up to malar sulcus with fine, slightly elongate-reticulate sculpture; posterior to malar sulcus with lineolate-reticulate sculpture; setae on head silvery white; eye apparently bare. Mandible (Fig. 4) with one short tooth, a small second tooth and a broad truncation. Antenna (Fig. 5) with flagellum slender; pedicel plus flagellum slightly longer than head width; scape nearly 7× as long as broad; F1 slightly less than 2× as long as broad, and shorter than F2; F2–F6 each at least about 2× as long as broad; clava slightly shorter than F4–F6 combined. Relative measurements (holotype, card): head dorsal width, 33; frontovertex width, 9.5; head frontal height, 30; eye height, 20; malar space, 11; pedicel plus flagellum length, 38.

Mesosoma. Mesoscutum with fine polygonal reticulate sculpture, the cells slightly transversely widened; scutellum with raised, polygonal reticulate sculpture, the cells slightly elongate, and nearly lineolate-reticulate on sides; nearly posterior third smooth (Fig. 8); sculpture of scutellum deeper than on mesoscutum; setae white; subapical setae of scutellum pale brown; scutellum usually with 10 setae; propodeum on each side distal to spiracles with long, silvery white setae. Fore wing 2.24× as long as broad; marginal vein slightly longer than broad; postmarginal vein short; basal triangle largely bare; costal cell with two lines of setae on ventral surface; an oblique bare area present below parastigma (speculum?), indicated by an arrow in Fig. 6; discal setation and venations as in Figs 6 and 7. Mid tibia 3.15× as long as mid basitarsus, the latter 1.18× as long as mid tibial spur. Relative measurements (holotype, card): mesosoma length, 35; mesoscutum length (width), 15 (30); scutellum length (width), 16 (19). Paratype, slide: fore wing length (width), 94 (42); mid tibia length, 41; mid basitarsus length, 13; mid tibial spur length, 11.

Metasoma. TVII as in Fig. 9; ovipositor as in Fig. 10; hypopygium as in Fig. 11. Relative measurements (paratype, slide): TVII length, 26; ovipositor length, 37; third valvula length, 6.5. [Ovipositor 0.9× mid tibia length; third valvula shorter than both mid basitarsus and mid tibial spur, 6.5:13:11.]

Male. Length, 0.68–0.83 mm (n = 5). Body, in lateral view, Fig. 12. Similar to female in body and leg colour and sculpture (Fig. 15), but differs as follows:

Head. Frontovertex width 0.38× head width (Fig. 15); head, in frontal view, 1.11× as broad as high; antennal torulus with upper margin above lower margin of eye; torulus separated from mouth margin by 1.84× height of torulus (Fig. 13); eye height 1.7× malar space. Antenna as in Fig. 14.

Genitalia (Fig. 16) with phallobase longer than mid basitarsus (17:12).

Variation. There is hardly any variation in the specimens examined, except for body size, and negligible variation in the relative dimensions of the head width and frontovertex width, which is directly related to the size of the head.

Material examined. Holotype, ♀ (on card) (NPC, registration No. 136/11/168/1), labelled “ IRAN: [Kerman Province,] Rafsanjan, 26.vii.2015, Acc.3. Coll. MR Mehrnejad” and “Ex. Eggs of Brachynema germarii on Pistacia vera ”.

Paratypes: 42, ♀ (2 on slide Nos. EH.1923 and EH.1924), 21, ♂ (2 on slides, EH.1925, EH.1941), with same data as holotype. (4 ♀, 2 ♂, in NPC, registration No. 136/11/168/2; 4 ♀, 2 ♂, in BMNH; remaining paratypes in ZDAMU, registration No. HYM. CH.736)

Host. Brachynema germarii (Kolenati) (Hemiptera: Pentatomidae) on Pistacia vera L. (Anacardiaceae).

Distribution. Iran (Rafsanjan).

Etymology. The species name is derived from the generic name (Pistacia) of the pistachio plant.

Comments. This new species runs to O. egeria Huang & Noyes in the key to species given by Huang & Noyes (1994), and was initially considered conspecific with that species. Therefore, to confirm the identity of the Iranian specimens, one of us (MH) sent 4 females and 2 males to Dr. J.S. Noyes (BMNH). He informed MH (per. com. 5.1.2016 and 25.1.2016) that the specimens represented a separate species and the two species differ on several characters (see key to species).

The differences between O. pistaciae sp. nov. and O. iranicus sp. nov. are given under the latter species.