Scientific name

Stilbula ashokai Narendran

Taxonomic position

Hymenoptera: Chalcidoidea: Eucharitidae

Diagnosis

Scutellar teeth diverging; scape 2x as long as pedicel. Head coppery blue; mesosoma green with metallic reflections; antenna yellowish brown with scape, pedicel and last two funicular segments and club pale yellow; coxae brown, remaining parts of legs straw yellow; tegulae yellowish brown. Frons with semicircular and oblique striations, extending from ocellar region to clypeus and supraclypeal areas; vertex with longitudinal striations; fore wing with large brown infumation adjoining stigma. Mesosoma with mesoscutum and scutellum coarsely punctuate; mesoscutum without median fovea; scutellum with median longitudinal pitted fovea. Width of scutellar fork subequal to its length (excluding teeth). Metasoma subglobose, shorter than mesosoma. Petiole smooth, slightly swollen in the middle.

Image

 Adult - lateral view

Distribution

Kerala (Narendran, 1996) and Tamil Nadu (Gupta & Manickavasagam, 2013).

References

  • Gupta, A. & Manickavasagam, S. 2013. Taxonomic notes on a collection of Indian Eucharitidae (a family of ant parasitoids) with description of female of Schizaspidia andamanensis (Mani) from Andaman islands, India. Journal of Biological Control 27(2): 73-80.
  • Narendran, T. C. & Sheela, S. 1996. Description of three new species of Oriental Stilbula Spinola (Hymenoptera: Eucharitidae) with a key to Indopacific species. Entomon, 21(1): 65-75.

Credits

Images and factsheet prepared by Dr. Ankita Gupta, Scientist, NBAIR.