New species of Lathrolestes Förster (Hymenoptera: Ichneumonidae) from Côte d’Ivoire

Abstract Lathrolestes ivoriensis sp. n. is described from Côte d’Ivoire. This is the second record of the genus from the Afrotropical region and the first record of the genus and the subfamily for the country. Illustrated re-description of Lathrolestes ruwenzoricus (Benoit, 1955) is also provided.


Introduction
Very few is known about the diversity of Afrotropical Ichneumonidae, excluding the excellent revision of Ophioninae by Gauld & Mitchell (Gauld and Mitchell 1978), seminal work by Seyrig (Seyrig 1935) and a series of recent papers (Bennett and Barnes 2011, Rousse et al. 2013, Yu et al. 2012. However most of those paper were focused in Madagascar or South Africa. Only 1979 species of ichneumonids had been recorded from the whole Afrotropical region (Yu et al. 2012). This is less than half as many as are known from Germany! The African fauna of the large subfamily Ctenopelmatinae (Hymenoptera, Ichneumonidae) is very poorly known -there are currently only ten species known from tropical Africa (Aubert 1987, Benoit 1955, Cameron 1911, Morley 1926, Seyrig 1935, Szépligeti 1908, Townes and Townes 1973. The genus Lathrolestes Förster, 1869 (Hymenoptera, Ichneumonidae) is a large genus with 99 described species (Reshchikov et al. 2012, Reshchikov 2013. Only one species was previously described from the Afrotropical region (Benoit 1955). No species of Lathrolestes had been recorded in Côte d'Ivoire or anywhere else in Africa except Democratic republic of the Congo (Benoit 1955) before this work. One species, Lathrolestes ivoriensis sp. n. is described in this paper as new. Taking into consideration how rare species of the genus Lathrolestes are in Africa, and the distinguishing combination of character states, this species is described from only one specimen.

Materials and methods
This work is based on the material of the Royal Museum for Central Africa (RMCA), Tervuren, Belgium. Morphological terminology used in the study follows that of Gauld (Gauld 1997). The female holotype specimen of Lathrolestes ruwenzoricus (Benoit, 1955) was examined, re-described and illustrated. Photographs were taken with a Canon Digital Camera 7D, combined with Zerene®. The following collections were checked for Afrotropical material: American Entomological Institute, Gainesville; Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia; Hungarian Museum of Natural History, Budapest; Natural History Museum, London; National Museum of Natural History, Paris; "Naturalis" Biodiversity Centre, Leiden; Swedish Museum of Natural History, Stockholm; University of Tartu. Not any specimens of the genus Lathrolest were found in these collections.

Diagnosis
This species differs from other species of the genus by the combination of the following character states: head narrowed behind eyes, clypeus not separated from face, margin of malar space banded by rugosity starting from tentorial pit, wings infuscate, claws pectinate till its half with not high teeth (Fig. 2a), basal transverse carina and costula absent, area superomedia elongate (Fig. 2d), ovipositor straight, stout dorsally, without notch (Fig. 2c), as long as metasomal height. This species morphologically closely related to Lathrolestes jennyae Gauld, 1997, L. xochiquetzalis Reshchikov, 2011and L. kukulcanis Reshchikov, 2011 with which it shares similar coloration of clypeus (yellow and black in apical part) and well defined dorsal longitudinal carinae of 1st metasomal tergite. The new species clearly differs from Mexican species by the longer first metasomal tergite (2.6X as long as apically wide versus shorter than 1.6-1.9 X as long in the Mexican species), absence of basal transverse carina of the propodeum and costula (Fig. 2d), ovipositor as long as metasomal height, straight, stout dorsally, without notch (Fig. 2c) and unique coloration (Figs 1, 2) (see description). From the single known Afrotropical species, L. ruwenzoricus (Benoit, 1955) the new species is distinguished on the basis of colour (L. ruwenzoricus is entirely black except for reddish fore legs).

Etymology
The species epithet refers to the name of the country where it was collected.
Ovipositor straight, without notch, as long as metasomal height.

Diagnosis
This species differs from other members of the genus by the combination of the following character states: body mostly black excluding fore femur, tibia and basal tarsomerus which are reddish; matt, sparsely and shallowly punctate on smooth surface; Rs intercepting pterostigma far before its middle; propodeum matt and impunctate with only apical areas defind. This species very easily can be recognized from L. ivoriensis Reshchikov, sp. n. by unusually black and dim coloration of body, propodeal carinae with only apical areas present and absence of dorsal longitudinal carinae of 1st metasomal tergite.

Distribution
Democratic Republic of the Congo.