New species of the genera Bracon Fabricius and Syntomernus Enderlein (Hymenoptera, Braconidae, Braconinae) from South Korea

Abstract Six new species, Bracon (Bracon) kimchanghyoisp. nov., B. (B.) yeogisanensissp. nov., B. (Habrobracon) allevatussp. nov., B. (Osculobracon) perspicillatussp. nov., Syntomernus flavussp. nov., and S. scabrosussp. nov. are described from South Korea and short keys for their identification are presented. The genus Ficobracon van Achterberg & Weiblen, 2000, syn. nov. is considered a junior synonym of Syntomernus Enderlein, 1920 and new combinations are proposed for Syntomernus asphondyliae (Watanabe, 1940), comb. nov., S. brusi (van Achterberg & Weiblen, 2000), comb. nov., S. codonatus (Huang & van Achterberg, 2013), comb. nov., S. kashmirensis (Maqbool, Akbar & Wachkoo, 2018), comb. nov., S. rhiknosus (Huang & van Achterberg, 2013), comb. nov., S. sunosei (Maeto, 1991), comb. nov. (= Bracon flaccus Papp, 1996, syn. nov.), and S. tamabae (Maeto, 1991), comb. nov.

Metasoma 1.5-1.7× longer than mesosoma. Median length of first tergite (measured from petiolar tubercle) 0.9-1.0× as large as its apical width. Second tergite medially as long as third tergite and 1.0-1.2× larger than apical width of first tergite. Basal width of second tergite 1.1-1.2× larger than its median length.
Legs. Fore tibia with wide row of long thick setae and transverse apical row of thick setae. Hind femur 3.0-3.8× longer than wide. Hind tibia without subapical row of thick setae, 1.4-1.5× longer than hind femur, its inner spur 0.35-0.37× as long as hind basitarsus. Hind tarsus almost as long as hind tibia, its fifth segment (without pretarsus) 0.37-0.43× as long as hind basitarsus and 0.75-0.80× as long as second segment. Claws with acute angularly protruding basal lobe.
Metasoma 1.0-1.2× longer than mesosoma. Median length of first tergite (measured from petiolar tubercle) 0.7-0.8× as large as its apical width. Dorsolateral carinae of first metasomal tergite developed; dorsal carinae incomplete and weakly curved toward apex of tergite. Median area of first tergite separated by rugose furrow, 0.6-0.7× apical width of tergite. Second tergite medially 1.00-1.15× as long as third tergite and 0.7-0.9× as large as apical width of first tergite, with shallow s-shaped dorsolateral crenulated impressions. Basal width of second metasomal tergite 1.4-1.6× larger than its median length. Suture between second and third tergites deep and wide, curved and crenulate. Apical margins of third to sixth tergites thick, with deep crenulate transverse subapical grooves. Ovipositor sheath 1.2-1.4× longer than hind tibia and 0.33-0.47× as long as fore wing. Apex of ovipositor with weak nodus and weak ventral serration.
Sculpture. Face and frons granulate. Gena and anterior half of vertex coriaceous. Mesopleuron almost smooth, weakly coriaceous or weakly granulate. Mesoscutum medio-posteriorly weakly granulate. Scutellum and metanotum smooth. Propodeum hardly coriaceous to smooth, with short rugae apically. First metasomal tergite laterally and posteriorly rugose; second to fifth tergites areolate-rugose or foveolate-rugose to rugulose-punctate or irregularly punctate; sixth tergite weakly irregularly punctate or almost smooth.   Colour. Body mainly dark brown. Most of scape, mandible, tegulae, fore and middle legs, trochanter and apex of femur of hind leg brownish yellow or yellowish brown. Maxillary palp and base of hind tibia pale yellow. Lateral margins of second and third meta-somal tergite and seventh tergite brown or yellowish brown. Wing membrane brownish darkened; pterostigma brown, basally with small pale brown patch; wing veins brown.
Male. Body length 2.5-3.2 mm; fore wing length 2.5-3.1 mm. OOL 1.8-2.0× Od, 1.3-1.5× POL. Hind margins of eye and temple broadened upwards (lateral view). Longitudinal diameter of eye 3.9× longer than malar space (front view). Mid-longitudinal keel developed in apical third of propodeum. Vein r-m of hind wing interstitial. Fifth segment (without pretarsus) of hind tarsus ca. 0.9× as long as second segment. Median length of first tergite (measured from petiolar tubercle) 0.90-0.95× as large as its apical width. Second tergite medially 1.1× as large as apical width of first tergite. Basal width of second metasomal tergite 1.3-1.4× larger than its median length. Apical metasomal segments as dark as proximal segments. Otherwise similar to female.
Diagnosis. The new species belongs to a distinct species group including five species known from the Russian Far East, the Korean Peninsula and Japan (Bracon acunens Papp, 2018, B. kunashiricus Tobias, 2000, B. sculptithorax Tobias, 2000, B. sulciferus Tobias, 2000. The species share the following common characters: malar suture absent; face and frons granulate; gena, vertex, mesopleuron and mesoscutum partly with weak granulate or coriaceous sculpture; mesosoma elongate, 1.5-1.7× longer than its maximum height; mesoscutum widely setose medially; notauli deep anteriorly and shallow posteriorly; precoxal sulcus vaguely or shallowly impressed; propodeum with crenulated or foveate mid-longitudinal impression in basal half and with branching mid-longitudinal keel in its apical half; marginal cell of fore wing not shortened, 6-25× longer than distance from its apex to apex of wing; vein r arising distinctly before middle of pterostigma; vein 1-SR+M more or less curved anteriorly; vein cu-a interstitial or weakly postfurcal; wing membrane weakly brownish darkened; coxae without granulate sculpture; hind tibia without transverse apical row of thick setae apically; second segment of hind tarsus 1.1-1.3× longer than fifth segment; claws with acute basal lobes; dorsolateral carinae of first metasomal tergite developed; median area of second tergite absent or very short and weak; dorsolateral s-shaped impressions of second tergite more or less distinct; suture between second and third tergites deep and crenulate; apical margins of third to sixth tergites thick; metasoma completely sculptured (areolate-rugose to irregularly punctate); ovipositor sheath 1.0-1.5× as long as hind tibia, 0.3-0.5× as long as fore wing. Differences between these species are listed in the key below.
Metasoma 1.2-1.3× longer than mesosoma. Median length of first tergite (measured from petiolar tubercle) 0.90-1.15× as large as its apical width. Dorsal and dorsolateral carinae of first metasomal tergite absent. Median area of first tergite separated by smooth or weakly crenulate furrow, 0.6-0.7× apical width of tergite. Second tergite medially 1.0-1.2× as long as third tergite and 0.9-1.0× as large as apical width of first tergite, without dorsolateral impressions. Basal width of second metasomal tergite 1.3-1.8× larger than its median length. Suture between second and third tergites deep, curved and smooth or weakly crenulate. Apical margins of third to sixth tergites thick, without transverse subapical grooves. Ovipositor sheath 0.55-0.65× as long as hind tibia and 0.17-0.20× as long as fore wing. Apex of ovipositor with (sometimes weak) nodus and weak or indistinct ventral serration.
Sculpture. Face granulate, frons weakly granulate, gena hardly coriaceous to smooth. Vertex, most of mesosoma and coxae smooth. Propodeum smooth, sometimes with short rugae apically. Metasoma entirely smooth or with weak granulate sculpture at most on second tergite.
Colour. Body mainly brownish black, metasomal tergites sometimes brown, ventral side of metasoma pale yellow. Head with yellowish brown patches along eyes on vertex and in lower part of gena, mandible and maxillary palps yellowish brown. Apices of femora and bases of tibiae of all legs (half of hind tibia) brownish yellow. Apical margins of metasomal tergites 3-7 light-coloured. Tegulae dark brown. Wing membrane brownish darkened, lighter apically; pterostigma brown or yellowish brown, with small pale yellow patch basally, wing veins yellowish brown.  Male. Body length 2.0-2.4 mm; fore wing length 2.1-2.5 mm. OOL 1.1-1.3× POL. Mid-longitudinal keel developed on apical half of propodeum. Median length of first tergite (measured from petiolar tubercle) 1.2-1.3× larger than its apical width. Face sometimes smooth medially on narrow area. Maxillary palps brown or brownish yellow. Otherwise similar to female.
Diagnosis. Bracon allevatus sp. nov. is most similar to B. variegator Spinola. The latter species was classified within the nominative subgenus of Bracon (Papp 1968(Papp , 2012 or its subgenus Habrobracon (Tobias 1986;Tobias and Belokobylskij 2000). It seems best to consider both species in Habrobracon because they share a number of characteristic character states (the malar suture is absent; basal lobes of tarsal claws not protruding or acutely protruding (not lamelliform); in the fore wing, the vein 1-SR+M is straight, the vein 3-SR usually is no longer than vein 2-SR (0.6-1.2×), the vein 2-SR+M is long, 0.6-1.2× as long as vein 3-SR; the dorsal carinae of the first metasomal tergite are absent, the lateral carinae are absent or very weakly defined; the ovipositor sheath is at most somewhat longer than the hind tibia, shorter than half of the fore wing length; the granulate sculpture tends to be more or less developed on body). In addition, Habrobracon was considered either a separate genus (Quicke 1987;Papp 2012;Kittel and Maeto 2019) or a subgenus of Bracon (Tobias 1986;van Achterberg and Polaszek 1996;Tobias and Belokobylskij 2000).
Here the latter hypothesis is accepted because a number of very similar species are known in the subgenera Sculptobracon (B. yakui Watanabe, 1937 andB. obsoletus Li, He &Chen, 2016) and Bracon s. str. (B. concavus species group). Until the differences between the latter taxa and Habrobracon are sorted out, we prefer to keep Habrobracon as a subgenus of Bracon. B. allevatus sp. nov. maybe also compared with B. kasparyani distributed in the same region. The differences between three species are listed in the key below.
Metasoma 1.2-1.4× longer than mesosoma. Median length of first tergite (measured from petiolar tubercle) 1.3-1.5× larger than its apical width. Dorsolateral and dorsal carinae of first metasomal tergite absent. Median area of first tergite separated by smooth furrow, 0.6-0.7× apical width of tergite. Second tergite sclerotised in anterior 0.85-0.95, medially 0.9-1.0× as long as third tergite and 0.85-1.05× as large as apical width of first tergite. Basal width of second metasomal tergite 1.8-1.9× larger than its median length. Anterolateral margin of second metasomal tergite shortly desclerotised. Suture between second and third tergites thin, shallow, weakly curved and smooth. Apical margins of third to sixth tergites largely de-sclerotised. Ovipositor sheath 0.50-0.75× as long as hind tibia and 0.16-0.21× as long as fore wing. Apex of ovipositor with weak nodus and weak or absent ventral serration.
Sculpture. Body completely smooth. Colour. Body brownish black or brown. Head with more or less developed brownish yellow patches near eyes (on face, vertex and in lower part of gena), below toruli and on oral parts. Maxillary palps yellow. Tegulae, legs and de-sclerotised parts of metasoma yellow to brownish yellow or yellowish brown. Wing membrane weakly darkened, basally yellowish; pterostigma and wing veins brown or yellowish brown.
Diagnosis. The new species is most similar to Bracon cingulator Szépligeti, B. koreanus Papp, and B. osculator Nees, which also have the entirely smooth body and not shortened marginal cell of the fore wing. The differences between these species are listed in the key below (the characters for B. cingulator and B. osculator are given on the basis of an unpublished dataset).

1
Median length of first metasomal tergite (measured from spiracle) 0.6-0.9× as large as its apical width (being measured from petiolar tubercle 0.85-1.20× as large as its apical width; Fig. 121). Malar space 0.90-1.05× base of mandible (Fig. 115). Basal width of second metasomal tergite 1.0-1.8× larger than its median length (Fig. 124 Wei et al. 2013) and Syntomernus kashmirensis (Maqbool, Akbar & Wachkoo, 2018), comb. nov. is known to be phytophagous on the syconium tissues (Maqbool et al. 2018). The main character separating Syntomernus from Bracon is the presence of anterolateral areas on third metasomal tergite. The full diagnosis of the genus is presented below. Diagnosis. Head transverse, its width (dorsal view) 1.7-2.1× its median length, with transverse diameter of eye 1.7-3.0× longer than temple. Clypeus without or with weak dorsal carina, clypeal sulcus absent, dorsal clypeal margin sharp or smoothened. Vertex without mid-longitudinal sulcus. Malar suture absent or weakly impressed. Hind margins of eye and temple (in lateral view) more or less broadened downwards.
Antenna. Dorsal side of scape (lateral view) longer than its ventral side. Antennae with elongate segments, first flagellomere 2-4× longer than its apical width, middle and penultimate flagellomeres 1.7-2.5× longer than wide.
Mesosoma 1.1-1.5× longer than its maximum height. Median lobe of meso scutum evenly setose or setose only on notauli and posteriorly. Notauli usually deep anteriorly, smoothened or absent and not united posteriorly. Precoxal sulcus absent or vaguely impressed. Mesopleural pit weak or almost indistinct. Mesepimeral sulcus smooth or weakly crenulate, metapleural sulcus smooth. Propodeum with simple and high midlongitudinal keel developed at least in its apical half and with mid-longitudinal impression in its basal half.
Legs. Hind tibia without subapical row of thick setae (at most with two thick setae subapically). Claws with moderately large, not protruding (rounded) or angularly protruding (acute or blunt) basal lobe.
Metasoma with six coarsely sculptured tergites. First metasomal tergite with distinct, often deep crenulate mid-longitudinal impression and more or less developed dorsal and dorsolateral carinae. Second metasomal tergite without anterolateral, posteriorly diverging grooves; with dorsolateral impressions more or less deep, crenulated, usually with strong posteriorly converging carinae along their proximal margin. Median area of second metasomal tergite elongate-triangle or longitudinal, with sharp margin. Spiracle of second metasomal tergite located in middle or behind middle of tergite. Suture between second and third tergites deep and curved. Anterolateral areas of third tergite always developed, large and separated by crenulate suture. Apical mar-gins of third to sixth tergites thick, with deep crenulate transverse subapical grooves. Ovipositor sheath 1.4-3.6× longer than hind tibia, 0.4-1.0× as long as fore wing. Apex of ovipositor with developed nodus and ventral serration.
A key to the species of the genus Syntomernus from Eastern Palaearctic is presented below. Syntomernus codonatus and S. rhiknosus from the Oriental part of China were also included there while five species described in Chen and Yang (2006) could not be included because the types were not available, and the descriptions are insufficient for inclusion.
Male. Body length 3.2 mm; fore wing length 3.3 mm. Longitudinal diameter of eye 2.2× longer than malar space (front view); malar space 0.8× base of mandible. Antenna 1.3× longer than fore wing, with 35 antennomeres. First flagellomere 4.1× longer than its apical width. Middle flagellomeres 2.5× longer than wide. Pterostigma 2.4× longer than wide. Median length of first tergite (measured from petiolar tubercle) 0.95× as large as its apical width.
Diagnosis. The new species is remarkable by the light colouration of body, basally yellow and apically brown pterostigma, weakly sculptured elevated areas of second metasomal tergite and glabrous median lobe of mesoscutum. Etymology. The adjective scabrosus (Latin for scabrous) refers to the roughly sculptured metasoma of the species.

Syntomernus scabrosus
Description. Female. Body length 3.1 mm; fore wing length 3.7 mm. Head. Width of head (dorsal view) 1.7× its median length. Transverse diameter of eye (dorsal view) 2.0× longer than temple. Eyes with sparse, short setae. OOL 2.4× Od; POL 1.2× Od; OOL 2.1× POL. Frons with deep mid-longitudinal groove. Longitudinal diameter of eye in lateral view 1.4× larger than its transverse diameter. Transverse diameter of eye (lateral view) 1.9× longer than minimum width of temple, hind margins of eye and temple parallel to broadened downwards. Face width 1.3× combined height of face and clypeus; 2.0× larger than width of hypoclypeal depression. Longitudinal diameter of eye 2.9× longer than malar space (front view); malar space 0.75× base of mandible. Malar suture absent. Width of hypoclypeal depression 1.3× larger than distance from depression to eye. Clypeus not separated from face by dorsal carina, flattened, with strongly protruding ventral rim, height of clypeus 0.32× width  most of middle leg, basal part of hind tibia yellow. Flagellum, apices of tarsi of legs, apex of hind tibia, hind basitarsus and third-sixth metasomal tergites brown. Metanotum, propodeum, first metasomal tergite and anteromedian patch on second metasomal tergite dark brown. Wing membrane weakly darkened; pterostigma and veins brown.
Male. Unknown. Diagnosis. The new species is easily recognisable by the entirely rugose metasoma, relatively short ovipositor, and enlarged fifth segment of the hind tarsus.