Australian Journal of
Taxonomy
Open-access, online, rapid taxonomy
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Aulacus minutus Crosskey 1953: 764.—Smith 2001: 273; Jennings 2010 [on-line checklist]; Turrisi 2017: 933; Jennings et al. 2018: 62.
Figure 61. Aulacus minutus Crosskey 1953, lateral habitus. Scale bar = 1.00 mm.
Figure 62. Aulacus minutus Crosskey 1953, A, lateral head; B, frontal face; C, dorsal head; D, lateral mesosoma; E, dorsal mesosoma; F, ovipositor guide; G, fore wing. Scale bar = 1.00 mm.
Diagnostic description.
Female. Body size (7.0) mm, ovipositor length (7.3) mm, fore wing length (6.1) mm (Fig. 61); colouration mesosoma black, head; antenna and metasoma orange except for flagellomere eight to tip and base of metasomal T1 black, ovipositor sheath dark brown; wings hyaline except for distinct infuscation at apex 1st marginal and 4th submarginal cell (Fig. 62G), hind wing veins spectral; head shape quadrate, width (1.6) × length, postocular space (0.6) × eye length in dorsal view (Fig. 62C), raised transverse carina above toruli absent, malar space (0.3) × height of eye (Fig. 62A); length of scape (1.5) × length of pedicel, 1st flagellomere (1.1) × length of scape, (0.7) × 2nd flagellomere; mesosoma length (1.5) × height, mesoscutum in lateral view rounded antero-dorsally (Fig. 62D); mesoscutum length (0.8) × width in dorsal view (Fig. 62E); medial lobe reticulate–rugose; ovipositor guide oblique, positioned medially (Fig. 62F); ovipositor sheath length (1.2) × fore wing length (Fig. 59); 2-Rs+M (1.0) × 1-Rs+M, three hamuli, equidistant (Fig. 62G); metasoma pyriform,T1+T2 length 1.8 × width in dorsal view.
Aulacus minutus is superficially similar to A. elegans but they can be separated by the shape of the mesoscutum in lateral view rounded antero-dorsally (truncate in A. elegans), and the posterior vertex and gena reticulate-rugulose (smooth with scattered punctures in A. elegans).
Material examined.
Holotype. AUSTRALIA – Queensland • ♀, "Tamborine Mountains, S.E. Queensland. 1-9/v/1935. R.E. Turner B.M. 1935– 240" (NHMUK: 013457856) (examined from photograph).
Other Material examined.
AUSTRALIA – NSW • 1 ♀, Near Braidwood, 27.Feb.1953, Z. Liepa leg. (ANIC). – VIC • 1 ♀, Sanatorium Site, Greenvale, -37.646493, 144.861034, 23.Apr.2023, triplett, iNaturalist observation 156351736.
Figure 61. Aulacus minutus Crosskey 1953, lateral habitus. Scale bar = 1.00 mm.
Figure 62. Aulacus minutus Crosskey 1953, A, lateral head; B, frontal face; C, dorsal head; D, lateral mesosoma; E, dorsal mesosoma; F, ovipositor guide; G, fore wing. Scale bar = 1.00 mm.
Distribution.
This species is known from a few records across south-eastern Australia (Fig. 95)
Biology.
Unknown.
Notes.
The two specimens of A. minutus from Queensland, examined in Jennings et al. (2018) and depicted in Fig. 33, were misidentified; upon re-examination, they have been correctly identified as A. elegans.