A new species of Zaglyptogastra Ashmead (Hymenoptera: Braconidae: Braconinae) from Thailand

Zaglyptogastra Ashmead, 1900 was erected for a large, distinctive Braconinae wasp, Z. abbotti, collected in Lower Siam (Thailand) (Ashmead 1900). Although nine species are known from the Indo-Australian region, only three are recorded from mainland Indochina: Z. abbotti Ashmead, 1990 (Thailand), Z. vitalisi (Turner, 1919) (Thailand, Laos) and Z. vietnamica Long & Mai, 2015 (Vietnam) (El-Heneidy & Quicke, 1991; Long & Mai, 2015). In 2021, two further Asia species, Z. exilis Li, van Achterberg & Chen, 2021 and Z. tricolor Li, van Achterberg & Chen, 2021 were described from China (Li et al. 2021). Only a few taxa of Braconinae have the ovipositor apex modified forming one or more arch-liked regions, viz Cedilla Quicke, Ligulibracon Quicke, Serrundabracon van Achterberg, Udabracon Quicke and Zaglyptogastra (Quicke 1987; van Achterberg, 2003; Quicke & Butcher, 2015). These modified ovipositor apical regions function as a steering mechanism allowing the tip to access the host around bends (Quicke, 1991; Quicke, 2015), and this has been observed in life in one Afrotropical species of Zaglyptogastra (Quicke & Laurenne 2005). There is only one host record for the genus, the Afrotropical species Z. cristata (Szépligeti) has been reared from larvae of the cerambycid beetle, Dirphya princeps Jordan in Kenya (Crowe 1962; El-Heneidy & Quicke, 1991). Here we described a new species from Thailand, Zaglyptogastra piyachudasringi Chansri, Quicke & Butcher, sp. nov. based on a female specimen collected from a Malaise trap in dry evergreen forest at Sakaerat Environmental Research Station, Nakhon Ratchasima province. Diagnostic characters of all Asian Zaglyptogastra are summaraised in Table 1. Stacked images were created using a stereo microscope combined with Leica M205C, Digital Camera Leica DMC5400, LAS X software. Terminology follows van Achterberg (1988). Copyright © 2022 Magnolia Press.