Sciency Thoughts: Dhofar

Sunday, 20 February 2022

Odontochrydium arabicum: A new species of Cuckoo Wasp from the Arabian Peninsula.

Cuckoo Wasps, Chrysididae, are a widespread and diverse group of Wasps, noted for their kleptoparasitic habits; that is to say that, like many Wasps they lay their eggs inside the paralized bodies of other Insects and Arachnids stored in nests, but unlike these Wasps they do not catch their own prey, but rather lay their eggs inside the victims of other parasitic Wasps, the Cuckoo Wasp larvae then eating both the prey and the larvae of the original Wasp. The genus Odontochrydium currently contains three species of Cuckoo Wasps, two from sub-Saharan Africa and one from southern India.

In a paper published in the journal Zootaxa on 18 February 2022, Ahmed Soliman of the Plant Protection Department at King Saud University and the Zoology Department at Al-Azhar University, Paolo Rosa of the Laboratoire de Zoologie at the Université de Mons, and Hathal Dhafer, also of the Plant Protection Department at King Saud University, describe a new species of Odontochrydium from the southern Arabian Peninsula.

The first reported example of a Wasp of the genus Odontochrydium was a female collected from the Asir region of Saudi Arabia in 2015, and identified as a member of the species Odontochrydium bicristatum, which is otherwise known only from East Africa. However, since this report other specimens collected in southern Saudi Arabia, Oman, and Yemen have come to light, including several males (which show greater differentiation between species than is seen in the females), leading Soliman et al. to conclude that the Arabian population is in fact a different species to the East African population.

The new species is named Odontochrydium arabicum, where the specific name 'arabicum' refers to the Arabian Peninsula. The species is described from ten specimens, four males and six females, collected from the Asir and Jazan regions of Saudi Arabia, the Dhofar Governate of Oman, and Yemen.

Odontochrydium arabicum, male, holotype. (A) Habitus, lateral view; (B) Habitus, dorsal view; (C) Habitus, ventral view. Scale bar is 1.0 mm. Soliman et al. (2022).

Males and females of Odontochrydium arabicum are bright green with copper shimmering when alive, but turn a dark metallic blue after death. Both sexes have covering of fine white hairs, and tiny pits. The eyes are also white. Adult Wasps reach about 5.2 mm in length.

Odontochrydium arabicum, female, paratype. (A) Habitus, lateral view; (B) Head, frontal view; (C) Mesosoma and T1, detail; (D) T2–T3. Scales is 1.0 mm. Soliman et al. (2022).

Sphodromerus carapezzanus: A new species of Grasshopper from Dhofar, Oman.

The Arabian Peninsula lies between the continents of Africa and Asia, providing a bridge between the two, and the area hosts a mixture of African and Asian wildlife. The area also contains a wide range of micro-habitats, particularly where large expanses of arid desert separate isolated areas with moister climates. These isolated micro-habitats are often home to endemic species, not found anywhere else.

In a paper published in the journal ZooKeys on 8 June 2017, Bruno Massa of the Department of Agriculture at the University of Palermo describes a new species of Grasshopper from Wadi Ayun in the Dhofar Governate of Oman.

The new species is placed in the genus Sphodromerus, and given the specific name carapezzanus, in honour of Attilio Carapezza, the Italian heteropterologist (scientist that studies True Bugs, Heteroptera), who collected the specimens from which the species is described, during an expedition to the area by the Museum of Cardiff in 2016. The species is described from two specimens, one male and one female. Both are dark brown in colour with a rough surface and some lighter spots, the female being slightly larger than the male.