Xanthephialtes iida Osterman 2026, sp. nov.

Xanthephialtes iida Österman sp. nov. Figs 1–5 Material examined. Uganda, Kibale National Park, Kanyawara; Tapani Hopkins leg.; ZMUT: Holotype • 1 female. Site K 13, Malaise trap K 13 T 3; 0.5362°N, 30.3486°E; alt. 1492 m; 15 Dec. 2014 – 28 Dec. 2014; http://mus.utu.fi/ ZMUT.3563. Paratype • 1 female. Site K 31, Malaise trap K 31 T 4; 0.6927°N, 30.3616°E; alt. 1463 m; 17 Dec. 2014 – 29 Dec. 2014; http://mus.utu.fi/ ZMUT.3600. Paratype • 1 female. Site CC, Malaise trap CCT 1; 0.5497°N, 30.3673°E; alt. 1454 m; 13 Jan. 2015 – 27 Jan. 2015; http://mus.utu.fi/ ZMUT.5869. Paratype • 1 female. Site K 31, Malaise trap K 31 T 1; 0.5440°N, 30.3503°E; alt. 1497 m; 9 Apr. 2015 – 23 Apr. 2015; http://mus.utu.fi/ ZMUT.3571. Paratype • 1 female. Site R 98, Malaise trap R 98 T 2; 0.5532°N, 30.3579°E; alt. 1545 m; 8 May 2015 – 22 May 2015; http://mus.utu.fi/ ZMUT.3969. Paratype • 1 female. Site K 30 S, Malaise trap K 30 ST 4; 0.5414°N, 30.3755°E; alt. 1421 m; 15 Dec. 2014 – 26 Dec. 2014; http://mus.utu.fi/ ZMUT.2639. Non-type material (only diagnostic characters checked): • 23 females; Malaise traps; http://mus.utu.fi/ ZMUT.16040, http://mus.utu.fi/ ZMUT.16045, http://mus.utu.fi/ ZMUT.18110, http://mus.utu.fi/ ZMUT.14676, http://mus.utu.fi/ ZMUT.25515, http://mus.utu.fi/ ZMUT.24981, http://mus.utu.fi/ ZMUT.15161, http://mus.utu.fi/ ZMUT.16183, http://mus.utu.fi/ ZMUT.16629, http://mus.utu.fi/ ZMUT.18522, http://mus.utu.fi/ ZMUT.19713, http://mus.utu.fi/ ZMUT.3413, http://mus.utu.fi/ ZMUT.14941, http://mus.utu.fi/ ZMUT.26556, http://mus.utu.fi/ ZMUT.26292, http://mus.utu.fi/ ZMUT.26356, http://mus.utu.fi/ ZMUT.28678, http://mus.utu.fi/ ZMUT.15660, http://mus.utu.fi/ ZMUT.27211, http://mus.utu.fi/ ZMUT.26415, http://mus.utu.fi/ ZMUT.26143, http://mus.utu.fi/ ZMUT.25790, http://mus.utu.fi/ ZMUT.16684. Diagnosis. This species can be distinguished from all other species of the genus by the basally uncoloured wings and entirely black metasomal tergites. This species is also distinctly smaller than its only known congeners: X. oculatus and X. schoutedeni. Description. Female: forewing length about 6.6 mm. Head polished. Malar space about 0.3 × as long as basal mandibular width; mandible base oblique, about 34 ° from vertical axis of face. Lower face about 1.2 × as wide as medially high, bearing very weak setiferous punctures. Flagellum with 21 flagellomeres; F 1 about 1.35 × as long as F 2. Head, in dorsal view, with gena evenly rounded behind eye. Lateral ocellus separated from compound eye by about 1.25 × its own maximum diameter; ocelli forming a subequilateral triangle, with distance between anterior and posterior ocellus about 0.7 × of distance between posterior ocelli. Mesosoma polished. Pronotum mostly bare, with very weak epomia. Mesoscutum bare except for short, sparse hairs on margins. Mesopleuron mostly bare, with short, sparse hairs ventrally and near dorsal margin. Metapleuron bare except for short, sparse hairs on margin at posterior side. Propodeum in profile rather evenly and strongly declivous, dorsally bare, laterally bearing very weak setiferous punctures. Hindwing with abscissa of Cu 1 between M and cu-a about 1.1 × as long as cu-a. Metasoma polished. Tergite 1 in profile rather low, evenly declivous on basal 2 / 3 and rather flat on apical 1 / 3, smooth on declivous part, otherwise with short, sparse hairs, about 1.4 × as long as apically broad. Tergite 2 with weak setiferous punctures on median more or less triangular area, delineated by lateral oblique grooves extending from the anterior margin to about 0.6 length of tergite, and rather weak posterior transverse grooves, setiferous punctures outside median area comparably dense and strong except for on smooth posterior band, about 0.95 × as long as apically broad. Tergites 3–5 covered with rather dense and strong setiferous punctures except for on smooth posterior band and on nearly smooth latero-median tubercles. Ovipositor projecting beyond apex of metasoma by about 4.0 × length of hindtibia, shaft straight, followed by downcurved apical part; apex of ventral valve bearing about 14 teeth, progressively becoming weaker and more oblique from the apex towards the base, with a disproportionately large gap between the basal and second most basal teeth, approximately twice the distance between the second and third most basal teeth. Colour: head yellow-orange with black mandibular teeth, ocellar area to central occiput and antenna except for yellow apex of apical flagellomere. Mesosoma yellow-orange with stub-like lateral longitudinal carinae on posterior propodeum black; foreleg yellow; midleg blackish with yellow coxa, femur and dorsal trochanter, and trochantellus; hindleg black with yellow-orange basal margin of coxa, dorsal trochantellus and dorso-basal patch on femur; wings uncoloured with forewing infumate distal of blackish pterostigma, encompassing a weakly yellowish apical patch, and hindwing weakly infumate in apical fourth. Metasoma blackish with white membranous areas of sternites. Male. Unknown. Etymology. This species is named in honour of the first author’s wife, Iida Österman, who has shown interest in her husband’s work on Darwin wasps. Distribution. Uganda. Biological notes. The host (s) are unknown but could be wood-boring insects judging by the similarity of the ovipositor to Dolichomitus. The specimens were mainly caught in primary or to a lesser extent disturbed forest, with few caught in clearcut former plantations and none outside the forest in farmland. However, the sample sizes are too low to tell if this apparent preference for undisturbed forest is a genuine pattern (manuscript in prep). Considerably more were caught during the dry seasons than the wet seasons (22 versus 7 specimens), which is a very common pattern in the (Malaise-trapped) Ugandan material.