Meteorus albisericus Aguirre and Shaw, 2014

Aguirre, Helmuth & Shaw, Scott R., 2014, Meteorus Haliday (Hymenoptera: Braconidae) parasitoids of Pyralidae: description and biology of two new species and first record of Meteorus desmiae Zitani, 1998 from Ecuador, Journal of Natural History (J. Nat. Hist.) 48 (39 - 40), pp. 2375-2388 : 2376-2380

Meteorus albisericus Aguirre and Shaw , sp. nov.

( Figures 1 , 2 )

Diagnosis

Mandible moderately twisted, ocelli ocular distance 1.6–1.7 × ocellar diameter, head height 1.6–1.8 × eye height, occipital carina incomplete, notauli distinct, wings hyaline, hind coxa punctate and polished, tarsal claw with a large lobe, dorsope present, laterope present, ventral borders of first tergite widely separated, ovipositor bent or sinuous, 2.7–2.8 × longer than first tergite.

Body colour. Body black except antennae dark brown; head yellow with area between ocelli dark brown; mesosoma with pronotum ventrally and propleuron yellow; prothoracic and mesothoracic leg yellow; metathoracic leg with dorsal area of coxa, trochanter, trochantellus, base and apex of femur, tibia and tarsus dark brown, the remaining yellow; metasoma with dorsal area of T2 and T3 dark brown, dorsal area of T4–T8 brown lighter than previous segments, lateral area of tergites yellow-white with brown punctures, sternum 1 dark brown, sterna 2–6 light brown, hypopygium white; wings hyaline.

Body length. 4.3 mm.

Description

Head. Antenna with 34 flagellomeres; flagellar length/width ratios as follows: F1 = 2.8; F2 = 4; F3 = 3.2; F29 = 1.7; F30 = 1.6; F31 = 1.1; F32 = 1.2; F33 = 1.2; F34 = 1.5; head 1.2 × wider than high; occipital carina incomplete; ocelli ocular distance 1.6 × ocellar diameter; head height 1.6 × eye height; temples length 0.7 × eyes length in dorsal view; frons smooth and polished; maximum face width 1.2 × minimum face width; face punctate; minimum face width 1.3 × clypeus width; clypeus smooth and polished; malar space length equal to mandible width basally; mandible moderately twisted.

Mesosoma . Pronotum in lateral view carinate-foveate; propleuron slightly puncticulate; notauli distinct and foveolate; mesonotal lobes well defined; central lobe slightly puncticulate; scutellar furrow with one distinctive carina; mesopleuron puncticulate; sternaulus long, narrow and foveolate; metapleuron puncticulate; propodeum carinate rugose and densely pubescent; median longitudinal carina on propodeum slightly present; median depression on propodeum absent.

Legs. Hind coxa punctate polished; tarsal claw with an internal large lobe.

Wings. Forewing length 4.8 mm; vein r 0.7 × length of 3Rsa; vein 3RSa 0.9 × length of rm; vein m-cu antefurcal; vein 1M 1.6 × length of cu-a; vein 1M 0.9 × length of 1r-m. Metasoma. Dorsope present; laterope present; ventral borders of first tergite widely separated; first tergite rugulose costate with costae convergent; ovipositor 2.7 × longer than first tergite and sinuous.

Cocoon. Elongate-oval, length 5.9 mm, width 2 mm, completely white-translucent, remnants of emergence could be seen from outside, tightly enveloped by dense silk threads; rounded at the anterior end, slightly tapered at the posterior end, the edge of emergence hole is rough due to the presence of imbricate fibres around it, the cap is loosely attached at the anterior end by some threads and the silk of the apex is composed from slender fibres.

Female variation. Body length 4.3–4.4 mm; pedicel and scape yellow with brown patches; pronotum completely yellow; posterior area of mesopleuron yellow; median and posterior area of mesonotum, and scutellum yellow-orange; antenna with 35 flagellomeres; head 1.2 × wider than high; ocelli ocular distance 1.7 × ocellar diameter; head height 1.8 × eye height; malar space length 1.1 × mandible width basally; propodeum rugose or carinate-rugose with distinct longitudinal and slightly transverse carinae; wing length 4.3–4.8 mm; vein 3RSa 0.9 × length of rm; vein 1M 1.2 × length of cu-a; vein 1M 1.2 × length of 1r-m; ovipositor bent, 2.8 × longer than first tergite.

Male variation. Body length 4.3–4.6 mm; eyes smaller than females, head height 1.8 × eye height; temples length 0.6 × eyes length in dorsal view; minimum face width 1.3 × clypeus width; malar space length equal to mandible width basally; sometimes mesonotal pubescence denser.

Comments

Based on the revisionary works and keys of Zitani et al. (1998) and Aguirre et al. (2011), M. albisericus is similar to Meteorus micrommatus Zitani and Meteorus guineverae Aguirre and Shaw. These three species share the following characteristics: the mandible moderately twisted, notauli distinct, and hind coxa punctate and polished. Meteorus albisericus can be distinguished from M. guineverae by the incomplete occipital carina and the head being mostly orange, and from M. micrommatus by having wings hyaline (slightly infuscated in M. micrommatus ), propodeum carinate-rugose with median longitudinal carina present (aerolaterugose in M. micrommatus ), tarsal claw with large lobe (simple in M. micrommatus ), dorsopes and lateropes present (absent in M. micrommatus ), ventral borders of first tergite separated (touching for a short distance in M. micrommatus ) and ovipositor more than twice the length of first tergite (less than twice in M. micrommatus ).

Holotype

Female (point mounted), ECUADOR, Napo province, Yanayacu Biological Station, Isla las Palmas , 00°35.9' S, 77°53.4' W, 2163 m, collected as parasitoid cocoon on

Clibadium glabrescens (Asteraceae) , 29 May 2009, parasitoid emerged 11 June 2009, UWIM.

Paratypes. One female, same data as holotype except collected 11 February 2010, as parasitoid on Pyralidae third instar larva associated with Diplazium costale var robustum (Dryopteridaceae) , pupated 2 March 2010, parasitoid emerged 13 March 2010; 1 male, same data as before except collected 18 March 2006 at Vinillos Guacamayos, 2135 m, as parasitoid of Pyralidae second instar larva associated with Cavendishia sp. (Ericaceae) , parasitoid pupated 31 May 2006, adult wasp emerged 23 June 2006; 1 male, same data as before except collected March 2011, as Pyralidae parasitoid on D. costelae ; 1 male, same data as before except collected at Mirador de Yanayacu, as Pyralidae second larval instar parasitoid feeding on Brunellia tomentosa (Brunelliaceae) , adult parasitoid emerged 7 June 2011.

Distribution

ECUADOR, Napo province, Yanayacu Biological Station, High Andean Cloud Forest , 2135–2163 m ,

Biology

This species is a parasitoid of second and third instar larva of Pyralidae ( Figure 3 ).

Etymology

Named for the white cocoon silk, which is unusual among Meteorus .

Figures

Figure 1. Meteorus albisericus sp. nov. (A) Habitus in lateral view; (B) habitus in dorsal view; (C) head in frontal view.

Figure 2. Meteorus albisericus sp. nov. (A) Mesonotum with distinctive notauli; (B) habitus male in lateral view; (C) tergite one (T1) – the upper white arrow indicates the dorsope, the lower white arrow indicates the laterope; (D) cocoon – the white arrow indicates the presence of a pad on anterior end seen from inside.

Figure 3. Meteorus albisericus sp. nov. pyralid hosts feeding on Diplazium costale.