Aleiodes tzantza, Shimbori, Eduardo Mitio & Shaw, Scott Richard, 2014

Shimbori, Eduardo Mitio & Shaw, Scott Richard, 2014, Twenty-four new species of Aleiodes Wesmael from the eastern Andes of Ecuador with associated biological information (Hymenoptera, Braconidae, Rogadinae), ZooKeys 405, pp. 1-81 : 69-71

Aleiodes tzantza sp. n. Figures 111-113

Description of holotype.

Female (holotype). Body length 5.0 mm; antenna length 5.8 mm; fore wing length 5.0 mm.

Color. Dorsally dark brown to black, except head; laterally and ventrally mostly yellowish to whitish. Head honey yellow; mandibles, cheeks, and palp whitish, but teeth brown; black stain dorsally, from ocellar triangle through occiput mid-dorsally. Mesosoma black dorsally; pronotum and propleuron whitish, but mid-dorsally pronotum dark brown; mesopleuron honey yellow; metapleuron black. Legs mostly yellowish, darkening toward apex, from whitish coxa to light brown, tarsi and dark brown claws. Metasoma dark brown dorsally, apex lightening behind T3, ventrally whitish; ovipositor sheaths dark brown. Wings weakly infuscate, veins brown.

Head. Antenna with 42 segments, flagellomeres roughly 2.0 × as long as wide, apical flagellomere with short “bottle-nipple” -shaped apex; malar space moderate, length 1.3 × basal width of mandible, and 0.4 × eye height; in dorsal view eye height 2.6 × temple; occipital carina incomplete dorsally, otherwise well defined, reaching hypostomal carina; oral space small and circular, maximum width slightly smaller than basal width of mandible; clypeus not swollen; ocell–ocular distance 0.6 × diameter of lateral ocellus; maxillary palp not swollen. Head surface sculpturing finely granulate, vertex sculpturing coarser, face with irregular transverse rugosity concentrated near toruli, occiput smooth and shining.

Mesosoma. Sculpturing mostly finely granulate; propodeum rugose–granulate, with complete mid-longitudinal carina; notauli anteriorly, narrow, posteriorly indicated by carina and meeting in front of scutellar sulcus; mesiscutum mid-posterior area depressed and granular, posterior margin of mesoscutum bordered with complete carina; scutellar sulcus with short median carina.

Wings. Fore wing: stigma 3.8 × longer than high; vein r 0.9 × vein 2RS, as long as vein RS+Mb, and 0.7 × as long as vein m-cu; vein 3RSa about 0.45 × vein 3RSb, and as long as vein 2M; vein 1CUa 2 × vein 1cu-a; vein 1CUb 2.2 × vein 1CUa; vein 1M evenly slightly curved. Hind wing: m-cu indicated as short fold, interstitial to r-m; M+CU 1.3 × 1M; vein 1M 1.45 × vein r-m; RS smoothly curved at middle; vein 2-1A present as a short stub.

Legs. Hind tibia without comb of modified setae; tarsal claw simple, with a comb of thin bristles medially; hind basitarsus about 4 × longer than inner apical spur on hind tibia.

Metasoma. T1-T3 rugose–striated with granulate background; remainder terga granulate; mid longitudinal carina complete from T1 throughout T2, absent on T3; ovipositor sheaths about as long as hind tarsomere II; T1 1.2 × longer than its apical width.

Paratype variation. Very similar to holotype, but with 41 antennomeres.

Male unknown.

Mummy. Length 9.0-10.0 mm, abdomen black, head, thorax, legs, and prolegs light pale brown, thorax compact and wrinkled, anal prolegs largely extended posteriorly, glue hole located ventrally on the thorax, exit hole irregular, located postero-dorsally, posterior to hind abdominal prolegs.

Type material.

Type-locality: ECUADOR, Napo Province, Yanayacu Biological Station, YY-48320, S00°35.9', W77°53.4', 2163 m, cloud forest, June 5, 2010.

Type-specimen: Holotype female and mummy, point mounted separately. Top label: "ECUADOR: Napo Prov. / Yanayacu Biological Station / S00°35.9', W77°53.4' 2163m / REARED / (hand written) 48320"; back (hand written): "May 2010 / 5-May-2010". (UWIM)

Paratype, female, same locality as holotype, August 14, 2005, reared YY-5189. (UWIM)

Biology.

The holotype was reared from a mummified larva collected on Palicourea ulloana ( Rubiaceae ). The sampling date is listed in the database as May 12, 2010, and the adult emergence date is listed as May 5, 2010, so clearly one of these dates must be incorrect. Since this caterpillar record is nested within a large group of other caterpillar records also collected on May 12, 2010, it seems most likely that the emergence date was recorded incorrectly. Since the pupation date is assigned as May 18, 2010, this also corroborates that the emergence date could not possibly have been May 5, 2010. It seems most likely that the emergence month was recorded incorrectly and perhaps the actual emergence date was June 5, 2010. The holotype host is probably a Noctuidae due to similarity with the paratype mummy, which is possibly conspecific, identified as a Noctuidae . The host plant for the paratype is unknown, and it is not possible to determine if the holotype host caterpillar fed or not on Palicourea ulloana .

Discussion.

This species belongs to circumscriptus/gastritor species group. Aleiodes tzantza sp. n. is similar to Aleiodes atripileatus , from which it can be distinguished by the larger ocelli: ocell–ocular distance about half diameter of lateral ocelli (1.5 to 1.7 × in Aleiodes atripileatus ), and the color of mesopleuron entirely yellow (dark brown at least dorsally in Aleiodes atripileatus ). Aleiodes tzantza sp. n. mummies are very similar to those of Aleiodes atripileatus , but the projecting anal prolegs are much longer in this species, and the body is distinctly longer. Its short ocell–ocullar distance is similar to Aleiodes speciosus , from which it differs by having the mesopleuron surface granular (mostly smooth with anterior quarter rugose in Aleiodes speciosus ) and entirely honey yellow (anterior 1/4 black in Aleiodes speciosus ), pronotum whitish laterally (mostly dark brown in Aleiodes speciosus ), and metasomal terga all dark brown (first tergite white in Aleiodes speciosus ).

Etymology.

“Tzantza” is the Shuar word for the ritual of reducing heads by a mummification process used by the Shuar, a people native from the current Ecuadorian Amazon territory, resulting in a shrunken mummy as the ones produced by the Aleiodes species.