Vibrissina albopicta (Bigot, 1889)

Fleming, AJ, Wood, D. Monty, Smith, M. Alex, Dapkey, Tanya, Hallwachs, Winnie & Janzen, Daniel H., 2017, Five new species of Vibrissina Rondani (Diptera: Tachinidae) from Area de Conservacion Guanacaste in Northwestern Costa Rica, Biodiversity Data Journal 5, pp. 10967-10967 : 10967

Vibrissina albopicta (Bigot, 1889)

Chaetolyga albopicta Bigot, 1889: 258. Lectotype female (NHMUK), by designation of Wood (1985) [examined by DMW]. Type locality: Mexico.

Materials

Type status: Other material. Occurrence: occurrenceDetails: http://www.boldsystems.org/index.php/API_Public/specimen?ids=ASHYM1999-13; catalogNumber: DHJPAR0052645 ; recordNumber: 13-SRNP-18822; recordedBy: Guillermo Pereira; individualID: DHJPAR0052645; individualCount: 1; sex: male; lifeStage: adult; Taxon: scientificName: Vibrissinaalbopicta; nameAccordingTo: (Bigot, 1889); phylum: Arthropoda; class: Insecta; order: Diptera; family: Tachinidae; genus: Vibrissina; specificEpithet: albopicta; scientificNameAuthorship: (Bigot, 1889); Location: continent: Central America; country: Costa Rica; stateProvince: Guanacaste; county: Sector Santa Rosa; locality: Area de Conservacion Guanacaste ; verbatimLocality: Area Administrativa; verbatimElevation: 295; verbatimLatitude: 10.83764; verbatimLongitude: -85.61871; verbatimCoordinateSystem: decimal; decimalLatitude: 10.8376; decimalLongitude: -85.6187; Identification: identifiedBy: A.J. Fleming; Event: samplingProtocol: Reared from the larva of Durgoamattogrossensis; verbatimEventDate: 10-Aug-2013; Record Level: institutionCode: CNC Type status: Other material. Occurrence: recordedBy: H.J. Reinhard; sex: male; lifeStage: adult; Taxon: scientificName: Vibrissinaalbopicta; nameAccordingTo: (Bigot, 1889); family: Tachinidae; genus: Vibrissina; specificEpithet: albopicta; Location: locationID: Santa Engracia; higherGeographyID: Tamaulipas; higherGeography: Mexico; continent: North America; country: Mexico; countryCode: MX; stateProvince: Tamaulipas; locality: Santa Engracia ; verbatimLocality: Santa Engracia, Tamaulipas, Mex; Identification: identifiedBy: D.M. Wood; dateIdentified: 1979; Event: eventDate: 1937-10-20; year: 1937; month: 10; day: 20; verbatimEventDate: X-20-37; Record Level: institutionCode: CNC Type status: Other material. Occurrence: recordedBy: B.V. Peterson; sex: female; Taxon: scientificName: Vibrissinaalbopicta; nameAccordingTo: (Bigot, 1889); family: Tachinidae; genus: Vibrissina; specificEpithet: albopicta; Location: locationID: Sontecomapan; higherGeographyID: Veracruz; higherGeography: Mexico; continent: North America; country: Mexico; countryCode: MX; stateProvince: Veracruz; locality: Sontecomapan ; verbatimLocality: MEXICO, Veracruz, Sontecomapan; Event: eventDate: 1969-6-20; year: 1937; month: 6; day: 20; verbatimEventDate: 20.VI.1969; Record Level: institutionCode: CNC Type status: Other material. Occurrence: recordedBy: J.G. Chillcott; sex: female; Taxon: scientificName: Vibrissinaalbopicta; nameAccordingTo: (Bigot, 1889); family: Tachinidae; genus: Vibrissina; specificEpithet: albopicta; Location: locationID: 12 Mi. East of Cuernavaca; higherGeographyID: Morelos; higherGeography: Mexico; continent: North America; country: Mexico; countryCode: MX; stateProvince: Morelos; locality: 12. Mi. E. of Cuernavaca ; verbatimLocality: Cuernavaca, 12 Mi. E. 4300' Morelos, Mex.; verbatimElevation: 4300'; Event: eventDate: 14-VIII-1954; year: 1954; month: 8; day: 14; verbatimEventDate: 14-VIII-1954; Record Level: institutionCode: CNC Type status: Other material. Occurrence: recordedBy: J.G. Chillcott; sex: female; Taxon: scientificName: Vibrissinaalbopicta; nameAccordingTo: (Bigot, 1889); family: Tachinidae; genus: Vibrissina; specificEpithet: albopicta; Location: locationID: Xilitla; higherGeographyID: San Luis Potosí; higherGeography: Mexico; continent: North America; country: Mexico; countryCode: MX; stateProvince: San Luis Potosí; locality: Xilitla ; verbatimLocality: Xilitla, 1800' S.L.P., Mexico; verbatimElevation: 1800'; Event: eventDate: 1954-VII-24; year: 1954; month: 7; day: 24; verbatimEventDate: 24-VII-1954; Record Level: institutionCode: CNC Type status: Other material. Occurrence: recordedBy: R. & K. Dreisbach; sex: female; Taxon: scientificName: Vibrissinaalbopicta; nameAccordingTo: (Bigot, 1889); family: Tachinidae; genus: Vibrissina; specificEpithet: albopicta; Location: locationID: Hujintlan; higherGeographyID: Morelos; higherGeography: Mexico; continent: North America; country: Mexico; countryCode: MX; stateProvince: Morelos; locality: Hujintlan ; verbatimLocality: Hujintlan, Morelos, Mexico; Event: eventDate: 1956-VIII-22; year: 1956; month: 8; day: 22; verbatimEventDate: 8-22-56; Record Level: institutionCode: CNC

Description

Male (Fig. 2). Length: 6-8mm. Head (Fig. 2b): parafrontal and parafacial silver tomentose; postorbit with slight golden-yellow tinge but overall silver in appearance; face, gena, and postgena silver tomentose; antenna black-brown; arista reddish brown; gena 0.14X eye height; 3 reclinate orbital bristles; frontal bristles not extending beyond lower level of pedicel; first flagellomere short of facial margin by 2X length of pedicel. Thorax (Fig. 2a, c): dorsum gray tomentose with 4 dorsal vittae barely visible presuturally, postsuturally all blurred together into a black smudge with a dark overall appearance (this trait only visible under natural light, not pictured); thorax gold tinged on posterior edge adjacent to scutellum; scutellum silver tomentose over black ground color; katepisternum, anepisternum and anepimeron silver-gray tomentose; 3 strong katepisternal bristles; 2 pairs of short discal scutellar bristles; apical scutellars weak and crossed. Legs: tibiae black overall, with light silver tomentosity visible under certain angles of light. Wings: smoky gray, bearing 2-3 short setulae dorsally at base of vein R4+5. Abdomen (Fig. 2a): ground color of abdomen dark brown-black laterally, black dorsally; ST1+2 all black, with mid-dorsal depression extending halfway to margin of syntergite; anterior margins of T3 and T4 bearing gray tomentum covering ⅓ of tergal surface; gray tomentum absent from T5; ST1+2 and T3 with 1 pair of median marginal bristles; T3 and T4 each with 1 pair of underdeveloped median discal bristles; T4 and T5 each bearing 1 row of marginal bristles; no discal bristles on T5. Male terminalia: not dissected.

Female (not pictured, due to lack of photographic quality specimens). Length: 5-6mm. As male, with the exception of the following characters: thorax: dorsum and scutellum entirely silver tomentose; thoracic vittae distinct both pre- and postsuturally. Abdomen: entirely black in ground color, ventrolaterally flattened; all tergites lacking discal bristles; median marginal bristles present on ST1+2 and T3; T4 and T5 each with a row of marginal bristles; mid-ventral portion of T3-T5 tergites with a row of strong, stout spines.

Diagnosis

Vibrissina albopicta can be differentiated from its congeners by the following combination of traits: parafacial and parafrontal silver; thoracic tomentum silver-gray on both dorsal and lateral surfaces; abdominal ground color almost entirely black with only traces of dark brown; silver tomentum extending to over 30% of T3 and T4, but absent on T5; ST1+2 and T3 with only one pair of median marginals, T4 and T5 with a complete row of marginals; discals on T3 and T4 underdeveloped in male, absent in female.

Distribution

Mexico: ranging from San Luis Potosí, Southeast to Morelos; Costa Rica: ACG, Guanacaste Province, 295 m.

Ecology

Hosts: in ACG, V. albopicta has been reared once from the larvae of the sawfly Durgoa mattogrossensis Malaise ( Argidae ), feeding on the leaves of Bauhinia ungulata L. ( Fabaceae ).