Meteorus flavistigma Aguirre, Almeida & Shaw

Aguirre, Helmuth, de Almeida, Luis Felipe, Shaw, Scott Richard & Sarmiento, Carlos E., 2015, An illustrated key to Neotropical species of the genus Meteorus Haliday (Hymenoptera, Braconidae, Euphorinae), ZooKeys 489, pp. 33-94 : 56-59

Taxon classification Animalia Hymenoptera Braconidae

Meteorus flavistigma Aguirre, Almeida & Shaw sp. n. Figures 98-103

Diagnosis.

Occipital carina complete; ocelli small, ocellus-ocullar distance 1.4-1.8 × ocellar diameter; mandibles moderately twisted; notauli deeply impressed, distinctive and foveolate; propodeum aerolate-rugose; hind coxa punctate and polished; tarsal claw with large lobe; dorsope absent; T1 laterally flattened; ventral borders of first tergite separated basally and joined apically along almost ½ of segment; ovipositor 2.5 × longer than first tergite; stigma yellow.

Body color.

Antenna dark brown, annulus absent; head orange except area between ocelli black. Propleuron orange; pronotum either testaceous or yellow; mesonotum orange, bordered by a black strip; mesopleuron orange-testaceous; metanotum black dorsally, orange and black laterally; metapleuron either testaceous or yellow; propodeum black. Prothoracic legs testaceous; mesothoracic legs testaceous; metathoracic legs testaceous except coxa apically, tibia and tarsus dark brown. T1 black; T2-T7 with a large dorso-medial dark brown oval-shaped area surrounded by yellow; sterna yellow. Wing membrane hyaline; stigma yellow.

Body length.

4 mm.

Head.

Antenna with 26 flagellomeres; flagellar length/width ratios as follows: F1 = 3.7, F2 = 4, F3 = 3.1, F24 = 1.7. F25 = 1.5. F26 = 2.3; head 1.2 wider than high; occipital carina complete; ocellus-ocullar distance 1.4 × ocellar diameter; head height 1.8 × eye height; temple length 0.5 × eye length in dorsal view; vertex in dorsal view not descending vertically behind the lateral ocelli; frons surface irregular; face maximum width 1.3 × minimum width; face punctuate; face minimum width 0.8 × clypeus width; clypeus smooth with dispersed punctures; malar space length 0.5 × mandible width basally; mandibles moderately twisted.

Mesosoma.

Pronotum in lateral view carinated; propleuron puncticulate and shiny; notauli deeply impressed, distinctive and foveolate; mesonotal lobes well defined; central lobe of mesoscutum punctuate; scutellar furrow with three carinae; mesopleuron punctate; precoxal sulcus short, narrow and foveate; metapleuron surface irregular and polished except either rugose or finely rugulose close to the coxa; propodeum aerolate-rugose, without a median depression, transversal or longitudinal carinae.

Legs.

Hind coxa punctate and polished; tarsal claw with large lobe.

Wings.

Wing length 3.6 mm; second submarginal cell of forewing not strongly narrowed anteriorly. Front wing: length of vein r 0.8 × length of vein 3RSa; vein 3RSb straight; length of vein 3RSa equal to length of vein r-m; vein m-cu antefurcal. Hind wing: length of vein 1M 1.2 × length of vein cu-a; length of vein 1M equal to length of vein r-m.

Metasoma.

Dorsope absent; T1 laterally flattened; ventral borders of first tergite separated basally and joined apically along almost ½ of segment; first tergite with costae almost parallel; ovipositor thickened basally and straight; ovipositor 2.5 × longer than first tergite; T2-T7 smooth.

Cocoon.

Unknown.

Female variation.

T2 yellow, T3 brown, T4-T6 brown medially and yellow laterally, T7-T8 yellow; body length 4.2 mm; ocellus-ocullar distance 1.8 × ocellar diameter; head height 1.5 × eye height; temple length 0.4 × eye length in dorsal view; frons smooth and polished; face maximum width 1.5 × minimum width; malar space length 0.6 × mandible width basally; pronotum in lateral view foveate, rugose or rugose-carinate, notauli rugose-foveate, scutellar furrow with four carinae; metapleuron dorsally punctate and ventrally foveate; wing length 3.7 mm; first tergite with costae convergent posteriorly.

Male variation.

Both lateral mesonotal lobes and the median one apically black, yellow the rest; mesopleuron either yellow except area close to the tegula dark brown or orange on the middle, black dorsally and ventrally; pro and mesothoracic legs yellow except tarsus brown; metathoracic legs yellow except tibia brown, femur apically and tarsus dark brown; T2 basally yellow-orange, remaining dark brown; body length 3.8 mm; antenna with 32 flagellomeres; ocellus-ocullar distance equal to ocellar diameter; wing length 3.4 mm; front wing: length of vein r 0.6 × length of vein 3RSa; first tergite costate-reticulate.

Type locality.

COSTA RICA, San José, Cerro de la Muerte, 19 Km South, 3 Km West, Empalme, 2600 m.

Type specimen.

Holotype female (point mounted), COSTA RICA, San José, Cerro de la Muerte, 19 Km South, 3 Km West, Empalme, 2600 m, collected XII.1992, P. Hanson leg., UWIM.

Paratypes. Three females and one male (point mounted), COSTA RICA, Heredia, Estación Barva, Parque Natural Braulio Carillo, 2500 m, collected V.1990, A. Fernández leg., UWIM. One male (point mounted), COSTA RICA, Heredia, Estación Barva, Parque Natural Braulio Carillo, 2500 m, collected VI.1990, B. Apu and G. Varela leg., UWIM. One male (point mounted), COSTA RICA, Puntarenas, San Vito, Estación Biológica Las Alturas, 1500 m, collected II.1992, P. Hanson leg., UWIM.

Distribution.

Costa Rica, at the provinces of San Jose, Heredia, and Puntarenas.

Biology.

Unknown.

Comments.

Meteorus flavistigma shares with Meteorus boyacensis the mandibles moderately twisted and ventral borders of the first tergite basally separated and joined along the rest of the segment. Meteorus flavistigma might be distinguished from Meteorus boyacensis by the tarsal claw with a large lobe (tarsal claw simple in Meteorus boyacensis ), and body mostly yellow except mesosoma and metasoma with dark areas (completely black-dark brown in Meteorus boyacensis ).

Etymology.

This species is so-named because of the yellow stigma on the front wing: “flavis” is the Latin prefix meaning yellow.