Meteorus magnoculus 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 : 62-63

Taxon classification Animalia Hymenoptera Braconidae

Meteorus magnoculus Aguirre, Almeida & Shaw sp. n. Figures 111-117, 118-120

Diagnosis.

Occipital carina complete; large ocelli, ocellus-ocullar distance 0.5-0.6 × ocellar diameter; huge eyes, head height 1.2-1.4 × eye height; mandibles twisted; notauli deeply impressed, distinctive and rugose; propodeum aerolate-rugose; dorsope absent; ventral borders of first tergite joined completely along ½ of segment; ovipositor basally thickened and slightly curved; ovipositor 2.4-3 × longer than first tergite; mesosoma ferruginous, head mostly dark, metasoma and legs white and black.

Body color.

Antenna dark brown; annulus absent; head black except a small brown patch between each lateral ocelli and its closest compound eye; clypeus yellow; mesosoma mostly ferruginous except propleuron anterior 2/3 black, posterior 1/3 and interior borders yellow; pronotum ferruginous on the upper half, then gradually becomes yellow toward the lower border. Prothoracic coxa, trochanter and trochantellus yellow, remaining leg orange; mesothoracic legs brown except coxa, trochanter, trochantellus, both femur and tibia basally, and most of tarsus yellow. Metathoracic coxa basally orange-ferruginous, distally black; metathoracic trochanter, tibia basally and tarsus white-yellow; remaining hind leg black. Basal half and a narrow patch along the distal border of T1 yellow, T1 medially black; T2 on the basal border and T7 throughout white-yellow, remaining T2 and T3-T5 black, T6 and T8 brown; sterna yellow white, with brown patches on the sterna 5-7. Wings hyaline; stigma dark brown.

Body length.

6.6 mm.

Head.

Antenna with 33 flagellomeres; flagellar length/width ratios as follows: F1 = 4.2, F2 = 4, F3 = 3.3, F31 = 2.2, F32 = 2, F33 = 3; head 1.2 wider than high; occipital carina complete; ocellus-ocullar distance 0.6 × ocellar diameter; huge eyes, head height 1.2 × eye height; temple length 0.3 × eye length in dorsal view; vertex in dorsal view not descending vertically behind the lateral ocelli; frons smooth and polished; face maximum width 1.5 × minimum width; face puncticulate; face minimum width 0.7 × clypeus width; clypeus punctate; malar space length 0.1 × mandible width basally; mandibles twisted.

Mesosoma.

Pronotum in lateral view carinate and rugose; propleuron coarsely rugose; notauli deeply impressed, distinctive and rugose; mesonotal lobes well defined; central lobe of mesoscutum punctulate; scutellar furrow with three carinae; mesopleuron punctate; precoxal sulcus long, narrow and aerolate-rugose; metapleuron rugose; propodeum aerolate-rugose, longitudinal and transversal carinae absent, median depression weakly impressed.

Legs.

Hind coxa strigate and punctate; tarsal claw with a large lobe.

Wings.

Wing length 4.9 mm; second submarginal cell of forewing not strongly narrowed anteriorly. Front wing: length of vein r 0.5 × length of vein 3RSa; vein 3RSb straight; length of vein 3RSa 0.9 × 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 1.1 × length of vein r-m.

Metasoma.

Dorsope absent; ventral borders of first tergite joined completely along ½ of segment; first tergite with faintly demarcate and parallel costae; ovipositor basally thickened and slightly curved; ovipositor 2.9 × longer than first tergite.

Cocoon.

Unknown.

Female variation.

Body length 6 mm; antenna with 35-36 flagellomeres; ocellus-ocullar distance 0.5 × ocellar diameter; head height 1.3-1.4 × eye height; temple length 0.4 × eye length in dorsal view; face maximum width 1.4 × minimum width; face minimum width 0.8-0.9 × clypeus width; malar space length 0.2 × mandible width basally; wing length 4.8 mm. Front wing: length of vein r 0.4 × length of vein 3RSa; length of vein 3RSa 1.2 × length of vein r-m. Hind wing: length of vein 1M 1.1-1.3 × length of vein cu-a; length of vein 1M 1-1.4 × length of vein r-m; ovipositor 2.4-3 × longer than first tergite.

Male variation.

T2 with a yellow cup-shape area basally, remaining black; sterna 2-3 yellow-cream, sterna 4-8 brown; wings hyaline; body length 5.2 mm; antenna with 32 flagellomeres; head 1.1 wider than high; ocellus-ocullar distance equal to ocellar diameter; head height 1.4 × eye height; temple length 0.5 × eye length in dorsal view; frons strigulate; face maximum width 1.1 × minimum width; face strigate-punctate; face minimum width 0.9 × clypeus width; malar space length 0.4 × mandible width basally; wing length 4.1 mm; length of vein 3RSa equal to length of vein r-m; vein m-cu of forewing intersticial; length of vein 1M 0.9 × length of vein r-m; first tergite with costae parallel.

Type locality.

COSTA RICA, San Jose, San Pedro, Sabanilla.

Type specimen.

Holotype female (point mounted), COSTA RICA, San Jose, San Pedro, Sabanilla, collected from a pyralid leaf folder on Ipomea [correct spelling Ipomoea , A/N] XI.1997, X. Miranda leg., UWIM.

Paratype. One female, one male, same data as holotype, UWIM.

Distribution.

Costa Rica, province of San Jose.

Biology.

Parasitoid of a leaf folder pyralid ( Lepidoptera : Pyralidae ) sampled on Ipomoea ( Convolvulaceae ).

Comments.

Both the big eyes and large and colorful body make Meteorus magnoculus very distinct from the other species of the genus. The most similar one is Meteorus cecavorum sharing with Meteorus magnoculus the occipital carina complete, mandibles totally twisted, first metasomal tergite without dorsopes and ventral borders of first tergite joined along ½ of segment. But Meteorus magnoculus is easy to separate by its bigger eyes (head height/eye height = 1.3-1.4 vs. 1.5-1.6 in Meteorus cecavorum ), bigger ocelli (ocellus-ocullar distance/ocellar diameter = 0.5-0.6 vs. 1.2-1.6 in Meteorus cecavorum ) shorter malar space (malar space length/mandible width basally = 0.1 vs. 0.8-1.2 in Meteorus cecavorum ) and its combination of ferruginous, black and white on the body (mostly black-dark brown in Meteorus cecavorum ).

Etymology.

Meteorus magnoculus is, until now, the Meteorus species with biggest relative eye size inhabiting the Neotropical Region. The specific epithet is composed by the Latin prefix “magno” meaning large, and the Latin root “oculus” meaning eye.