Meteorus fallacavus 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 : 54-56

Taxon classification Animalia Hymenoptera Braconidae

Meteorus fallacavus Aguirre, Almeida & Shaw sp. n. Figures 91-97

Diagnosis.

Occipital carina complete, mandibles twisted, notauli deeply impressed, distinctive and rugose-foveate, first tergite laterally flattened, hind coxa strigate-rugulose; tarsal claw with a large lobe, a couple of cavities (false dorsopes) on the first tergite between the basal extreme and the spiracles, first tergite laterally flattened; ventral borders of first tergite touching distally for a short distance, ovipositor 2.0-2.2 × longer than first tergite.

Body color.

Antenna dark brown; annulus absent; face, clypeus and gena yellow; frons, temple and vertex orange; area between ocelli and occiput black. Anterior half of propleuron brown, posterior half yellow; pronotum yellow; mesonotal lobes and scutellum brown, notauli and area among lobes black; mesopleuron brown except dorsal and anterior borders black; metanotum totally black; metapleuron brown except ventral border black; propodeum black. Pro and mesothoracic legs yellow except tarsus brown; metathoracic legs yellow except tibia apically and tarsus dark brown. T1 black, T2 yellow, remaining terga brown; sterna light brown. Wing membrane hyaline, stigma brown.

Body length.

3.9 mm.

Head.

Antenna with 27 flagellomeres; flagellar length/width ratios as follows: F1 = 4.1, F2 = 3.5, F3 = 3, F25 = 1.7, F26 = 1.7, F27 = 2.7; head 1.2 wider than high; occipital carina complete; ocellus-ocullar distance 1.2 × ocellar diameter; head height 1.4 × eye height; temple length 0.4 × eye length in dorsal view; vertex in dorsal view not descending vertically behind the lateral ocelli; frons smooth and polished; face maximum width 1.3 × minimum width; face punctate; face minimum width equal to clypeus width; clypeus rugulose; malar space length 0.5 × mandible width basally; mandibles twisted.

Mesosoma.

Pronotum in lateral view coarsely rugulose; propleuron slightly puncticulate; notauli deeply impressed, distinctive and rugose-foveate; mesonotal lobes well defined; central lobe of mesoscutum punctate; scutellar furrow with three carinae; mesopleuron mostly puncticulate, rugose close to the tegula; precoxal sulcus long, narrow and rugose-foveate; metapleuron mostly smooth, rugose close to the coxa; propodeum rugose and devoid of both carinae and a median depression.

Legs.

Hind coxa strigate-rugulose; tarsal claw with a large lobe.

Wings.

Wing length 3.4 mm; second submarginal cell of forewing not strongly narrowed anteriorly. Front wing: length of vein r 0.4 × length of vein 3RSa; vein 3RSb straight; vein m-cu of forewing intersticial. 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 present, very small (actually it is a false dorsope, see explanation on comments below); first tergite laterally flattened; ventral borders of first tergite touching distally for a short distance; first tergite with costae parallel faintly demarcated; ovipositor thickened basally and straight; ovipositor 2.2 × longer than first tergite.

Cocoon.

Unknown.

Female variation.

Propleuron yellow except lateral and anterior borders brown; median mesonotal lobe and scutellum testaceous, lateral mesonotal lobes dark brown, notauli and area between mesonotal lobes black; mesopleuron orange except dorsal and anterior borders black; metapleuron orange except ventral border black; prothoracic legs completely yellow; mesothoracic legs with coxa, trochanter and trochantellus white, remaining dark brown; antenna with 26 flagellomeres; ocellus-ocullar distance 1.1-1.4 × ocellar diameter; head height 1.5 × eye height; metapleuron rugulose; ovipositor 2.0-2.2 × longer than first tergite.

Male variation.

Unknown.

Type locality.

COSTA RICA, Puntarenas, San Vito, Estación Biológica Las Alturas, 1500 m.

Type specimen.

Holotype female (point mounted). COSTA RICA, Puntarenas, San Vito, Estación Biológica Las Alturas, 1500 m, collected XII.1991, Paul Hanson leg., UWIM.

Paratypes. One female (point mounted), COSTA RICA, Puntarenas, San Vito, Estación Biológica Las Alturas, 1500 m, collected I.1992, Paul Hanson leg., UWIM. One female (point mounted), COSTA RICA, Cartago, 4 Km NE cañón Génesis II, 2350 m, collected IX.1996, P. Hanson leg., UWIM.

Distribution.

Costa Rica, at the provinces of Cartago and Puntarenas.

Biology.

Unknown.

Comments.

Meteorus fallacavus displays a distinctive pair of holes on the first metasomal tergite, ahead of the spiracles. In a strict sense these are not dorsopes because the presence of dorsopes always is correlated with ventral borders of the first tergite widely separated as remarked by Muesebeck (1923), Nixon (1941), Huddleston (1980) and corroborated in the Neotropical fauna ( Aguirre et al. 2011). Meteorus fallacavus has the ventral borders of the first tergite basally separated but distally touching by a short distance, feature allowing separate it from Meteorus magdalensis , its most similar congeneric species, which displays a true pair of dorsopes together with ventral borders of the first tergite widely separated. Both species have the notauli deeply impressed and distinct, as well as the first metasomal tergite unicolored, but Meteorus magdalensis is mostly black while Meteorus fallacavus is mostly yellow with black areas dorsally. Moreover, Meteorus fallacavus might be distinguished by having twisted mandibles (untwisted in Meteorus magdalensis ), tarsal claw with a large lobe (tarsal claw simple in Meteorus magdalensis ) and the vertex in lateral view flattened (vertex convex in lateral view in Meteorus magdalensis ).

Etymology.

The specific epithet is composed by the latin prefix “falla” which means false and “cavus” meaning cavity, since the pseudodorsope is the most distinctive feature for this species.