Triraphis luzabrilae Jasso-Martínez, Zaldívar-Riverón & Martínez, 2024

Jasso-Martínez, Jovana M., Martínez, Juan José, Aguilar-Velasco, Reina Gabriela & Zaldívar-Riverón, Alejandro, 2024, Four new species of Triraphis Ruthe, 1855 (Braconidae, Rogadinae) from a Mexican tropical dry forest and morphological descriptions of T. bradzlotnicki Sharkey, 2021 and T. davidwahli Sharkey, 2021, European Journal of Taxonomy 917, pp. 50-73 : 62-65

Triraphis luzabrilae Jasso-Martínez, Zaldívar-Riverón & Martínez sp. nov.

urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act:3AE3F4C4-BD9C-4C20-8378-A1E9538B4B07

Fig. 4

Diagnosis

Tiraphis luzabrilae sp. nov. can be distinguished from the remaining species of Triraphis , except T. bradzlotnicki , by the presence of a median longitudinal carina running along the upper half of face ( Fig. 4B ) and parallel carinae in its third and fourth metasomal tergites ( Fig. 4F ). The median longitudinal carina of face is also present in both T. divergens sp. nov. and T. bradzlotnicki ; however, in the former species the carinae of third and fourth metasomal tergites are divergent. Tiraphis luzabrilae sp. nov. runs to T. fusciceps following Valerio & Shaw’s (2015) key, though it can be distinguished from the latter species by its brown dorsal marks on the mesosoma and metasoma (absent in T. fusciceps ).

Etymology

This species is named after the late Luz Abril De Jesús Bonilla, sister of our dear friend and colleague Vladimir Salvador De Jesús Bonilla.

Material examined

Holotype

MEXICO • ♀; Jalisco, Chamela Biological Station UNAM , Camino Chachalaca , 400 m; 19.4559° N, 105.04202° W; 113 m a.s.l.; 5 Oct. 2011; Zaldívar A. and Zaragoza S. leg.; Malaise trap; DNA voucher no. CNIN1177 ; GenBank accession no. OQ868188 ; CNIN-IBUNAM.

Description

Female (holotype)

MEASUREMENTS. Body length 4.9 mm; fore wing length 4.0 mm; ovipositor 1.0 mm.

COLOR. Head light brown; eyes silverfish brown; ocelli with a fine whitish yellow line around edges, ocelar triangle dark brown to black; mandibles pale yellow, teeth brown; scape and pedicel brown, first two flagellomeres brown, turning yellow to apex. Dorsal part of pronotum brown; median and lateral mesoscutal lobes yellow, lateral mesoscutal lobes brown around edges; metanotum and propodeum brown; lateral part of pronotum, propleuron, mesopleuron and metanotum pale yellow. Fore wings hyaline, pterostigma honey yellow; stigma dark brown medially, honey yellow laterally; veins of fore and hind wings yellow to brown. Legs pale yellow; fifth tarsomere and tarsal claws light brown. First metasomal tergite brown to dark brown basally, brown to dark brown medially and apically, pale yellow laterally; remaining tergites brown to dark brown medially, pale yellow laterally. Ovipositor honey yellow, ovipositor sheaths pale yellow basally, turning dark brown apically.

HEAD. Head 1.7 times wider than its median length (dorsal view); distance between basal edges of tentorial pits and the basal area of toruli 0.8 times maximum width of face; width of oral opening 1.6 times height of oral opening. Vertex, temple, gena and frons mostly smooth; face with irregular to transverse weak rugae near toruli, with a median longitudinal carina running along the upper half, with sparsely long setae; clypeus smooth-colliculate; mandible with two teeth; malar suture present. Antennae broken, with 3 and 5 flagellomeres respectively; first flagellomere 2.3 times longer than wide, 1.3 times longer than second flagellomere; eye 1.5 times higher than broad; malar space 0.15 times height of eye; face width 0.88 height of eye, 1.25 height of face and clypeus combined; occipital carina complete; median ocellus as big as lateral ocelli; ocellus-eye distance about 0.8 times lateral ocellus width.

MESOSOMA. Length of mesosoma about 2.0 times its maximum width (dorsal view), 1.3 times its maximum height (lateral view); pronotal groove smooth and scrobiculate; propleuron collicullate-coriaceous; notauli scrobiculate, distinct, not meeting, finishing before just before the end of mesoscutum; median pit present, elongate; median and lateral mesoscutal lobes smooth-collicullate; mesopleuron colliculate-coriaceous, dorso-laterally costate; precoxal sulcus deep, wide and scrobiculate, running along two thirds of mesopleuron; metapleuron coriaceous, surrounded by a scrobiculate area, with a distinct, posterior tubercle; propodeum coriaceous basally, remaining areas aerolate-rugose, with coriaceous sculpture between rugae, median carina ¼ of propodeum length, triangular areola poorly defined.

LEGS. Hind coxa 1.2 times longer than wide. Length of hind femur 5.0 times its maximum width. Hind basitarsus 0.43 times as long as hind tibia. Length of hind basitarsus 0.6 times combined length of second to fifth tarsal segments. Second, third, fourth and fifth (without pretarsus) tarsal segments 0.5, 0.44, 0.36 and 0.3 times as long as basitarsus. Tarsal claws with a basal, pointed lobe, followed by sharp spines.

WINGS. Fore wing length about 3.0 times its maximum width; pterostigma 4.5 times longer than wide; vein lCUb 0.88 almost as long as vein RS+Ma; vein 3Rsa 0.6 times vein 3RSb, 2.2 times vein r; angle at union 2RS and 2M acute. Hind wing length 5.0 times its maximum width; vein M+CU almost as long as vein 1M and 2.2 times vein r-m; vein 1A 2.1 times vein cu-a.

METASOMA. Metasoma almost as long as head and mesosoma combined, with seven visible tergites. First tergite almost as long as its maximum width; maximum width 4.0 times its basal width; longitudinally costate with coriaceous sculpture between carinae, with a longitudinal median carina running along its entire length. Length of second tergite 0.7 times its maximum width, 1.7 times length of third tergite; second and third tergites longitudinally costate with coriaceous sculpture between carinae, fourth tergite mostly coriaceous with faint longitudinal carinae. Remaining tergites finely coriaceous. Ovipositor about 0.5 times as long as metasoma.

Males

Unknown.

Distribution

This species is only known for the CBS in the state of Jalisco, Mexico.

Biology

Unknown.

Comments

We could not find external morphological differences between T. luzabrilae sp. nov. and T. bradzlotnicki ; however, they can be genetically distinguished with the animal DNA barcoding locus, having a distance of 2.99–3.77% (Supp. file 6: Subset 2).

Figures

Fig. 4. Triraphis luzabrilae Jasso-Martínez, Zaldívar-Riverón & Martínez sp. nov., ♀, holotype (CNIN- IBUNAM). A. Lateral habitus. B. Head, frontal view. C. Head, mesosoma and first metasomal tergite, lateral view. D. Head and mesosoma, dorsal view. E. Wings. F. Metasoma, dorsal view.