Aleiodes onyx, Shimbori, Eduardo Mitio & Shaw, Scott Richard, 2014

Shimbori, Eduardo Mitio & Shaw, Scott Richard, 2014, Twenty-four new species of Aleiodes Wesmael from the eastern Andes of Ecuador with associated biological information (Hymenoptera, Braconidae, Rogadinae), ZooKeys 405, pp. 1-81 : 57-60

Aleiodes onyx sp. n. Figures 92-95

Description of holotype.

Female (holotype). Body length 4.2 mm; antenna length 4.5 mm; fore wing length 4.1 mm.

Color. Mostly black. Head orangish except black ocellar triangle; cheeks, palp and mandibles whitish; mesocutum with postero-median yellowish square mark; scutellum lighter; fore coxa and femur honey yellow; mid coxa, and all trochanter and trochantellus whitish; most of mid and hind femur whitish; all femur with small brown spot apical–dorsally; all tibia and tarsi brown; hind coxa black; hind tibial spurs and base of basitarsi honey brown; tip of metasoma behind T5 brown; ovipositor sheaths dark brown on apical half, basal half whitish.

Head. Antenna with 33 antennomeres, flagellomeres roughly 2.0 × as long as wide, apical flagellomere with small pointed tip; malar space moderate, length about 1.5 × basal width of mandible, and half eye height; in dorsal view eye height 2 × temples; occipital carina interrupted at vertex, ventrally reaching hypostomal carina; oral space small and circular, maximum width equal to basal width of mandible; clypeus not swollen; ocelli moderate, ocell–ocular distance as long as diameter of lateral ocellus; maxillary palp not swollen; head surface sculpturing finely granulate, but occiput smooth and shining.

Mesosoma. Sculpturing mostly granulate; pronotum with some wrinkles; mesopleuron with anterior corner rugose; propodeum more coarsely granulate, with long mid-longitudinal carina on basal 2/3; notauli deep and crenulate anteriorly, meeting on depressed area posteriorly; posterior margin of mesoscutum with short carina, just anterior to scutellar sulcus; scutellar sulcus with median carina plus two pairs of poorly defined lateral carina.

Wings. Fore wing: stigma 5.5 × longer than high; vein r 0.75 × vein 2RS, 1.25 × vein RS+Mb, and 0.7 × as long as vein m-cu; vein 3RSa about 0.3 × vein 3RSb, and 0.8 × vein 2M; vein 1CUa 2.4 × vein 1cu-a; vein 1CUb 2 × 1CUa; vein 1M evenly slightly curved. Hind wing: m-cu indicated as short pigmented not tubular vein just postfurcal to vein r-m; vein M+CU about as long as vein 1M; vein 1M 1.4 × vein r-m; RS smoothly curved at middle; vein 2-1A present.

Legs. Hind tibia without comb of modified setae; tarsal claw simple, not pectinate, with a comb of relatively long thin setae basally; hind basitarsus 3 × longer than inner apical spur on hind tibia.

Metasoma. T1-T3 rugose–striated with granulate background; remainder terga granulate; mid longitudinal carina complete from T1 throughout T3; T1 0.8 × longer than its apical width; ovipositor sheaths as long as hind tarsomere II.

Paratype variation. None observed, virtually identical to holotype.

Male unknown.

Mummy. Length about 6.5 mm, body entire graphite metallic black color, head orangish yellow, mummy aspect robust, body with one row of setal sockets on each segment and sparse setae except dorsally, wrinkles on thorax; exit hole irregular, located postero-dorsally.

Type material.

Type-locality: ECUADOR, Napo Province, Yanayacu Biological Station, YY-57102, S00°35.9', W77°53.4', 2163 m, cloud forest, July 11, 2011.

Type-specimen: Holotype female and mummy, point mounted separately. Top label: "ECUADOR: Napo Province / Yanayacu Biological Station / S00°35.9', W77°53.4' 2163m / CAPEA - NSF-BSI-07-17458 / (hand written) May 2011 / 57102"; back (hand written): “11-Ago-2011”. (UWIM)

Paratype, female: same data as holotype, except: July 8, 2011, YY-57101. (UWIM)

Biology.

All type specimens were reared from the same Zygaenidae caterpillar species ("espalda tomate rubiacea") feeding on Notopleura plagiantha ( Rubiaceae ). Parasitoid emerged about five weeks after host mummification. Five caterpillars were collected together from the same plant, suggesting gregarious feeding behavior by the host caterpillars; four of them were parasitized, but adult parasitoids emerged from only two.

Discussion.

This species belongs to circumscriptus/gastritor species group. Aleiodes onyx sp. n. is similar to Aleiodes atripileatus ; however, it can be distinguished by color patterns: head entirely orangish except ocellar triangle black (occiput mostly black in Aleiodes atripileatus ), propleuron and ventral 1/4 pronotum honey brown (dark brown–black in Aleiodes atripileatus ), mesopleuron whole black (ventral 1/2 honey brown in Aleiodes atripileatus ), mesoscutum postero-central region honey yellow (whole dark-brown–black in Aleiodes atripileatus ); as well as sculpturing features: mesopleuron central elevated area smooth (granulate in Aleiodes atripileatus ), propodeum extensively rugose (granulate in Aleiodes atripileatus ); and antenna with fewer flagellomeres: 31 in Aleiodes onyx sp. n. vs. 34 or more in Aleiodes atripileatus . Other diagnostic characters fo Aleiodes onyx sp. n. are the occipital carina interrupted on vertex, the very short ovipositor, about as long as hind 3rd tarsomere, metasoma stout, T1 about 0.9 × as long as its apical width and slightly wider than mesosoma. The host mummy is similar to that of Aleiodes atripileatus , but the anal prolegs are not posteriorly extended in mummies made by Aleiodes onyx sp. n. The base color of the mummy is a metallic graphite-like tone, as opposed to opaque black in Aleiodes atripileatus mummies. Aleiodes onyx sp. n. is the first Aleiodes species known from Ecuador to be reared from Zygaenidae caterpillars.

Etymology.

From the Greek, the word onyx means “nail”. It is the name of a rock, used in adornments since ancient times, with several colors, being the black ones the most appreciated. The name is a reference for the main black color of this parasitoid mummy, which resembles the color of the black onyx rocks.