Meteorus haimowitzi 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 : 59-61

Taxon classification Animalia Hymenoptera Braconidae

Meteorus haimowitzi Aguirre, Almeida & Shaw sp. n. Figures 104-110

Diagnosis.

Occipital carina complete; large ocelli, ocellus-ocullar distance 0.3 × ocellar diameter; large ayes, head height 1.3 × eye height; malar space very short, malar space length 0.1 × mandible width basally; mandibles twisted; notauli shallow, not distinctive and rugose; hind coxa strigate; tarsal claw with large lobe; dorsope absent; ventral borders of first tergite joined completely along ½ of segment; mesopleuron completely yellow; metanotum dorsally brown, yellow laterally.

Body color.

Antenna, face and clypeus yellow; annulus absent; remaining head orange. Propleuron, pronotum, mesopleuron and metapleuron yellow; mesonotum yellow except a couple of faint light brown patches on each lateral mesonotal lobe; metanotum dorsally brown, yellow laterally; propodeum light brown. Pro and metathoracic legs yellow; mesothoracic coxa, trochanter and trochantellus white, remaining leg dark brown. T1 having the basal half and a narrow patch along the distal border yellow, medially black; a median white-yellow broad hourglass-shaped pattern on T2, T3 brown, T4-T8 yellow; sterna yellow. Wing membrane hyaline; stigma brown.

Body length.

5.7 mm.

Head.

Antenna with 31 flagellomeres; flagellar length/width ratios as follows: F1 = 3.6, F2 = 3.3, F3 = 2.8, F29 = 2, F30 = 1.7, F31 = 3.3; head 1.2 wider than high; occipital carina complete; ocellus-ocullar distance 0.3 × ocellar diameter; head height 1.3 × eye height; temple length 0.6 × eye length in dorsal view; vertex in dorsal view descending vertically behind the lateral ocelli; frons smooth and polished; face maximum width 1.4 × minimum width; face strigulate; face minimum width 0.8 × clypeus width; clypeus strigulate; malar space length 0.1 × mandible width basally; mandibles twisted.

Mesosoma.

Pronotum in lateral view carinate-rugose; propleuron rugulose-costate, with costae divergent posteriorly; notauli shallow, not distinctive and rugose; mesonotal lobes not well defined; central lobe of mesoscutum punctate; scutellar furrow with three carinae; mesopleuron punctate; precoxal sulcus long, narrow and carinate-rugose; most metapleuron surface smooth and polished except irregular to rugose close to the hind coxa; propodeum rugose and devoid of both longitudinal and transversal carinae, median depression absent.

Legs.

Hind coxa strigate; tarsal claw with large lobe.

Wings.

Wing length 5.3 mm; second submarginal cell of forewing not strongly narrowed anteriorly. Front wing: length of vein r 0.3 × length of vein 3RSa; vein 3RSb straight; length of vein 3RSa 1.2 × length of vein r-m; vein m-cu antefurcal. Hind wing: length of vein 1M 0.9 × length of vein cu-a; length of vein 1M 0.8 × length of vein r-m.

Metasoma.

Dorsope absent; ventral borders of first tergite joined completely along ½ of segment; first tergite with costae convergent posteriorly; ovipositor thickened basally and straight; ovipositor 1.4 × longer than first tergite.

Cocoon.

Length 6.6 mm; width 2.8 mm; black-dark brown, loosely wrapped by its silk; the edge of the emergence hole is rough, the cap is missing. The thread is approximately 36 mm long.

Female variation.

Unknown.

Male variation.

Unknown.

Type locality.

COSTA RICA, Heredia, Vara Blanca, 2000 m.

Type specimen.

Holotype female (point mounted), COSTA RICA, Heredia, Vara Blanca, 2000 m, collected IV.27.2002, Kenji Nishida leg., UWIM.

Paratype. Unknown.

Distribution.

Costa Rica, Province of Heredia.

Biology.

Solitary parasitoid reared from its cocoon.

Comments.

Meteorus haimowitzi and Meteorus imaginatus Jones share more morphological features between them than with any other species in the genus; the most relevant are: big eyes, head height 1.3 × or less eye height, occipital carina complete, mandibles completely twisted, notauli shallow and not distinct, tarsal claw with a large lobe, first metasomal tergite without dorsopes and ventral borders of first tergite completely joined along ½ of segment. Meteorus hamowitzi differs from Meteorus imaginatus by the metanotum dorsally black-dark brown and laterally yellow (metanotum completely black-dark brown in Meteorus imaginatus ), hind legs yellow (hind legs dark brown in Meteorus imaginatus ) and mesonotal lateral lobes mostly yellow (mesonotal lateral lobes dark brown in Meteorus imaginatus ). Interestingly another conspicuous character to distinguish both species is in the cocoon, which is ornamented with a crown-like silk arrangement nearby the opening apex in Meteorus imaginatus , but this is absent in Meteorus haimowitzi (see Jones and Shaw 2012, p. 10, fig. 21).

Etymology.

This species is named after our entomologist colleague and parasitoid-lover Larry Haimowitz.