Telothyria alexanderi Fleming & Wood, 2020

Fleming, AJ, Wood, D. Monty, Smith, M. Alex, Dapkey, Tanya, Hallwachs, Winnie & Janzen, Daniel, 2020, Revision of Telothyria van der Wulp (Diptera: Tachinidae) and twenty-five new species from Area de Conservacion Guanacaste in northwestern Costa Rica with a key to Mesoamerican species, Biodiversity Data Journal 8, pp. 47157-47157 : 47157

Telothyria alexanderi Fleming & Wood sp. n.

Materials

Type status: Holotype. Occurrence: occurrenceDetails: http://janzen.sas.upenn.edu; catalogNumber: DHJPAR0010309 ; recordedBy: D.H. Janzen, W. Hallwachs & Lucia Vargas; individualID: DHJPAR0010309; individualCount: 1; sex: M; lifeStage: adult; preparations: pinned; otherCatalogNumbers: ASTAS140-06, 06-SRNP-17436, BOLD:AAD4191; Taxon: scientificName: Telothyriaalexanderi; phylum: Arthropoda; class: Insecta; order: Diptera; family: Tachinidae; genus: Telothyria; specificEpithet: alexanderi; scientificNameAuthorship: Fleming & Wood, 2018; Location: continent: Central America; country: Costa Rica; countryCode: CR; stateProvince: Guanacaste; county: Sector Horizontes; locality: Area de Conservacion Guanacaste ; verbatimLocality: Vado Esperanza; verbatimElevation: 85; verbatimLatitude: 10.7894; verbatimLongitude: -85.551; verbatimCoordinateSystem: Decimal; decimalLatitude: 10.7894; decimalLongitude: -85.551; Identification: identifiedBy: AJ Fleming; dateIdentified: 2018; Event: samplingProtocol: Reared from the larva of the Crambidae, Spoladearecurvalis; verbatimEventDate: 18-Jul-2006; Record Level: language: en; institutionCode: CNC; collectionCode: Insects; basisOfRecord: Pinned Specimen Type status: Paratype. Occurrence: occurrenceDetails: http://janzen.sas.upenn.edu; catalogNumber: DHJPAR0010391 ; recordedBy: D.H. Janzen, W. Hallwachs & Lucia Vargas; individualID: DHJPAR0010391; individualCount: 1; sex: F; lifeStage: adult; preparations: pinned; otherCatalogNumbers: ASTAS222-06, 06-SRNP-17529, BOLD:AAD4191; Taxon: scientificName: Telothyriaalexanderi; phylum: Arthropoda; class: Insecta; order: Diptera; family: Tachinidae; genus: Telothyria; specificEpithet: alexanderi; scientificNameAuthorship: Fleming & Wood, 2018; Location: continent: Central America; country: Costa Rica; countryCode: CR; stateProvince: Guanacaste; county: Sector Horizontes; locality: Area de Conservacion Guanacaste ; verbatimLocality: Vado Esperanza; verbatimElevation: 85; verbatimLatitude: 10.7894; verbatimLongitude: -85.551; verbatimCoordinateSystem: Decimal; decimalLatitude: 10.7894; decimalLongitude: -85.551; Identification: identifiedBy: AJ Fleming; dateIdentified: 2018; Event: samplingProtocol: Reared from the larva of the Crambidae, Spoladearecurvalis; verbatimEventDate: 19-Jul-2006; Record Level: language: en; institutionCode: CNC; collectionCode: Insects; basisOfRecord: Pinned Specimen Type status: Paratype. Occurrence: occurrenceDetails: http://janzen.sas.upenn.edu; catalogNumber: DHJPAR0010394 ; recordedBy: D.H. Janzen, W. Hallwachs & Lucia Vargas; individualID: DHJPAR0010394; individualCount: 1; sex: F; lifeStage: adult; preparations: pinned; otherCatalogNumbers: ASTAS225-06, 06-SRNP-17461, BOLD:AAD4191; Taxon: scientificName: Telothyriaalexanderi; phylum: Arthropoda; class: Insecta; order: Diptera; family: Tachinidae; genus: Telothyria; specificEpithet: alexanderi; scientificNameAuthorship: Fleming & Wood, 2018; Location: continent: Central America; country: Costa Rica; countryCode: CR; stateProvince: Guanacaste; county: Sector Horizontes; locality: Area de Conservacion Guanacaste ; verbatimLocality: Vado Esperanza; verbatimElevation: 85; verbatimLatitude: 10.7894; verbatimLongitude: -85.551; verbatimCoordinateSystem: Decimal; decimalLatitude: 10.7894; decimalLongitude: -85.551; Identification: identifiedBy: AJ Fleming; dateIdentified: 2018; Event: samplingProtocol: Reared from the larva of the Crambidae, Spoladearecurvalis; verbatimEventDate: 20-Jul-2006; Record Level: language: en; institutionCode: CNC; collectionCode: Insects; basisOfRecord: Pinned Specimen Type status: Paratype. Occurrence: occurrenceDetails: http://janzen.sas.upenn.edu; catalogNumber: DHJPAR0010397 ; recordedBy: D.H. Janzen, W. Hallwachs & Guillermo Pereira; individualID: DHJPAR0010397; individualCount: 1; sex: F; lifeStage: adult; preparations: pinned; otherCatalogNumbers: ASTAS228-06, 06-SRNP-17206, BOLD:AAD4191; Taxon: scientificName: Telothyriaalexanderi; phylum: Arthropoda; class: Insecta; order: Diptera; family: Tachinidae; genus: Telothyria; specificEpithet: alexanderi; scientificNameAuthorship: Fleming & Wood, 2018; Location: continent: Central America; country: Costa Rica; countryCode: CR; stateProvince: Guanacaste; county: Sector Horizontes; locality: Area de Conservacion Guanacaste ; verbatimLocality: Bejuco; verbatimElevation: 180; verbatimLatitude: 10.7671; verbatimLongitude: -85.5966; verbatimCoordinateSystem: Decimal; decimalLatitude: 10.7671; decimalLongitude: -85.5966; Identification: identifiedBy: AJ Fleming; dateIdentified: 2018; Event: samplingProtocol: Reared from the larva of the Crambidae, Spoladearecurvalis; verbatimEventDate: 20-Jul-2006; Record Level: language: en; institutionCode: CNC; collectionCode: Insects; basisOfRecord: Pinned Specimen Type status: Paratype. Occurrence: occurrenceDetails: http://janzen.sas.upenn.edu; catalogNumber: DHJPAR0044941 ; recordedBy: D.H. Janzen, W. Hallwachs & Mariano Pereira; individualID: DHJPAR0044941; individualCount: 1; sex: F; lifeStage: adult; preparations: pinned; otherCatalogNumbers: ACGAZ165-11, 11-SRNP-55540, BOLD:AAD4191; Taxon: scientificName: Telothyriaalexanderi; phylum: Arthropoda; class: Insecta; order: Diptera; family: Tachinidae; genus: Telothyria; specificEpithet: alexanderi; scientificNameAuthorship: Fleming & Wood, 2018; Location: continent: Central America; country: Costa Rica; countryCode: CR; stateProvince: Guanacaste; county: Sector Mundo Nuevo; locality: Area de Conservacion Guanacaste ; verbatimLocality: Vado Miramonte; verbatimElevation: 305; verbatimLatitude: 10.7718; verbatimLongitude: -85.434; verbatimCoordinateSystem: Decimal; decimalLatitude: 10.7718; decimalLongitude: -85.434; Identification: identifiedBy: AJ Fleming; dateIdentified: 2018; Event: samplingProtocol: Reared from the larva of the Crambidae, Herpetogramma Janzen04; verbatimEventDate: 11-Jun-2011; Record Level: language: en; institutionCode: CNC; collectionCode: Insects; basisOfRecord: Pinned Specimen

Description

Male. Length: 6 mm (Fig. 5). Head (Fig. 5 b): frons narrow, 1/5 of head width; frontal vitta prominent and visible 1/12 head width; gena 1/5 of head height; 3-4 reclinate orbital setae; anteriormost reclinate orbital almost equal to uppermost frontal seta; ocellar setae absent; outer vertical seta absent; fronto-orbital plate gold throughout; fronto-orbital plate with short blonde hairs interspersed among frontal setae; parafacial pale silver; facial ridge bare; palpus short digitiform, sparsely haired along outer margin; arista plumose, brown, distinctly thickened on basal 1/10, microtrichia at most 3X as long as width of arista; postpedicel entirely orange; postocular region behind margin of eye upper half gold, with lower half including gena silver tomentose; upper half of occiput gold tomentose. Thorax (Fig. 5 a, c): pale brassy-golden tomentose, with two distinct outer dorsal stripes, inner stripes reaching only slightly beyond suture, up to but not beyond insertion of first postsutural dorsocentral seta, these almost invisible through dense blonde hairs; thorax entirely covered in dense plumose blonde hairs; chaetotaxy: 4-5 postpronotal setae, basal setae arranged in a straight line; supra-alar setae 2:3; intra-alar setae 1:3; dorsocentral setae 3:3; acrostichal setae 3:3; katepisternum with three setae. Scutellum golden tomentose; two pairs of strong marginal setae (basal and subapical) and a small pair of crossed apical scutellar setae 1/5th as long as subapical scutellars; basal scutellar setae subequal in length to subapical setae; subapical setae straight; underside of scutellum bearing plumose blonde hairs below basal scutellar setae. Legs: foreleg and midleg all yellow ground color, with only tarsal segments brown; hindleg yellow ground color on coxa and proximal 2/3 of femur and dark brown extending from distal 1/3 of femur, with yellow tibia, and brown tarsal segments; anterior leg tibia with irregularly sized fringe of equally spaced setae along anteroventral surface, with two posterodorsal setae. Wings: basicosta ivory white; all veins bare, with only 1-2 setulae at base of R4+5; calypters pale white translucent with a narrow yellowish fringe, upper calypter with a fringe of long setulae along margin. Abdomen (Fig. 5 a, c): ground color yellow-orange; ST1+2 brown over medial 30%, with yellow ventrolaterally, extending into a longitudinal middorsal brown stripe terminating in a band along posterior edge of T4; T3-T5 with dense brassy-silver tomentum along anterior marginal 10%, thinning and extending over remainder of tergite; T5 orange ground color with gold tomentum, anterior edge of tergite with a slightly darker brown band and medial triangle; median marginal setae present only on T4 and T5; median discal setae absent. Male terminalia: not examined.

Female. Length: 6-8 mm (Fig. 6). Head (Fig. 6 b): as in male with the following exceptions: fronto-orbital plate up to 50% gold; parafacial brilliant silver; frons 1/4 of head width; three inner reclinate orbital setae; two proclinate orbital setae; outer vertical seta present; palpus short and clubbed. Thorax (Fig. 6 a, c): pale brassy-golden tomentose beneath golden hairs; meron with 5-7 typical meral setae. Legs: colored as in male. Abdomen (Fig. 6 a, c): ground color orange entirely with a dorsocentral brown stripe along T3 and T4 and anterior 1/2 of T5; T5 as in male; marginal setae present on T4, T5 only.

Diagnosis

Telothyria alexanderi sp. n. can be distinguished from all other Telothyria by the following combination of traits: ocellar setae absent, parafacial pale silver, postpedicel entirely orange, arista plumose on lower half with microtrichia at most 3X as long as width of arista, facial ridge bare, thorax entirely covered in dense plumose blonde hairs. Differs from T. aidani by ST1+2 brown over medial 30%, females generally lighter than those of T. aidani , with ground color orange entirely and a dorsocentral brown stripe along T3 and T4 and anterior 1/2 of T5. CO1 barcode differs from Telothyria aidani sp. n. by 1%.

Etymology

Telothyria alexanderi sp. n. the new species is named in honor of my first son Alexander José Fleming, who inspires me everyday to continue to learn and strive to make this world a better place for the future.

Distribution

Costa Rica, ACG, Guanacaste Province, 85-305 m elevation.

Ecology

Telothyria alexanderi sp. n. has been reared five times from two species of Lepidoptera in the family Crambidae : Herpetogramma Janzen04 and Spoladea recurvalis in dry forest and dry-rain lowland intergrade.