Aleiodes delicatus, 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 : 28-30

Aleiodes delicatus sp. n. Figures 34, 35

Description of holotype.

Female (holotype). Body length 5.4 mm; antenna length 7.3 mm; fore wing length 4.5 mm.

Color. Mostly dark brown; legs pale brown but fore and mid coxae and trochanter whitish, hind coxa mostly dark brown, whitish on basal 1/4; all palp whitish; scape and pedicel, notauli and ventral border of mesoscutum, and mandibles yellowish; scutellum brown mid-anteriorly; propleuron pale brown, anteriorly darker; mesopleuron pale brown laterally, ventrally whitish with a roughly defined inverted “heart-shaped” honey brown infuscation; metasomal terga 3 and 4 slightly lighter than remainder metasoma and with whitish lateral borders; metasoma ventrally white except for last two sternites mostly light brown. Wing veins brown, but basally whitish, stigma pale brown, tegula white.

Head. Antenna with 45 segments, flagellomeres roughly 2.0 × as long as wide, apical flagellomere with small pointed apex; malar space wide, about 1.6 × basal width of mandible, 0.6 × eye height; in dorsal view eyes 2.4 × longer than temples; occipital carina complete dorsally, well defined laterally and meeting hypostomal carina; oral space small and circular, maximum width about as long as basal width of mandible; clypeus not swollen; ocelli small, ocell–ocular distance 2 × diameter of lateral ocellus; maxillary palp not swollen; head surface sculpture coarse granulate, occiput smooth and shining, frons not excavated, higher face with well defined mid-longitudinal ridge.

Mesosoma. Sculpturing mostly coarse granulate; pronotum foveate; propodeum rugulose with granular background, mid-longitudinal carina present on anterior 1/3; notauli very shallow and narrow, with few crenulae anteriorly; posteriorly meeting on almost flat and weakly rugose area; posterior margin of mesoscutum bordered by carina; scutellar sulcus long, with three strong but incomplete carina.

Wings. Fore wing: stigma 4.5 × longer than high; vein r about 1.3 × vein 2RS, 1.4 × vein RS+Mb, and 1.0 × vein m-cu; second submarginal cell small and trapezoidal, vein 3RSa 0.28 × vein 3RSb, and 0.77 × vein 2M; vein 1CUa 1.6 × vein 1cu-a; vein 1CUb 2.7 × 1CUa; vein 1M weakly curved on basal half. Hind wing: vein m-cu absent; vein M+CU 0.85 × 1M; 1M about 2.7 × length of r-m; vein RS sinuate at middle, then only slightly diverging from wing margin; vein M dark brown, well pigmented; vein 2-1A absent.

Legs. Hind tibia with comb of modified setae; tarsal claw simple, not pectinate; inner apical spur on hind tibia extremely short, hind basitarsus 5 × longer than inner spur.

Metasoma. T1, T2 and basal 2/5 of T3 finely rugose–striate with coarse granulate background, longitudinal carina present along T1 and T2; apical 3/5 of T3 coarse granulate; remainder visible terga granular coriaceous; ovipositor sheaths as long as hind tarsomere II, and 0.47 × length hind basitarsus; T1 long and narrow, 1.6 × longer than its apical width.

Male. Unknown.

Type material.

Type-locality: ECUADOR, Napo Province, Yanayacu Biological Station, Macucoloma trail, S00°35.9', W77°53.4', 2163 m, cloud forest, August 15, 2006, A. Townsend col.

Type-specimen: Holotype female, point mounted. Top label: "ECUADOR: Napo Prov. / Yanayacu Biological Station / 15-Aug-2006 Macucaloma trail / Maxi net 2163m. A. Townsend". (UWIM)

Discussion.

Aleiodes delicatus sp. n. belongs to seriatus species-group. It is very similar to Aleiodes pectoralis (Ashmead, 1894) (=sanctivicentensis Shenefelt, 1975), from St. Vincent, and Aleiodes akidnus Marsh & Shaw, 1998, from Florida - USA, by the very small ocelli and the wing venation, remarkably the short second submarginal cell of the forewing, and also the longitudinal carina incomplete on propodeum. Aleiodes delicatus sp. n. is mostly dark brown with some lighter regions on mesoscutum and mesopleuron (legs also lighter and metasoma ventrally white), being the color pattern very similar to Aleiodes pectoralis , while Aleiodes akidnus is entirely honey yellow with black stemmaticum; however, the gena of Aleiodes delicatus sp. n. is dark brown, compared to light yellowish in Aleiodes pectoralis . Though short, the second submarginal cell is not almost square as in Aleiodes akidnus and Aleiodes pectoralis . The vein r is 0.75 × vein 3RSa in Aleiodes delicatus sp. n., but in Aleiodes akidnus and Aleiodes pectoralis r is slightly longer than 3RSa. In Aleiodes delicatus sp. n. the longitudinal carina is absent on metasomal tergite 3, but it is complete in Aleiodes akidnus and present on basal half in Aleiodes pectoralis , and the first metasomal tergite is 1.6 × longer than apical width but roughly as long as wide in Aleiodes akidnus and about 1.3 × in Aleiodes pectoralis .

Etymology.

From the Latin, meaning delicate.