Heterospilus gahani Marsh

Marsh, Paul M., Wild, Alexander L. & Whitfield, James B., 2013, The Doryctinae (Braconidae) of Costa Rica: genera and species of the tribe Heterospilini, ZooKeys 347, pp. 1-474 : 73-74

Heterospilus gahani Marsh sp. n. Figure 46

Female.

Body size: 4.5 mm. Color: head honey yellow; scape yellow without lateral longitudinal brown stripe, flagellum brown with apical 3-5 flagellomeres white; mesoscutum and propleuron honey yellow, propodeum, mesopleuron and venter dark brown; metasomal tergum 1 dark brown, tergum 2 dark brown with lateral converging honey yellow stripes, tergum 3 honey yellow medially, dark brown laterally, terga 4-7 honey yellow; wing veins brown, stigma yellow with central brown spot; fore and mid legs with coxae and trochanters 1 white, trochanters 2 yellow basally, brown apically, femora yellow basally and light brown apically, tibiae yellow, tarsi brown; hind coxa brown, trochanter 1 yellow, trochanter 2 yellow basally, brown apically, femur yellow on basal 1/4, brown on apical 3/4, tibia yellow medially, brown at extreme base and on apical 1/2, tarsus brown. Head: vertex transversely costate; frons transversely costate; face granulate; temple in dorsal view broad, not sloping behind eye, width equal to 1/2 eye width; malar space greater than 1/4 eye height; ocell-ocular distance slightly greater than 2.5 times diameter of lateral ocellus; 27 flagellomeres. Mesosoma: mesoscutal lobes granulate, costate along notauli; notauli scrobiculate, meeting at scutellum in rectangular rugose area; scutellum smooth; prescutellar furrow with 3-5 cross carinae; mesopleuron granular; precoxal sulcus smooth, shorter than mesopleuron; venter granulate; propodeum with basal median areas margined, rugose-granulate, basal median carina present and with attached short carinae at right angles, areola margined, areolar area rugose, lateral areas rugose posteriorly, granulate anteriorly. Wings: fore wing vein r shorter than vein 3RSa, vein 1cu-a beyond vein 1M; hind wing vein SC+R present, vein M+CU shorter than vein 1M. Metasoma: first tergum costate laterally, rugose medially, apical width 1/2 length; second tergum costate; anterior transverse groove present, sinuate; posterior transverse groove present; third tergum smooth, weakly striate antero-laterally; terga 4-7 smooth; ovipositor about 1/2 length of metasoma.

Holotype female.

Top label (white, printed) - Costa Rica: San Jose [;] Cerro de la Muerte [;] 2km W Empalme [;] 2300m, June 1995 [;] P. Hanson, Malaise; second label (red, partially printed and hand written) - HOLOTYPE [;] Heterospilus [;] gahani [;] P. Marsh. Deposited in ESUW.

Paratypes.

Known only from the holotype.

Comments.

This species is distinctive by the long and narrow first metasomal tergum and the costate mesoscutal lobes.

Etymology.

Named for the American entomologist, A. B. Gahan, who described many New World Braconidae in the early 1900s.