Aleiodes mirandae, 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 : 49-51

Aleiodes mirandae sp. n. Figures 74-76

Description of holotype.

Female (holotype). Body length 5.4 mm; antenna length 6.3 mm; fore wing length 4.8 mm.

Color. Mostly black. Head orangish yellow, including mandibles and palp, but mandibles tip brown; ocellar triangle black; antenna dark brown except apical border of pedicel honey yellow. Mesosoma almost entirely black; propleuron, pronotum, and scutellum medially honey yellow; posterior border of propodeum white. Fore leg yellowish; outer apical 1/3 of femur infuscate; basal half of tibia and tarsi brown. Mid leg with same pattern of fore leg but ground color whitish. Hind leg black; light yellow markings on apical border of trochanter and trochantellus, small ventral spot on trochantellus, apical half of femur latero-ventrally, and small sub-basal band on tibia. Metasoma black dorsally, bordered white; T1, triangular mid-basal area on T2 and apical borders of T3-T7 white; ventrally white but infuscate medially; ovipositor sheaths basal 1/3 whitish, apical 2/3 black. Wings weakly infuscate; veins dark brown.

Head. Antenna with 46 antennomeres, flagellomeres roughly 2.0 × as long as wide, apical flagellomere with very short pointed tip; malar space wide, about 1.8 × basal width of mandible, and 0.6 × eye height; in dorsal view eye 1.4 × temple; occipital carina incomplete, close but not meeting dorsally and curving toward lateral ocelli, well defined laterally and meeting hypostomal carina; oral space small and circular, maximum width equal to basal width of mandible; clypeus slightly swollen; ocelli small, ocell–ocular distance about 1.8 × diameter of lateral ocellus; maxillary palp not swollen; head surface sculpturing granulate, occiput smooth and shining; frons excavated with short lateral ridges.

Mesosoma. Sculpturing finely granulate; pronotum foveate; mesopleuron central disc mostly smooth and bare, posteriorly and ventrally coriaceous, antero-dorsal corner rugose; propodeum coarsely granular with complete mid-longitudinal carina; notauli well defined and crenulate anteriorly, barely defined but traceable posteriorly, meeting a depressed rugose area; posterior margin of mesoscutum bordered with complete carina; scutellar sulcus with median carina plus two pairs of incomplete lateral carina.

Wings. Fore wing: stigma about 4 × longer than high; vein r 0.8 × vein 2RS, as long as vein RS+Mb, and 0.75 × as long as vein m-cu; vein 3RSa about 0.5 × vein 3RSb, and 0.9 × vein 2M; vein 1CUa 2.5 × vein 1cu-a; vein 1CUb 2 × vein 1CUa; vein 1M evenly slightly curved. Hind wing: m-cu absent; M+CU 0.8 × 1M; vein 1M almost 3 × vein r-m; vein RS smoothly curved at middle; vein M dark brown, well pigmented; vein 2-1A present, short.

Legs. Hind tibia without apical comb of modified setae; tarsal claw simple, not pectinate, with a comb of relatively long thin setae basally; hind tibial spurs relatively short, about 1/4 basitarsus length.

Metasoma. T1, T2 and basal 3/4 of T3 rugose costate, longitudinal carina present along this sculpturing; remainder T3 and T4 granular; remainder visible terga weakly shining coriaceous; ovipositor sheaths 0.7 × length of hind basitarsus; T1 length slightly longer than its apical width.

Variation. 45-46 antennomeres; scutellar sulcus with 5 or 7 carina; white markings larger: almost all apical 1/2 on hind femur, basal 1/2 of hind tibia, basal spot on inner hind basitarsus, and throughout T2 length medially (widening toward base) reaching T3 basally as tiny central mark.

Male unknown.

Mummy. Length 10.0 mm, entire mottled pale yellow and gray, thorax compact and wrinkled, anal prolegs extended posteriorly, exit hole irregular, located postero-dorsally, posterior to hind abdominal prolegs.

Type material.

Type-locality: ECUADOR, Napo Province, Yanayacu Biological Station, S00°35.9', W77°53.4', 2163 m, cloud forest, 16 May 2011, M. Bryant col.

Type-specimen: Holotype female, point mounted. Top label: "ECUADOR: Napo Province / Yanayacu Biological Station / S00°35.9', W77°53.4' 2163m / M. Bryant, 10-20 May 2011 / NSF-DEB-10-20751 / (hand written) blacklight / 16 May 2011". (UWIM)

Paratypes, 3 females (UWIM): same locality as holotype, different collecting dates and methods: 1♀, March 15, 2010, reared, YY-45457; 1♀, February 7, 2010, reared YY-53818; 1♀, February 9, 2010, reared, YY-53961.

Biology.

Reared from a Geometridae species, common name "palito café chusquea", feeding on Chusquea scandens ( Poaceae ). Morphology of mummies and rearing data corroborate a single host species. Three weeks elapsed between mummification until adult emergence.

Discussion.

Aleiodes mirandae sp. n. belongs to circumscriptus/gastritor species-group. It is similar to Aleiodes napo sp. n. in the very small ocelli ( ocell–ocular distance about 2 × diameter of lateral ocelli), and also the mostly smooth mesopleuron. It differs from Aleiodes napo sp. n. in the rugose depressed mid-posterior area on mesoscutum, flat and granular in Aleiodes napo sp. n., the head, except black ocellar triangle, pronotum, propleuron and scutellum orangish yellow, all black in Aleiodes napo sp. n. except for small reddish marking on temples. The color pattern is very similar to Aleiodes kingmani sp. n., but additionally to already mentioned diagnostic characters Aleiodes mirandae sp. n. have hind wing vein M+CU shorter than 1M, while in Aleiodes kingmani sp. n. 1M is more than 2 × longer than r-m. The host species "palito café chusquea" ( Geometridae ) is the same species attacked by Aleiodes nubicola sp. n. and Aleiodes shakirae sp. n..

Etymology.

This species is named after Miranda Bryant, collector of the holotype.