Aleiodes aclydis Townsend, 2009

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 : 8-9

Aleiodes aclydis Townsend, 2009 Figure 1

Diagnosis.

Body length 6.1 mm; antenna with 44 segments; head with vertex black, occiput light orangish brown; ocelli large, ocell–ocular distance less than width of lateral ocellus; occipital carina interrupted at vertex; mesosoma mostly light orangish brown, except propodeum black; wings slightly darkened; mesopleuron granulate; apex of hind tibia without comb of modified setae; propodeum without median propodeal carina; metasomal terga entirely black; metasomal tergum 3 costate on anterior 2/3, with median carina along with this sculpturing; ovipositor short, about 0.25 × length of hind basitarsus.

Additional characters.

Last flagellomere with "bottle nipple"-like tip; mesoscutum with carina only in front of scutellar sulcus; scutellar sulcus with complete median carina plus two pairs of weak and incomplete lateral carina; fore wing vein 1M only slightly curved at base; hind wing vein 2-1A absent, vein m-cu present and well pigmented, antefurcal to r-m in left wing and interstitial in the right wing; ovipositor sheaths about as long as hind tarsomere II, 0.6 × hind basitarsus.

Type material examined. (UWIM)

Biology.

Aleiodes aclydis has been reared from an unidentified Geometridae found on Ocotea sp. ( Lauraceae ).

Distribution.

Known only from the type locality, Isla de Las Palmas, Napo province, ECUADOR, at 1,883 meters elevation.

Discussion.

From the newly described species, Aleiodes aclydis is very similar to Aleiodes albigena sp. n. in color features, including a mostly blackish head with a lighter gena. However, in Aleiodes aclydis the gena is yellow instead of the white gena of Aleiodes albigena sp. n. Both species belong to circumscriptus/gastritor species-group but Aleiodes aclydis is the unique species with a malar space as short as 0.7 times the basal width of mandibles. No additional Aleiodes aclydis specimens were found since Townsend and Shaw’s (2009) work. The dorso-medially elevated area on mesopleuron is well-demarcated posteriolly. In the original description the sulcus demarcating this region is called the “sternaulus” ( Townsend and Shaw 2009). We now consider that this sulcus is not a true sternaulus, as defined by Sharkey and Wharton 1997, and neither is it the precoxal sulcus, as defined by other authors ( van Achterberg 1991, Wharton 2006). Additionaly, the absence of sternaulus is a common feature in all species treated in this work. Therefore, this term is avoided in the descriptions of the new species. The same matter is found in the descriptions of Aleiodes atripileatus Townsend and Aleiodes nebulosus Townsend.