Aleiodes yanayacu, 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 : 71-75

Aleiodes yanayacu sp. n. Figures 114-118

Description of holotype.

Male (holotype). Body length 4.4 mm; antenna length 5.5 mm; fore wing length 4.5 mm.

Color. Mostly black. Propodeum with mid-apical white mark; metapleuron mostly whitish, but brown dorsally. Metasoma with T1 and T2 pale light yellow, reminder terga dark brown. Fore legs mostly dark brown, trochanter whitish with brown mark on inner side; mid legs mostly dark brown, coxa, trochanter and trochantellus yellowish, femur mostly light brown; hind legs yellowish basally, apex of femur with brown stain dorsally, tibia and tarsi dark brown except for whitish stain covering basal half of inner side of tibia. Wings infuscate with dark brown veins and stigma.

Head. Antenna with 42 antennomeres, flagellomeres roughly 2.0 × as long as wide, apical flagellomere with pointed tip; malar space about as long as basal width of mandible, and 0.4 × eye height; in dorsal view eye 1.4 × temple; occipital carina incomplete, interrupted at vertex, well defined laterally and meeting hypostomal carina; oral space small and circular, maximum width roughly equal to basal width of mandible; clypeus slightly swollen; ocell–ocular distance about 1.3 × diameter of lateral ocellus; maxillary palp not swollen; head surface sculpturing granulate, occiput smooth and shining; frons slightly excavated, shining coriaceous, sculpturing concentrically arranged; face with some transverse rugae medially, and a short but well defined mid-longitudinal carina higher on face, carina extending dorsally between toruli.

Mesosoma. Sculpturing finely granulate; pronotum foveate; mesopleuron central disc smooth and bare, antero-dorsal corner rugose; metapleuron smooth; propodeum coarsely granular with complete mid-longitudinal carina and some longitudinal rugosity posteriorly; notauli well defined and crenulate anteriorly, barely defined but traceable posteriorly, meeting a 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 3.3 × longer than high; second submarginal cell relatively large; vein r 0.87 × vein 2RS, 1.4 × as long as vein RS+Mb, and 0.8 × as long as vein m-cu; vein 3RSa about 0.5 × vein 3RSb, and 0.9 × vein 2M; vein 1CUa 2.8 × vein 1cu-a; vein 1CUb about as long as vein 1CUa; vein 1M slightly curved at base. Hind wing: m-cu absent; M+CU as long as 1M; vein 1M 1.7 × vein r-m; vein RS smoothly curved at middle; vein M 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. Hind coxa smooth.

Metasoma. T1, T2 and basal 1/2 of T3 costate, costa widely spaced over underlying granulation, sculpturing weaker at T3, longitudinal carina present along this sculpturing; remainder T3 and apical terga weakly shining coriaceous; T1 length about as long as its apical width.

Female unknown.

Mummy. Length 7.5 mm, head missing, black, 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, 18 July 2013, reared from caterpillar: YY-75311.

Type-specimen: Holotype male, point mounted. Top label: "ECUADOR: Prov. Napo / Yanayacu Biological Station / S00°35.9', W77°53.4' 2163m / REARED: Jun 2013 / (hand written) 75311. Back: “18-Jul-2013”. (UWIM)

Biology.

Reared from a Geometridae species, feeding on Phenax rugosus ( Urticaceae ). Three weeks elapsed from mummification until adult emergence.

Discussion.

Aleiodes yanayacu sp. n. belongs to circumscriptus/gastritor species-group. This species is similar to Aleiodes mirandae sp. n. and Aleiodes napo sp. n. in the mostly smooth mesopleuron, and the occipital carina, interrupted at vertex. Aleiodes yanayacu sp. n. differs from both species in having a slightly larger ocellus, the ocell–ocular distance is about 1.3 × the diameter of lateral ocellus, while in Aleiodes mirandae sp. n. and Aleiodes napo sp. n. it is about 2.0 ×. The hind wing vein M+CU is about as long as vein 1M in Aleiodes yanayacu sp. n., but distinctly shorter in Aleiodes mirandae sp. n. and Aleiodes napo sp. n. The sculpturing of metasomal terga 1 and 2 is also distinctive in Aleiodes yanayacu sp. n., with widely spaced costa, as compared with the finely rugose–costate sculpturing in Aleiodes mirandae sp. n. and Aleiodes napo sp. n. The metasomal tegite 2 is entirely withish in Aleiodes yanayacu sp. n. (black and white in Aleiodes mirandae sp. n. and Aleiodes napo sp. n.) and the hind coxa yellowish (black Aleiodes mirandae sp. n. and Aleiodes napo sp. n.).

Etymology.

The species is named after the sampling and rearing location, theYanayacu Biological Station.