Phosocephala metallica Townsend, 1908

Fleming, AJ, Wood, D. Monty, Smith, M. Alex, Janzen, Daniel H, Hallwachs, Winnie & Dapkey, Tanya, 2016, A new species of Phosocephala Townsend, 1908 (Diptera: Tachinidae) from Area de Conservacion Guanacaste in northwestern Costa Rica, Biodiversity Data Journal 4, pp. 7863-7863 : 7863

Phosocephala metallica Townsend, 1908

Materials

Type status: Holotype. Occurrence: occurrenceDetails: http://n2t.net/ark:/65665/39956764d-8fca-4c6c-a18b-a3946f68ea3c; catalogNumber: No.10902 ; recordedBy: D.M. Wood; individualID: No.10902; individualCount: 1; sex: F; lifeStage: adult; preparations: pinned; Taxon: scientificName: Phosocephalametallica; phylum: Arthropoda; class: Insecta; order: Diptera; family: Tachinidae; genus: Phosocephala; specificEpithet: metallica; scientificNameAuthorship: Townsend, 1908; Location: continent: Central America; country: Costa Rica; countryCode: CR; stateProvince: Cartago; county: Turrialba; locality: Tucurrique ; Event: samplingProtocol: hand collected during field expedition of Schild and Burgdorf; verbatimEventDate: N/A; Record Level: language: en; institutionCode: USNM; collectionCode: Insects; basisOfRecord: Pinned Specimen Type status: Other material. Occurrence: occurrenceDetails: http://janzen.sas.upenn.edu; catalogNumber: DHJPAR0006933 ; recordedBy: D.H. Janzen & W. Hallwachs, Roster Moraga; individualID: DHJPAR0006933; individualCount: 1; sex: M; lifeStage: adult; preparations: pinned; otherCatalogNumbers: 06-SRNP-20280,BOLD:AAF5995,ASTAV175-06; Taxon: scientificName: Phosocephalametallica; phylum: Arthropoda; class: Insecta; order: Diptera; family: Tachinidae; genus: Phosocephala; specificEpithet: metallica; scientificNameAuthorship: Townsend, 1908; Location: continent: Central America; country: Costa Rica; countryCode: CR; stateProvince: Guanacaste; county: Sector Del Oro; locality: Area de Conservacion Guanacaste ; verbatimLocality: Quebrada Trigal; verbatimElevation: 290; verbatimLatitude: 11.027; verbatimLongitude: -85.495; verbatimCoordinateSystem: Decimal; decimalLatitude: 11.027; decimalLongitude: -85.495; Identification: identifiedBy: AJ Fleming; dateIdentified: 2105; Event: samplingProtocol: Reared from a Nolidae moth larva, Iscadiapurpurascens; verbatimEventDate: 15-Feb-2006; Record Level: language: en; institutionCode: CNC; collectionCode: Insects; basisOfRecord: Pinned Specimen Type status: Other material. Occurrence: occurrenceDetails: http://janzen.sas.upenn.edu; catalogNumber: DHJPAR0018275 ; recordedBy: D.H. Janzen & W. Hallwachs, Roster Moraga; individualID: DHJPAR0018275; individualCount: 1; sex: M; lifeStage: adult; preparations: pinned; otherCatalogNumbers: 03-SRNP-1672,BOLD:AAF5995,ASTAR985-07; Taxon: scientificName: Phosocephalametallica; phylum: Arthropoda; class: Insecta; order: Diptera; family: Tachinidae; genus: Phosocephala; specificEpithet: metallica; scientificNameAuthorship: Townsend, 1908; Location: continent: Central America; country: Costa Rica; countryCode: CR; stateProvince: Guanacaste; county: Sector Del Oro; locality: Area de Conservacion Guanacaste ; verbatimLocality: Quebrada Trigal; verbatimElevation: 290; verbatimLatitude: 11.027; verbatimLongitude: -85.495; verbatimCoordinateSystem: Decimal; decimalLatitude: 11.027; decimalLongitude: -85.495; Identification: identifiedBy: AJ Fleming; dateIdentified: 2105; Event: samplingProtocol: Reared from a Nolidae moth larva, Iscadiapurpurascens; verbatimEventDate: 18-Mar-2003; Record Level: language: en; institutionCode: CNC; collectionCode: Insects; basisOfRecord: Pinned Specimen Type status: Other material. Occurrence: occurrenceDetails: http://janzen.sas.upenn.edu; catalogNumber: DHJPAR0018276 ; recordedBy: D.H. Janzen & W. Hallwachs, Manuel Pereira; individualID: DHJPAR0018276; individualCount: 1; sex: F; lifeStage: adult; preparations: pinned; otherCatalogNumbers: 03-SRNP-18792,BOLD:AAF5995,ASTAR986-07; Taxon: scientificName: Phosocephalametallica; phylum: Arthropoda; class: Insecta; order: Diptera; family: Tachinidae; genus: Phosocephala; specificEpithet: metallica; scientificNameAuthorship: Townsend, 1908; Location: continent: Central America; country: Costa Rica; countryCode: CR; stateProvince: Guanacaste; county: Sector Del Oro; locality: Area de Conservacion Guanacaste ; verbatimLocality: Quebrada Trigal; verbatimElevation: 290; verbatimLatitude: 11.027; verbatimLongitude: -85.495; verbatimCoordinateSystem: Decimal; decimalLatitude: 11.027; decimalLongitude: -85.495; Identification: identifiedBy: AJ Fleming; dateIdentified: 2105; Event: samplingProtocol: Reared from a Nolidae moth larva, Iscadiapurpurascens; verbatimEventDate: 10-Sep-2003; Record Level: language: en; institutionCode: CNC; collectionCode: Insects; basisOfRecord: Pinned Specimen

Description

Described from 2 males and 2 females. Length: 8-9mm.

Head: (Fig. 2b, e) dark reddish-orange to dark yellow; ocellar bristles strongly lateraloclinate; fronto-orbital plate densely haired, with short dark hairs interspersed with yellow hairs; parafacial densely populated with short blond hairs, not obvious unless viewed under varying angles of light; facial carina flat to absent; antennal grooves almost indistinguishable; first flagellomere brilliant orange, with hints of dark brown; gena 0.3x height of eye in males, 0.36x height of eye in females; gena densely haired with short yellow-orange hairs, and with a small tuft of black hairs at base of eye, only apparent in the female. Thorax: (Fig. 2a, c, d, f) scutum gold-pollinose presuturally, with 4 faintly visible thoracic; scutum, postsuturally, with gold pollinosity only on the anterior corners, otherwise glabrous black, including scutellum; thorax, laterally, yellow in ground color, with long yellow hairs laterally, and a light gray pollinosity giving it a silver sheen; katepisternum with 3 bristles. Abdomen: (Fig. 2a, c, d, f) ground color deep shiny reddish-brown dorsally, changing to a lighter reddish-orange ventrally; T1+2 with silver pollinosity covering posterior 1/3 of underside of T1+2 extending into anterior 1/6 of T3; anterior margins of T3 and T4 with a narrow band of thin silver pollinosity, reaching the lateral and ventral sides of the tergites. Legs: bright yellow, with a dense covering of short black hairs. Wings: (Fig. 2a, d) smoky, translucent, bearing 4-5 short setulae at the base of R4+5. Male terminalia: (Fig. 3) sternite 5 with deeply excavated median cleft in a rounded V-shape; apical lobes squared at apex, densely covered in long thick bristles; cercus in dorsal view fused medially, apically pointed with a small bifurcation at tip, densely hirsute basally with numerous long bristles; surstylus divided into two fused processes, both with a strong inward curve; ventral process apically rounded, dorsal process apically hooked.

Diagnosis

Phosocephala metallica differs from P. alexanderi by its larger size, the dark orange head color, the yellow ground color of the thorax laterally, encompassing the katepisternum, anepisternum, katepimeron, and meron, and the conspicuous yellow hairs laterally on the thorax.

Distribution

Holotype: Costa Rica, Tucurrique (USNM). Other material: Costa Rica, ACG, Guanacaste, Quebrada Trigal, rain forest, 290m (CNC).

Ecology

This species was reared from three out of a total of 88 caterpillars of Iscadia purpurascens (Schaus, 1910) ( Lepidoptera : Nolidae ) bred during the project. The host species feeds on leaves of Garcinia intermedia ( Clusiaceae ).