Rhynchophion woodi, 2004

Gauld, Ian D. & Janzen, Daniel H., 2004, The systematics and biology of the Costa Rican species of parasitic wasps in the Thyreodon genus-group (Hymenoptera: Ichneumonidae), Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 141 (3), pp. 297-351 : 314-315

2. RHYNCHOPHION WOODI GAULD SP. NOV.

Fore wing length 23.9 mm; clypeus weakly convex, with apex pointed bluntly medially; mandible with lower tooth slightly longer than the upper; malar space 0.7–0.8 times basal mandibular width; lower face centrally closely and coarsely punctate; frons with a weakly raised crest between antennal sockets, without a carina extending from outer rim of antennal sockets upwards parallel with eye margin; frons centrally punctate, but with the impressions above the antennal sockets transversely wrinkled; ocelli small, the lateral ocellus separated from eye by about 1.8 times its own maximum diameter; head in dorsal view with gena rather weakly rounded behind eye; antenna setaceous, with 55–64 flagellomeres, the 20th transverse, 0.6 times as long as broad, the subapical ones with setae which are shorter than the diameter of the flagellomere. Pronotum punctate, with epomia absent; propleuron punctate, with lower corner rounded; mesoscutum closely and coarsely punctate, with black coarse pubescence, scuto-scutellar groove deep but short, laterally margined by raised, simple carinae; scutellum punctate, moderately broad and weakly convex; mesopleuron closely and quite finely punctate, with epicnemial carina present only ventrally; metapleuron finely and closely punctate; propodeum coriaceous without distinct carinae, although with wrinkle-like vestiges of lateral longitudinal and lateromedian longitudinal carinae posteriorly. Fore tarsal claw long and with fine, close pectinae; hind tarsomeres 1–4 of male distinctly compressed with short, dense pubescence ventrally. Fore wing with abscissa of Cu 1a between Cu 1b and 2 m-cu 1.2 times as long as abscissa of Cu 1 between cu-a and 1 m-cu. Metasoma with tergite I stout, anteriorly laterally compressed; tergite II, in lateral view, 1.1 times as long as posteriorly deep. Male with subgenital plate transverse, convex, covered with fine hair; claspers short, the dorsal apex rounded, the lower margin rounded before apex, and with a deep dorsal notch; aedeagus, in profile, with apex weakly inflated, slightly flattened, with a strong lateral keel.

A reddish brown species with antennae yellowish brown; wings strongly yellow, basally and apically blackish infumate.

Remarks: This species is named in honour of D. Monty Wood, in recognition of his decades of identification of thousands of tachinid flies reared by the ACG caterpillar inventory. Rhynchophion woodi is a very distinctive species that is easily recognized by its entirely reddish brown colour pattern. It appears to be a Polistes canadensis L. ( Vespidae ) mimic. Structurally it is very similar to R. flammipennis , but the scutellum is more weakly convex and rather broader, and the hind tarsus of the male is distinctly and distinctively laterally compressed. The claspers are of a completely different shape, being shorter than those of R. flammipennis , and apically rounded rather than obliquely truncate ( Figs 51, 52 ). It is also larger than R. flammipennis .

Biological notes: The unique male of R. woodi was reared from the larva of Manduca barnesi feeding on a 2-m-tall sapling of Godmania aesculifolia (Bignoniaceae) in ACG dry forest [93-SRNP-1755]. The caterpillar became a prepupa in early June. The parasitoid larva emerged 3 days later and spun a typical Rhynchophion cocoon in which the wasp remained until it emerged as an adult the following June. In nine other cases, a Manduca caterpillar produced a large larva, large enough to spin the very large cocoon made by Rhynchophion woodi , but the wasp always died. It may be that the wasp prepupae or pupae died of desiccation in the very dry rearing conditions (empty glass bottles), being in cocoons that appear to be less thick-walled and presumably less desiccationresistant than are the cocoons of Thyreodon . This speculation is reinforced by the fact that Manduca pupal chambers are usually 5–10 cm underground, and therefore more humid during the dry season, than are the pupal chambers of the species of sphingids and saturniids parasitized by Thyreodon , which are made in the litter and on the soil surface.

Material examined: Holotype ♂, COSTA RICA: Guanacaste Prov.: Sector Santa Rosa , ACG, 300 m, vi.1994 (Janzen & Hallwachs) ( JHVC).

Figures

Figures 47–52. 47–50, mesoscutum and pronotum, lateral; 47, T. papei; 48, T. deansi; 49, T. erythrocera; 50, T. sharkeyi. 51–52, apex of metasoma and male genital capsule, lateral; 51. Rhynchophion flammipennis; 52, R. woodi.