Paedarium Aldrich, 1926

Toma, Ronaldo & Takahashi, Tamara Akemi, 2022, Paedarium subauratum (Blanchard, 1943) comb. nov. (Diptera, Tachinidae) parasitoid of the Southern armyworm Spodoptera eridania (Stoll): taxonomic redescription and biology, with notes on the genus Paedarium Aldrich, 1926, Papéis Avulsos de Zoologia (Pap. Avulsos Zool., S. Paulo) 62, pp. 1-8 : 2-3

Paedarium Aldrich, 1926

Vorialia Curran, 1934: 448 . Type species: Voria neotropica Curran, 1926 , by original designation. Townsend, 1939 (synonymous with Paedarium ); Guimarães (1971) (catalogue – as Paedarium ); Nihei (catalogue – as Paedarium ); O’Hara et al., (2020) (checklist – as Paedarium ).

Neopaedarium Blanchard, 1943: 155 . Type-species: Neopaedarium subauratum Blanchard, 1943 , by original designation. Blanchard (1963) (redescription of the syntypes); Guimarães (1971) (catalogue); Guimarães (1977) (parasite-host catalogue); O’Hara & Henderson (2020) (world checklist of tachinid genera);O’Hara et al. (2020) (checklist);Torres-Domínguez et al., (2020) (syntypes data). Syn. nov.

Velardemyia Valencia, 1972: 363 . Type-species: Velardemyia ica Valencia, 1972 , by original designation. Valencia & Valdivia (1973) (host); Guimarães (1977) (parasite-host catalogue); Cortés & González (1989) (Voriini genera from Chile);Lozada et al., (2005) (type material): O’Hara & Henderson (2020) (world checklist of tachinid genera); O’Hara et al. (2020) (checklist). Syn. nov.

Diagnosis: Species of Paedarium can be distinguished from the other Neotropical Voriini genera by having the following combination of characters: eyes apparently bare, with short and sparse ommatrichia; upper part of the fronto-orbital plate with a reclinate orbital seta arising outside of frontal row;fronto-orbital plate with two to three proclinate orbital setae; parafacial with hairs (often sparce) and a row of strong proclinate setae (varying in extension, can reach downwards close to the level of the vibrissa); arista apparently bare, micropubescent; facial ridge with only a few hairs and short setulae near vibrissae; second aristomere short and less than twice as long as wide; propleuron bare; postpronotal setae 4; acrostichal setae 3:3, the posterior presutural acrostichal setae closer to the transverse suture and sometimes touching it; dorsocentral setae 3:3; postsutural supra-alar setae 3; postalar setae 3, the middle seta longer and the posterior one like setula; anepimeron with a group of setulae and anepimeral seta not differentiated from surrounding setulae; subapical scutellar setae long and usually reaching to hind margins of tergite 3; wing subhyaline or subinfuscated; R₂₊₃ bare; R₄₊₅ setose dorsally from the base to or just beyond crossvein r-m; Cell r ₄₊₅ open; discal setae absent on abdominal tergites 3 and 4.

Paedarium belongs to Voriini, whose species can usually be recognized by the following combination of characters: ocellar setae slightly proclinate and divergent; no black setulae posterior to postocular row; prosternum without setae; laterotergite with a small group of tiny infrasquamal setulae; discal medial (dm-m) crossvein very oblique; middorsal depression of syntergite 1 + 2 extending back to its hind margin; sternite 6 juxtaposing segment 7 at the right side; phallus ribbon-like ( D’Aguilar, 1957; Thompson, 1961; Tschorsnig, 1985; Cortés & Gonzalez, 1989; Fleming et al., 2017).

Among the Voriini genera, Paedarium is morphologically close to Cyrtophloeba Rondani, 1856 from which it differs by having the following combination of features: the eyes not densely hairy, tergites 3 and 4 without discal setae, and R₂₊₃ bare.

Comments: Aldrich (1926) made a series of mistakes in the description of P. parvum : parafacial without hairs, presuturual acrostichal setae 2, presutural dorsocentral setae 1, postpronotal setae 2, postsutural supra-alar setae 2, and postalar 2. Townsend (1939) diagnosed Paedarium based on Aldrich’s description of the type species, transcribing in his diagnosis the first three characters above, and placed Vorialia as a junior synonym of Paedarium . The type species of these genera are congeneric and differ from Aldrich’s description and Townsend’s diagnosis by having parafacial hairy, acrostichal setae 3:3, dorscentral setae 3:3, postpronotal setae 4, supra-alar 3, and post-alar 3.

Blanchard (1943) stated that Neopaedarium was close to Paedarium , from which it would differ by a few characters, parafacial hairy, wing subhyaline, presutural dorsocentral 3, and differentiated anepimeral seta (referring to a group of setulae).He based his statement on the erroneous description of Aldrich (1926), without examining the type of P.parvum , which has the same chaetotaxy pattern of the Neopaedarium type species and is very similar to it.

Valencia (1972),after reviewing the identification keys of Townsend (1936) and Cortés & Campos (1970) and the descriptions of the Peruvian Voriini genera, proposed the genus Velardemyia . He took his decision based on personal information given by Sabrosky, who had confirmed that it was a new genus.Valencia did not mention Aldrich’s (1926) and Blanchard’s (1943) works and did not consider the type species of Paedarium and Neopaedarium .

The type species of the genera Neopaedarium and Velardemyia are similar in their chaetotaxy and external morphology. Cortés & González (1989) suspected that Velardemyia could be synonymous with Paedarium , and indeed the type species of Neopaedarium and Velardemyia share with P. parvum and P. neotropicum the combination of characters mentioned in our diagnosis and can only be distinguished from the latter two species mainly by minor color differences. Based on the above, we confirm the synonymy of Neopaedarium and Velardemyia with Paedarium .

Nothovoria was described based on the female holotype of N. praestans and compared to Velardemyia , with which it shares many characters. Cortés& González (1989) distinguished the former from the latter using some characters, listed in the above diagnoses of Paedarium , which may vary inter and/or intraspecifically. Unfortunately, we could not access the type of N.praestans . The description of this species matches our diagnosis, and it is likely that it belongs to Paedarium , but we will not move it to this genus now, leaving this for a future revisionary study of the Neotropical Voriini.

Paedarium punctipennis differs from the above diagnosis by having discal setae on tergites 3 and 4 and by the peculiar morphology of its wings (as redescribed by Austen (1907)). Unfortunately, the type of this species is in poor condition and has a lot of molds covering important structures. From photos it is not possible to state to which genus it belongs, but we can state that it does not belong to Paedarium . The holotype of this species had been placed under Cyrtophloeba in the NHMUK as Monty Wood tentatively identified it as belonging to that genus and he labeled the holotype as: “ Cyrtophleba ” – comb. not yet. publ. Wood ‘69’ (Nigel Waytt – personal communication). Here we treat it as an unplaced species of Voriini until the holotype can be carefully examined.