Centistes ornamentum Aguirre, Almeida & Shaw

Aguirre, Helmuth, Almeida, Luis Felipe Ventura De & Shaw, Scott Richard, 2017, Revision of the genus Centistes (Hymenoptera: Braconidae: Euphorinae: Centistini) of Costa Rica, Zootaxa 4216 (1), pp. 1-46 : 36-38

Centistes ornamentum Aguirre, Almeida & Shaw , sp. n.

( Figs 155–161 )

Female. Body length ( Fig. 155 ): 3.5–5.2 mm. Body color: head face and gena black infused with brown; clypeus whitish yellow; pedicel and scape yellow; flagelomeres dark brown; remaining head black; pronotum yellow; mesoscutum orange; mesopleuron orange or dark brown with a yellow area near tegula; metanotum and propodeum black; legs yellow except black on tarsomeres, tibia and apex of femur of hind legs, as well as apex of femur of middle legs; wings slightly infuscated; metasoma dorsally black-dark brown, ventrally orange-dark brown. Head ( Figs 156–157 ): antenna with 25–27 flagellomeres; flagellar length/width ratios as follows: F1 = 3.0, F10 = 2.7, last flagellomere = 2.5; last flagellomere terminating apically in a sharp point; pedicel 1.3 × longer than wide; scape 1.7 × longer than wide; mandibles when closed overlapping for 0.6 × mandible length; mandible width basally 0.4–0.5 × mandible length; malar space 0.2 × eye height, and 1.1–1.3 × basal mandible width; gena pubescent, except smooth around eye; shortest distance between eyes 1.3–1.4 × greater than clypeus width; eye in lateral view 1.9 × taller than wide; lateral ocellus separated from compound eye by a distance 1.2 × ocellar width; frons glabrous; vertex with a few scattered setae; temple with few scattered setae; temple width 0.6–0.9 × eye width; occipital carina thick and complete. Mesosoma: pronotum glabrous, in lateral view mostly smooth, and medially foveate; propleuron with anterior and medial margins rugose, remaining surfaces smooth; median and lateral mesonotal lobes pubescent; notauli present and complete ( Fig. 159 ); pit on mesoscutum absent ( Fig. 159 ); scutellar sulcus with one carina; scutellar disc sparsely pubescent; mesopleuron centrally glabrous, borders and area below precoxal sulcus pubescent; precoxal sulcus foveate; metanotum smooth; metapleuron pubescent; propodeum pubescent; propodeum subdivided into anterior and posterior halves by a strong transverse carina, and without a median-longitudinal dorsal carina ( Fig. 158 ); propodeum surfaces laterally rugose-carinate, dorsally rugulose-areolate-carinate, and posteriorly either rugulose or smooth. Legs: hind coxa 1.4 × longer than middle coxa; hind femora length 5.2 × maximum width; hind tibia length 9.9 × longer than maximum width; hind tibial spur 0.3 × as long as hind basitarsus; ratio of hind tarsomeres from basitarsus apically 34:17:15:11:19. Wings: fore wing length 3.0– 4.4 mm; pterostigma 3.1 × longer than maximum width; length of marginal cell 2R1 along anterior wing margin 0.9 × the length of pterostigma; vein r-rs 0.3 × as long as pterostigma width; vein Rs+M complete; vein m-cu basal with vein RS; hind wing with three sickle-shaped hamuli. Metasoma: first tergite basally 0.6 × as wide as apical width, and 1.3 × longer than apical width; sculpture of first tergite longitudinally costate with costae almost parallel ( Fig. 160 ); spiracle of tergum one situated on lateral margin near of the half of segment; hypopygium long, ventrally convex and with dorsal margin rounded; ovipositor sheath 0.8–1.0 × longer than basal width, and 0.2–0.3 × as long as basitarsus; ovipositor sheath densely pubescent, and terminating in a rounded area ( Fig. 161 ).

Male. Unknown.

Holotype female. COSTA RICA: Guanacaste, Guanac. Conserv. Area, Estacion Pitilla , 680 m, Malaise trap, 11–20.vii.1997, 2x day, L.J. van der Ent leg. Deposited in UWIM.

Paratypes. COSTA RICA: One female, Puntarenas, Rancho Quemado , Pen. de Osa, A.C. Osa, 200 m, 6– 22.xi.1993, A.H. Gutierrez leg., Malaise. One female , Guanacaste, Est. Pitilla, 9 km S. Sta. Cecilia, 700 m, xi.1990, C. Moraga & P. Rios leg., Malaise. One female , Cartago, Monumento Nacional Guayabo, A.C. Amistad, 1100 m, vi.1994, G. Fonseca leg., Malaise. All paratypes deposited in UWIM.

Comments. The presence of notauli is a rare event in the Costa Rican Centistes , contrasting with what is seen in the Palaearctic species (e.g. Belokobylskij, 1992). Centistes ornamentum is the only known Neotropical species with complete and deeply demarcated notauli. This trait, together with the robust body shape and colourful orange on thorax and abdomen, make this species quite easy to identify.

Etymology. The Latin “ornamentus”, meaning decorated, denotes the deeply impressed and coarsely sculptured notauli.

Figures

FIGURES 155 – 161. Centistes ornamentum sp. n. 155) Lateral habitus, 156) anterior head, 157) dorsal head, 158) propodeum, 159) mesoscutum with deeply demarcated notauli, 160) dorsal metasoma, 161) short ovipositor sheaths with protruding ovipositor.