Fusimirax masneri Whitfield & Fernandez-Triana, 2025

Whitfield, James B., Fernandez-Triana, Jose L. & Boudreault, Caroline, 2025, Two new Neotropical genera of Miracinae (Hymenoptera, Braconidae) with unusual metasomal morphology, Journal of Hymenoptera Research 98, pp. 509-524 : 509-524

Fusimirax masneri Whitfield & Fernandez-Triana sp. nov.

Fig. 4 A – H

Type materials.

Holotype. • Female, Dominican Republic: Barahona Sra. Bahoruco, Loma Remigio , 800 m, cloud forest III-1991, L. Masner, CNC 5342832 ( CNC).

Paratypes. None.

Description.

Size. Body length 2.0 mm; fore wing length 2.2 mm.

Coloration. Head dorsally bark brown, shading to much lighter ventrally; especially clypeus; mouthparts and palpi pale yellowish; scape and pedicel yellowish, remainder of antenna brown; mesosoma anteriorly (pronotum and propleuron, dorsal portion of mesopleuron, tegulae and mesoscutum) light yellow-brown, remainder darker brown; legs all pale yellowish; pigmented portions of wing venation pale brownish, including pterostigma; metasoma anteriorly with whitish laterotergites and lateral edges of T 2 / T 3 syntergite; T 1 and most of syntergite dark brown; T 4 and succeeding terga paler brown; ovipositor sheaths darker brown, especially distally.

Morphology. Face very weakly and indistinctly punctate throughout; raised medially; antennae slightly longer than body, slender, with even distal flagellomeres at least twice as long as broad; propleuron with dorsal groove weakly crenulate, ventral groove broad, arcuate and smooth; mesoscutum weakly sculptured, with clear notauli over anterior 0.4 of its length (Fig. 4 D, H ); scutellum smooth, weakly convex, longer than broad, roughly thimble-shaped; mesopleuron polished, convex, without central grooves; metanotum deeply sunken except raised medial boss; propodeum relatively smooth, with strong percurrent longitudinal medial carina and hints of an angled transverse carinae just past midlength; T 1 slender, narrow anteriorly, expanding to rounded tip, with raised medial portion; laterotergal region of T 1 white, desclerotized, with central striate region; T 2 and T 3 fused into elongate sculptured syntergite, strongly expanded at T 2 / T 3 border, sculptured region of T 3 slightly broader than T 2; laterotergal regions of T 2 and T 3 white (along with edges of syntergite), with some of surface striate; T 4 weakly but evenly sclerotized, translucent; hypopygium evenly sclerotized and strongly triangular, with acute sharp distal tip; ovipositor nearly straight, sheaths half as long as hind tibiae and sparsely setose over expanded portions (Fig. 4 F ).

Male. Not known.

Variation. Only one female specimen available.

Distribution.

So far, only one locality at 800 m in the Dominican Republic. The label says “ cloud forest ”, but this seems probably not quite accurate based on the locality and elevation.

Biology.

Not known, but host presumed to be a small leaf-mining caterpillar as with other Miracinae .

Notes.

The strikingly colored mesoscutum and metasoma combination is unique.

Etymology.

The specific epithet honors the great hymenopterist Lubomir Masner, the collector who sampled in the Dominican Republic over multiple years.

Figures

Figure 4. Fusimirax masneri Whitfield and Fernandez-Triana, holotype female A lateral habitus B head and prothorax, anteroventral view C fore wing D head and anterior of mesonotum, dorsal view E antenna F metasoma and ovipositor mechanism, lateral view G propodeum and metasoma, dorsal view H head, mesosoma and anterior of metasoma, dorsal view.