Aleiodes aciculatus Cresson

Shaw, Scott R., Marsh, Paul M. & Fortier, Joseph C., 2006, Revision of Nearctic Aleiodes Wesmael (Part 8): the coxalis (Spinola) Species­Group (Hymenoptera: Braconidae, Rogadinae), Zootaxa 1314, pp. 1-30 : 5-6

Aleiodes aciculatus Cresson

( Figs. 11, 13 , 17 , 23, 24)

Aleiodes aciculatus Cresson 1869 , Trans. Amer. Ent. Soc. 2: 381.

Aleiodes melleus Cresson, 1869 , Trans. Amer. Ent. Soc. 2: 382. NEW SYNONYM.

Diagnosis. Body unicolored, entirely honey yellow to orange, except antenna apically dark brown to black; wing clear to lightly infumate; stigma bicolored, dark brown to black medially, pale yellowish white basally and to a lesser extent apically ( Fig. 17 ); male with apex of metasoma dark brown to black; body length 3–7 mm; 36–52 antennomeres; malar space longer than basal width of mandible; head mostly rugulose coriaceous ( Fig. 13 ); clypeus not swollen; oral space small and circular, diameter about equal to basal width of mandible; mandible small, tips not crossing when closed; ocelli small, diameter of lateral ocellus less than ocell­ocular distance; pronotum lengthened, median length greater than ocellocular distance, rugose ( Fig. 11 ); mesonotum and scutellum coriaceous; propodeum rugose coriaceous, median carina complete; metasomal terga 1–4 costate (Figs. 23–24); vein RS of hind wing slightly sinuate, marginal cell narrowest in middle, vein m­cu very weakly pigmented; tarsal claws not pectinate.

Type material examined. Aleiodes aciculatus Cresson , holotype female, Illinois, [ ANSP]. Aleiodes melleus Cresson , holotype male, Massachusetts, [ ANSP]. Distribution. Widespread in eastern U.S.A. and Canada from New Brunswick south to Florida, and west to South Dakota, Utah, and Texas.

Biology. Reared from the geometrid Euchlaena serrata Walker. Also recorded as utilizing several noctuid species as hosts, including Feltia ducens Walker , Feltia subgothica (Haworth) , Heliothis species, and Pseudaletia unipunctata (Haworth) .

Comments. This species is quite distinctive in having tergum 4 distinctly costate, at least basally and in the somewhat lengthened pronotum. It is most similar to A. brevis new species but differs from that species by its larger body size, longer antenna, and longer pronotum.

Figures

FIGURES 11 – 16. Head and mesosomal characters of the Aleiodes coxalis species­group. 11, A. aciculatus pronotum; 12, A. brevis pronotum; 13, A. aciculatus vertex; 14, A. wyomingensis vertex; 15, A sanctihyacinthi vertex (Arrow indicates yellow coloration around eye); 16, A. quadratus propodeum (Arrows indicate tubercles).

FIGURES 17 – 22. Wing features of the Aleiodes coxalis species­group. 17, A. aciculatus forewing (Arrow indicates bicolored stigma); 18, basi­posterior section of forewing of A. aquilonius; 19, A. itamevorus hind wing; 20, A. quadratus forewing (Arrow indicates bicolored stigma); 21, A. quadratus forewing (Arrow indicates nearly square second submarginal cell); 22, A. sanctihyacinthi forewing (Arrow indicates unicolored stigma).