Lixophaga puscolulo Carrejo & Woodley

Carrejo, Nancy, Diaz, Ana E. & Woodley, Norman E., 2013, A new species of Lixophaga Townsend (Diptera: Tachinidae) from Colombia, a parasitoid of Neoleucinodes elegantalis (Guenée) (Lepidoptera: Crambidae), Zootaxa 3737 (1) : -

Lixophaga puscolulo Carrejo & Woodley , sp. nov.

( Figs. 1–10 )

Diagnosis. One character state present in Lixophaga puscolulo , the absence of apical scutellar setae, is very uncommon in Lixophaga . The following species of Lixophaga , among the 30 examined, lack apical scutellar setae and can be separated from L. puscolulo by the characters given.

Lixophaga angusta (Townsend) [described in Actinotachina Townsend ]. One specimen of this species was examined that lacked apical scutellar setae. This species is larger than L. puscolulo , has silvery-gray pruinosity on the head, thorax, and abdomen, and its wings are infuscated with brownish coloration.

Lixophaga facialis (Townsend) . This species has grayish pruinosity on the head, thorax, and abdomen, and the pruinosity on abdominal tergites 3 and 4 is present on the basal 2/3 of the tergites.

Lixophaga fulvescens (Townsend) . In this species abdominal tergites 1–3 are extensively yellowish laterally.

Lixophaga jennei Aldrich. This Nearctic species has silvery-gray pruinosity on the head, thorax, and abdomen. Only one specimen of this species was examined that lacked apical scutellar setae.

Lixophaga plumbea Aldrich. This Nearctic species has silvery-gray pruinosity on the head, thorax, and abdomen. The parafacial is much wider than in L. puscolulo and the antennal arista is thickened beyond the basal half.

Lixophaga variabilis Coquillett. Some , but not all, specimens of this Nearctic species lack apical scutellar setae. This species has more silvery-gray pruinosity and on tergites 3 and 4 the pruinosity is present on the basal 2/ 3 of the tergites.

Description. Body ( Figs. 1 , 7 ) generally dark colored, brownish to black, with dense yellowish pruinose areas.

Male. Head ( Figs. 2, 4 ) with a frons-to-head ratio of 0.05–0.2; eye ratio 0.01–0.1; arista-antenna ratio 0.011– 0.017; compound eye bare; inner vertical setae nearly parallel to convergent, twice as long or more than outer vertical seta; ocellar setae diverging, about as long as outer vertical seta; paravertical seta present, weak, about 0.5 times the length of the outer vertical seta; postocellar setae parallel to slightly divergent, about as long as paravertical seta; lunula glabrous, shiny; fronto-orbital plate narrow, sparsely setulose lateral to frontal setae, completely covered with yellowish pruinosity; with seven to eight frontal setae, usually six present above the antennal insertion, and two below antennal insertion, all setae strong, convergent to crossed, second pair ventral to ocelli largest, parallel, about as long as inner vertical seta; proclinate orbital seta absent; frontal vitta brownish with concolorous pruinosity, about as wide as a single fronto-orbital plate, 2.2 times as long as its median width; parafacial narrow, as long as the antenna, narrowing ventrally, completely bare, pruinosity becoming more silvery ventrally; vibrissae present, convergent, as long as the length the first flagellomere; two to four supravibrissal setae and two strong subvibrissal setae; genal dilation with surface brown, covered with silvery-white pruinosity; postgena moderately developed, completely covered with light yellow pruinosity becoming more silvery ventrally, surface with light colored setulae; postocular strip yellowish pruinose dorsally, becoming silvery-white ventrally; antenna dark in color, covered with grayish pruinosity; scape 0.5 times the length of pedicel; pedicel with strong setae on the anterior margin; arista about 1.8 times the length of first flagellomere, thickened on about basal 1/4; palpus clavate, yellow, with dark-colored setae, longest laterally at apex; labellum yellowish brown, with fine lightcolored setae.

Thorax ( Fig. 1 ) with dorsum covered almost entirely with yellow pruinosity except for some dark areas arranged as four longitudinal vittae interrupted at suture; postpronotum with three setae arranged in form of an obtuse triangle, the angle approximately 130º–145º; notopleuron with two strong setae; scutum with three presutural and three postsutural acrostical setae; three presutural and three postsutural dorsocentral setae; three presutural and three postsutural intra-alar setae; two presutural and three postsutural supra-alar setae (two strong, anterior one weak); scutellum with basal pair of setae about 1.8 times the length of the scutellum and convergent, a pair of lateral setae 1.5 times as long as the length of a subapical seta and convergent, a pair of subapical setae 2 times the length of the scutellum and divergent, apical setae absent, and a pair of discal setae 0.8 times the length of the basal seta; pleura ( Fig. 3 ) generally covered with grayish pruinosity that is only faintly suffused with yellow; proepisterum with one seta on ventral part; proepimeron with a strong anteroventral seta; anepisternum with two to three anterodorsal setae and a vertical row of six to eight setae along the posterior margin; anepimeron with a moderate-sized posterodorsal seta surrounded by black setulae; katepisternum with three setae arranged in a triangle (two strong dorsal setae and one weak anteroventral seta); meron with a row of four to seven setae along the posterior margin; anterior and posterior spiracles brownish; prosternum with small, sparse setae on lateral margin; legs dark brownish to black in color, with dark colored setae and setulae, posteroventral surface of front femur with silver pruinosity; fore coxa with 4–6 anteroventral setae; fore tibia with a posteroventral seta beyond middle; mid tibia with one to two anterodorsal setae (the apicalmost largest if two), one anteroventral seta, and two posterodorsal setae; hind tibia with one large and several smaller anterodorsal setae, and 1–3 posterodorsal setae; tarsal claws simple, 0.8 times as long as 5th tarsomere; wings hyaline, completely covered with fine microtrichia; costal vein interrupted near apex of Sc; fork of R2+3 and R4 +5 with two to four small setae both dorsally and ventrally, one dorsal seta being noticeably larger than others; tegula blackish brown; calypter yellowish white with pale margin and marginal fringe of hair-like setae.

Abdomen with dark integument, tergites 2–3 and sometimes 4 yellowish laterally, tergites 3–5 with basal yellow pruinose bands occupying 1/4 to 1/3, apical portions black with sparse pruinosity, appearing moderately shiny; syntergite 1+2 with longitudinal median depression not extending to posterior margin; tergites 1+2 and 3 with a pair each of median marginal and lateral marginal setae; tergites 4 and 5 with a row of evenly spaced, long marginal setae, all tergites without discal setae.

Terminalia with sternite 5 widened, U-shaped, with a strong seta on the posterior lobe on each side; cercus pointed apically ( Figs. 9, 10 ), curved medially, with a few long posteromedial setae; surstylus narrow, apical half parallel-sided, apex curved slightly posteriorly ( Figs. 9, 10 ), with moderately dense, anterolateral fringe of short setae; epiphallus membranous and distally rounded; pregonite elongate and slender, bent anteriorly at about middle, apex sharply rounded; distiphallus partly sclerotized, shaped as in Fig. 9 ; epandrium unmodified ( Fig. 9 ), setulose.

Length 5.1–5.5 mm.

Female. Differs from male as follows: Head ( Figs. 6, 8 ) with two proclinate orbital setae on each side, the anterior one distinctly larger and stouter than the posterior one; palpus slightly more robust than in male. Thorax and abdomen ( Figs. 5, 7 ) as in male except for female terminalia.

Length 4.7–6.1 mm.

Material examined. Holotype male: Colombia, Caldas, Anserma, Vereda el Pensil, Finca Veracruz, 05°15΄4.5″N, 75°46΄57.4″W, 1885 m, ex fifth-instar larva of Neoleucinodes elegantalis collected on fruit of Solanum quitoense , i.2011, coll. A. E. Díaz M. (MUSENUV). Paratypes: same data as holotype: 10 adult males, 10 adult females (equally divided between MUSENUV and USNM).

Etymology. The species epithet “ puscolulo ”, a noun in apposition, comes from the Quechua word puscolulo , which is used by the indigenous people of southern Colombia and northern Ecuador to refer to Solanum quitoense Lam.

Geographical distribution. Colombia: Departments of Caldas, Cauca, Cundinamarca and Valle del Cauca, in Premontane Wet Forest (bh-PM) and Premontane Very Wet Forest (bmh-PM) according to the classification of life zones by Holdridge (1967).

Host. Neoleucinodes elegantalis (Guenée) ( Lepidoptera : Crambidae ).

Biology. A larva of N. elegantalis parasitized by L. puscolulo shows black spots on the epidermis of the body as a symptom of parasitism ( Figs. 11, 12 ). At an average temperature of 18°C and 75% RH, survival of adult females averaged 15 days (±12.3) (n=15) and that of adult males averaged 17 days (± 11.1) (n=15). Parasitized larvae of N. elegantalis had a range of 1– 4 L. puscolulo larvae per host, with an average of 1.5 (n=620). The weight of a puparium ( Fig. 14 ) averaged 0.010 g (±0.003) (n=190) ( Fig. 14 ) and this stage lasted an average of 24 days (±3.6) (n=34). The sex ratio in adults was 1:1 (female: male), with 78% (n=518) emergence.

Associated plants. Although N. elegantalis is known to attack many plant species of the family Solanaceae , L. puscolulo was reared only from N. elegantalis larvae collected from fruits of S. quitoense and the wild solanaceous plant S. hirtum .

Remarks. As noted above the genus Lixophaga is very poorly known in the Neotropical Region with no synoptic literature, so the species are very difficult to identify with any degree of certainty. We have compared L. puscolulo with all of the available species, including type material, of the Lixophaga species housed in the USNM collection and it is clearly none of those species. In order to provide a name for this potential biocontrol agent we believe that describing the species as new is appropriate even though we have not seen every described species of Lixophaga from the Neotropical Region.

Figures

FIGURES 1 – 4. Male of LixoPhaga Puscolulo Carrejo & Woodley, sp. nov. 1. Dorsal view. 2. Lateral view of head and anterior part of thorax, right side. 3. Lateral view, right side. 4. Anterior view of head.

FIGURES 5 – 8. Female of LixoPhaga Puscolulo Carrejo & Woodley, sp. nov. 5. Lateral view, right side. 6. Lateral view of head and anterior part of thorax, right side. 7. Dorsal view. 8. Anterior view of head.

FIGURES 9 – 10. Male terminalia of LixoPhaga Puscolulo Carrejo & Woodley, sp. nov. (slide mounted). 9. Lateral view of right side. 10. Posterior view of cerci and surstyli from slide mounted specimen.

FIGURES 11 – 14. Host and immature stages of LixoPhaga Puscolulo Carrejo & Woodley, sp. nov. 11. Larva of Neoleucinodes elegantalis parasitized by LixoPhaga Puscolulo. Dark spots are parasitism symptoms observed on the body of the host larva. 12. Third instar larva of LixoPhaga Puscolulo abandoning its host larva. 13. Prepupa of LixoPhaga Puscolulo. 14. Puparium of LixoPhaga Puscolulo.