Thyreodon papei, 2004

Gauld, Ian D. & Janzen, Daniel H., 2004, The systematics and biology of the Costa Rican species of parasitic wasps in the Thyreodon genus-group (Hymenoptera: Ichneumonidae), Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 141 (3), pp. 297-351 : 316-317

2. THYREODON PAPEI GAULD SP. NOV.

Fore wing length 19.3–20.0 mm; clypeus convex, with apex pointed medially; malar space about 0.6–0.7 times basal mandibular width; maxillary palp long with second palpomere broadened and slightly flattened; lower face centrally punctate, with a few scattered rugae; frons with a strong median vertical ridge between antennal sockets, the upper part of which tends to form a pair of divergent carina-like rugae, and with sharp carina extending from outer rim of antennal sockets upwards, close to and parallel with eye margin; frons centrally finely rugose; ocelli small, the lateral ocellus separated from eye by 1.4–1.5 times its own maximum diameter; head in dorsal view unusually coarsely punctate, with gena rather broad, evenly rounded behind eye, occipital carina strong, its lower end sharp, in-turned, not reaching hypostomal carina; antenna setaceous, with 61–66 flagellomeres, the 20th transverse, 0.8 times as long as broad, the subapical ones with setae which are shorter than the diameter of the flagellomere. Pronotum short with anterior margin strongly and broadly reflexed, and with posterior margin centrally swollen, forming an angular, centrally impressed ridge which is separated from the anterior margin by a deep U-shaped groove; epomia strong on upper part of pronotum forming a lateral ridge that curves forwards to reach beneath reflexed anterior margin; propleuron sparsely punctate, with lower corner very weakly expanded, peripherally shallowly impressed; mesoscutum closely and quite coarsely punctate, with broad, shallow, reticulate notauli that are more or less confluent posteriorly, inner anterior margin of notaulus raised to form a more or less transverse crest across the notaulus; scuto-scutellar groove very deep, laterally margined by very strongly raised carinae; scutellum closely and moderately coarsely punctate, convex; mesopleuron closely and quite coarsely punctate, without a sharp sternaular impression; metapleuron punctocoriaceous; propodeum laterally slightly flattened, finely rugose-striate, angularly rounded above and behind the spiracle; propodeum posterodorsally finely rugose/coriaceous, centrally with a single moderately broad deep longitudinal impression. Fore leg of female stout, with coxa with a low and bluntly rounded protuberance behind trochanteral insertion, with 5th tarsomere 1.3–1.4 times as long as preceding two tarsomeres, with tarsal claw very long and with short, close pectinae; hind coxa in profile moderately small, its hind end projecting to about level of hind end of propodeum; hind femur slender, 5–6 times as long as maximally deep; hind tarsus of male with dense, long pubescence ventrally. Fore wing with abscissa of Cu 1a between Cu 1b and 2 m-cu 0.85–0.90 times as long as abscissa of Cu 1 between cu-a and 1 m-cu. Metasoma with tergite I slender, anteriorly subcylindrical; tergite II, in lateral view, 2.2–2.4 times as long as posteriorly deep. Male with subgenital plate small and convex, covered with dense coarse black hair; claspers quite long, the dorsal apex obliquely truncate, the upper corner produced into a small sharp projection, the lower margin weakly convex ( Fig. 58 ); aedeagus in profile with apex expanded, rounded on extreme apex, without a sharp lateral keel.

Head orange-brown, with interocellar area, vertex and frons blackish; flagellum black; mesosoma orangebrown; metasoma shining black. Anterior two pairs of legs orange brown, mid tarsus blackish; hind legs black; wings weakly yellowish infumate centrally, darkly infumate proximally and to a lesser extent distally as well.

Remarks: Thyreodon papei is named in honour of Thomas Pape, in recognition of his identification of all of the sarcophagid flies reared by the ACG caterpillar inventory. T. papei is structurally and in colour similar to T. zitaniae . Both species have rather small ocelli, and have an orange mesosoma and black metasoma. They differ in several respects, however. T. papei has a sharp notaular crest on the mesoscutum, has the propodeum rounded above and behind the propodeal spiracle, and has a central hyaline area on the fore wing; by contrast, T. zitaniae has the mesoscutum without any trace of a notaular crest, has a sharp ridge above and behind the propodeal spiracle, and has the fore wings uniformly black. T. papei also has the second discal cell in the fore wing shorter, with the abscissa of Cu 1a between Cu 1b and 2 m-cu 0.85–0.90 times as long as the abscissa of Cu 1 between cu-a and 1 m-cu. In T. zitaniae this vein is 1.2–1.3 times as long as abscissa of Cu 1 between cu-a and 1 m-cu. T. papei also has the fore leg unusually stout, with 5th tarsomere long, 1.3– 1.4 times as long as the preceding two tarsomeres, whereas in T. zitaniae the 5th tarsomere is only 0.5– 0.6 times as long as the preceding two tarsomeres.

Biological notes: Thyreodon papei is only known to occur in Costa Rica. Three free-flying adults have been collected in the ACG rain forest on the lower slopes of Volcán Orosi and Volcán Rincon de la Vieja, well within the area of the ACG caterpillar rearing programme, but it has not yet been encountered in many thousands of caterpillars and many tens of sphingid species reared from these sites.

Material examined: Holotype ♂, COSTA RICA: Guanacaste Prov.: Rincon de la Vieja National Park, Estacion Las Pailas , 800 m, v–vi.1993 (Taylor) ( INBio ) . Paratypes: COSTA RICA: Guanacaste Prov.: 1 ♂, Guanacaste National Park, Estacion Pitilla , 9 km S Sta Cecilia, 700 m, iii.1990 (Rios & Moraga) ( INBio ) ; 1 ♀, Rincon de la Vieja National Park, Estacion Las Pailas , 800 m, iv.1994 (Taylor) ( INBio ) .

Figures

Figures 53–63. Apex of metasoma and male genital capsule, lateral; 53, T. maculipennis; 54, T. erythrocera; 55, T. whitfieldi; 56, T. laticinctus; 57, T. zitaniae; 58, T. papei; 59, T. morosus; 60, T. schauffi; 61, T. darlingi; 62, T. rufothorax; 63, T. atriventris.