Enicospilus howdenorum, Gauld, 1988

FERNÁNDEZ-TRIANA, JOSÉ L., 2005, The taxonomy and biogeography of Cuban Ophioninae (Hymenoptera: Ichneumonidae), Zootaxa 1007 (1), pp. 1-60 : 47-48

28. E. howdenorum Gauld ( Fig. 10u )

Enicospilus howdenorum Gauld, 1988: 282 . Holotype ♀, Jamaica (CNC).

A Caribbean species. It is noteworthy that all country specimens have been collected in the same sector of the Sierra Maestra mountains, and above 1000 m.a.s.l. Gauld (1988) studied one Cuban specimen and found it paler yellow in color than other specimens from Jamaica and Hispaniola. However, of five specimens I have been able to study in Cuban collections, some are paler and other not; suggesting this could be a color variation of species instead of a particularity of Cuban specimens.

Some minor differences regarding the original description can be mentioned. The specimens housed in Cuba collections have the marginal cell rather sparsely hirsute; the first abscissa of Cu 1 not so bowed as described by Gauld (1988), sometimes even almost straight. The head and scutellum are yellow and the rest of the body is orange­brown; mesopleuron with variable yellow marks, mostly in the upper and lower part but not medially; metapleuron with yellow marks, sometimes entirely yellow; metasoma infuscate sometimes since 2nd tergite onwards, sometimes not infuscate at all. However, it clearly seems to me that all specimens I studied belong to this species.

According to Gauld (1988) E. howdenorum and E. sondrae form a distinctive sister species pair characterized by having cu­a in the hind wing 0.4–0.5 times as long as a bowed first abscissa of Cu 1. For difference between these two species see below ( E. sondrae ) and Figs. 10u & 10n .

MATERIAL EXAMINED: EC. SC: Alto del Cardero , Turquino, Guamá, VI­1963, Zayas­Alayo­García (4 ♂, IES; 1 ♀, MNHNCu) .

Figures

FIGURE 10: Fore wings of Cuban Enicospilus. a: glabratus (Say), b: carlota Gauld, c: trilineatus (Brullé), d: teremari sp. nov. e: cressoni Hooker, f: neotropicus Hooker, g: guatemalensis (Cameron), h: cubensis (Norton), i: iangauldi sp. nov., j: gallegosi Gauld, k: fernaldi Hooker, l: flavus (Fabricius), m: woldai Gauld, n: sondrae Gauld, o: liesneri Gauld. p: grilloi sp. nov., q: wahli sp. nov., r: cheosi sp. nov., s: purgatus (Say), t: flavoscutellatus (Brullé), u: howdenorum Gauld, v: hansonorum sp. nov.