Adelius caatinga Bortoni, Shimbori & Penteado-Dias, 2019

Shimbori, Eduardo M., Bortoni, Marco A., Shaw, Scott R., Souza-Gessner, Carolina Da S., Cerântola, Paula De C. M. & Penteado-Dias, Angélica M., 2019, Revision of the New World genera Adelius Haliday and Paradelius de Saeger (Hymenoptera: Braconidae: Cheloninae: Adeliini), Zootaxa 4571 (2), pp. 151-200 : 161-163

Adelius caatinga Bortoni, Shimbori & Penteado-Dias sp. n.

( Figs 14–21 )

urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act:34797825-5A45-4B98-B9F3-C48631E1FC4F

Type material. Holotype ♀ ( DCBU 35614 ): “Paulo Afonso, BA, Brasil, ESEC Raso da Catarina , S 09° 39' 54" W 38° 28' 01" Arm. Luminosa, 14–16.IV.2013, A.S. Soares & E.M. Shimbori cols.”. Paratypes: eight ♂ s ( DCBU 33395 , 33397 , 35629 to 35634 ), “ Jaíba , MG, Brasil, REBIO Jaíba, S 15°06'10" W 43°47'21" (485m) Arm. Malaise, 19.IX.2013, A.S. Soares & M.A. Bortoni cols”; four ♂ s ( DCBU 35635 to 35638 ) “ Jaíba , MG, Brasil, REBIO Jaíba, S 15°06'15" W 43°47'14" (479m) Arm. Malaise, 19.IX.2013, A.S. Soares & M.A. Bortoni cols”; three ♂ s ( DCBU 33393 , 33394 , 35639 ) “ Jaíba , MG, Brasil, REBIO Jaíba, S 15°06'28" W 43°47'19" (477m) Arm. Malaise, 19.IX.2013, A.S. Soares & M.A. Bortoni cols” ; 19 ♂ s ( DCBU 35640 to 35646 , 35581 to 35591 ) “ Jaíba , MG, Brasil, REBIO Jaíba, S 15°06'22" W 43°47'11" (476m) Arm. Malaise, 19.IX.2013, A.S. Soares & M.A. Bortoni cols.” ; 18 ♂ s ( DCBU 33396 , 35592 to 35608 ) “ Jaíba , MG, Brasil, REBIO Jaíba, S 15°06'17" W 43°47'10" (466m) Arm. Malaise, 19.IX.2013, A.S. Soares & M.A. Bortoni cols.”; two ♂ s ( DCBU 31309 , 33398 ) “ Piracuruca , PI, Brasil, Pq. Nacional Sete Cidades, S 04°06'09" W 41°42'33" Arm. Malaise 3, 29.VIII.2013, C. R. Araújo e eq. cols.” ; 1 ♂ ( DCBU 85984 ) “ Buique , PE, Brasil, Parque Nacional do Catimbau, S 08°33'14" W 37°15’04" Armadilha Malaise 0 5, 31.X.2013 — Caatinga A.S. Soares & E.M. Shimbori cols” ; 1 ♂ ( DCBU 91644 ), same data except “… S 08°31'50" W 37°15’01" Armadilha Malaise 0 4 …” 1 ♂ ( DCBU 92353 ), same data except “… S 08°31'58" W 37°15’05" Armadilha Malaise 03…”

Description of holotype, ♀. Body length: 1.8 mm; fore wing length: 1.6 mm.

Color. Honey yellow. Stemmaticum black. Palpi whitish yellow. Antenna yellow with apical segments darker, brown. Metasoma with T2+3 whitish, reminder apical terga dark brown. Wings hyaline with two faintly fuscous bands, stigma and venation pale yellow. Legs pale yellow.

Head. Length of head in dorsal view 0.54× longer than wide. Antenna about as long as body; scape 2.0× longer than wide; flagellomeres 13–17 with weak expansion apical-ventrally. Eye height 2.1× malar space. Sculpturing mostly finely areolate-rugulose. Malar suture present.

Mesosoma. Mesoscutum finely areolate-rugulose. Notauli absent. Pronotum smooth with a rugose groove. Propleuron costate. Scutellar sulcus with 7 divisions, scutellum punctate. Mesoscutellar trough weakly costate. Metanotum rugose. Propodeum with complete pentagonal areola extending over its entire length; anterior aspect weakly rugose, otherwise smooth and polished; with a pair of lateral carinae; transverse carina present but interrupted at areola; all carina well defined. Mesopleuron coriaceous, with relatively shallow and finely crenulate sternaulus. Metapleuron strongly rugose-costate.

Wings. Fore wing vein r absent, veins 2RS and 3RS well separated, both emerging directly from stigma; vein

R1 0.7× stigma length; stigma about 2× longer than high.

Legs. Hind legs with inner tibial spur about 0.25× tibia; tibia 4.7× longer than maximum width. All legs punctate except for coxae smooth. Mid coxa with distinct transverse sulcus dorsally.

Metasoma. Entirely smooth

Variation. Metanotum dark brown. Scutellar sulcus with 7 divisions. All flagellomeres dark brown.

Male. Body length 1.1–1.8. Fore wing length 1.0–1.6. Males are essentially appearing similar to females, but usually with wing bands being fainter (sometimes nearly imperceptible without proper light and background). There are no distinct expansions of median to subapical flagellomeres in males. Most males have mesoscutellum laterally brown or dark brown. The metapleuron is less sculptured, sometimes entirely coriaceous, especially on smaller male specimens. Rarely the apical metasomal terga are yellow.

Diagnosis. Adelius caatinga sp. n. is a mainly yellowish species, with the metasoma white subbasally and darker apically. The wings have two faint (sometimes virtually absent) fuscous bands, vein r of fore wing absent, and fore wing vein R1 long (about 0.7 as long as stigma). The hind coxa is smooth. Specimens with more lightly banded wings are similar to A. janzeni sp. n., differing from it mainly by the areolate-rugose head, which is mostly smooth and polished in A. janzeni . However, some specimens (especially males) have very faint fuscous bands which are mostly imperceptible. These specimens might run to A. bolivariensis in our key to species, since these two species are very similar in color pattern and other diagnostic characters, including a relatively long vein R1 (more than 0.6× longer than stigma length). Adelius caatinga differs from A. bolivariensis by having the apex of antenna always darker, as compared with the antennal apex entirely yellow in A. bolivariensis . The tibiae of all legs are yellow basally in A. caatinga , without the contrasting white subbasal band that is present in all tibiae of A. bolivariensis . In addition, the face of A. caatinga is areolate-rugulose but in A. bolivariensis the face is mostly transversely striate.

Biology. Unknown.

Distribution. Found in the Brazilian states of Bahia, Minas Gerais and Piauí. Sampled in Caatinga vegetation.

Etymology. This species is named in reference to its distribution over the Caatinga biome in the semi-arid region in northeastern Brazil. Caatinga is the fourth largest Brazilian biome, and covers about 10% of its territory, being the only region entirely within the country’s limits. There are several different vegetation types in the region, ranging from deciduous broadleaved forest to mostly open areas with sparse short shrubs.

Figures

FIGURES 14–15. Adelius caatinga Bortoni, Shimbori & Penteado-Dias sp. n. 14, ♀ holotype habitus, lateral; 15, ♂ paratype wings.

FIGURES 16–21. Adelius caatinga Bortoni, Shimbori & Penteado-Dias sp. n., ♂ paratype. 16, head, frontal; 17, head, lateral; 18, mesonotum; 19, mesosoma, lateral; 20, propodeum; 21, metasoma, dorsal. Scale bar = 100 µm.