Aleiodes greeneyi Townsend, 2009

Shimbori, Eduardo Mitio & Shaw, Scott Richard, 2014, Twenty-four new species of Aleiodes Wesmael from the eastern Andes of Ecuador with associated biological information (Hymenoptera, Braconidae, Rogadinae), ZooKeys 405, pp. 1-81 : 39

Aleiodes greeneyi Townsend, 2009

Diagnosis.

Body length 4.9 mm; antenna with 42 segments; head color honey brown with black ocellar triangle; malar space 1.25 × basal width of mandible; ocell–ocular distance about as long as width of lateral ocellus; occipital carina interrupted at vertex; mesopleuron granulate; apex of hind tibia with comb of flattened setae; propodeum strongly punctate with several longitudinally oriented rugae, longitudinal carina complete; metasomal terga 1-2 dark brown, terga 3-4 brown medially and dark brown laterally, reminder terga light brown; ovipositor sheaths about 0.6 × hind basitarsus length.

Additional characters.

Last flagellomere with “bottle-nipple” -like tip; mesoscutum with carina at posterior margin complete although not well defined; scutellar sulcus with complete median carina plus one pair of slightly weaker lateral carina; fore wing vein 1M moderately curved at base; hind wing vein 2-1A indicated as a very short stub, vein m-cu present, interstitial to vein r-m; ovipositor sheaths about as long as hind tarsomere II, 0.6 × hind basitarsus.

Type material examined.

(UWIM)

Biology.

Aleiodes greeneyi has been reared from a Geometridae caterpillar feeding on Evodianthus funifer ( Cyclanthaceae ).

Distribution.

Known only from the type locality, YBS, Napo province, ECUADOR.

Discussion.

Aleiodes greeneyi is known only by the holotype. It belongs to the seriatus species-group. The incomplete occipital carina at vertex and the moderate ocelli size are similar to those presented in Aleiodes longikeros sp. n. and Aleiodes dyeri sp. n.; however, the wing vein pattern is somewhat intermediate between these two species. Aleiodes greeneyi differs from Aleiodes longikeros sp. n. and Aleiodes dyeri sp. n. in having the pronotum and mesoscutum mostly black (yellow in Aleiodes longikeros sp. n. and Aleiodes dyeri sp. n.), and the hind coxa light brown (bicolored black and white in Aleiodes longikeros sp. n. and Aleiodes dyeri sp. n.). Aleiodes greeneyi was reared from geometrid larva. Within the seriatus-group species from Ecuador, Aleiodes nebulosus and Aleiodes longikeros sp. n. were also reared from Geometridae hosts.