Centistes laticaudatus Aguirre, Almeida & Shaw

Aguirre, Helmuth, Almeida, Luis Felipe Ventura De & Shaw, Scott Richard, 2017, Revision of the genus Centistes (Hymenoptera: Braconidae: Euphorinae: Centistini) of Costa Rica, Zootaxa 4216 (1), pp. 1-46 : 30

Centistes laticaudatus Aguirre, Almeida & Shaw , sp. n.

( Figs 127–133 )

Female. Body length ( Fig. 127 ): 2.0 mm. Body color: head black-dark brown, except pedicel, scape, face, clypeus and basal half of gena yellow; mesosoma dark brown except propleura, pronotum and legs yellow; wings hyaline; metasoma dark brown except T1 yellow. Head ( Figs 128–129 ): antenna with 20 flagellomeres; flagellar length/ width ratios as follows: F1 = 3.5, F10 = 3.0, F20 = 3.5, last flagellomere terminating apically in a sharp point; pedicel 1.2 × longer than wide; scape 1.7 × longer than wide; mandibles when closed overlapping for 0.4 × mandible length; mandible width basally 0.5 × mandible length; malar space 0.2 × eye height, and equal to basal mandible width; gena sparsely pubescent; shortest distance between eyes 0.9 × clypeus width; eye in lateral view 1.6 × taller than wide; lateral ocellus separated from compound eye by a distance equal to ocellar width; frons glabrous; vertex glabrous; temple with few scattered setae; temple width 0.4 × eye width; occipital carina thick, complete and with an up-directed folding medially. Mesosoma: pronotum laterally glabrous, dorsally pubescent; pronotum in lateral view mostly smooth, medially foveate; propleuron with anterior and medial margins rugose, remaining surface smooth; median mesonotal lobe pubescent anteriorly, glabrous posteriorly; lateral mesonotal lobes mostly glabrous with a single row of setae on lateral border; notauli either absent or only present anteriorly ( Fig. 131 ); pit on mesoscutum absent ( Fig. 131 ); scutellar sulcus with one carina; scutellar disc sparsely pubescent; mesopleuron centrally glabrous, borders and area below precoxal sulcus pubescent; precoxal sulcus foveate; metanotum irregularly longitudinally carinated; metapleuron pubescent; propodeum laterally pubescent; propodeum subdivided into anterior and posterior halves by a strong transverse carina, and with surfaces dorsally rugulose-aerolate, posteriorly irregular-carinate-aerolate ( Fig. 130 ). Legs: hind coxa 1.3 × longer than middle coxa; hind femora length 4.1 × maximum width; hind tibia length 10.0 × longer than maximum width; hind tibial spur 0.4 × as long as hind basitarsus; ratio of hind tarsomeres from basitarsus apically 10:6:6:4:6.5. Wings: fore wing length 1.7 mm; pterostigma 2.9 × longer than maximum width; length of marginal cell 2R1 along anterior wing margin 1.1 × the length of pterostigma; vein r-rs 0.5 × as long as pterostigma width; vein Rs+M present as a short stub; vein m-cu basal with vein RS; hind wing with three sickle-shaped hamuli. Metasoma: first tergite basally 0.7 × as wide as apical width, and 1.3 × longer than apical width; sculpture of first tergite longitudinally costate with costae almost parallel ( Fig. 132 ); spiracle of tergum one situated on lateral margin near the basal quarter of segment; hypopygium short, ventrally folded and dorsal posterior margin truncated; ovipositor sheath as long as basal width, and 1.4 × longer than basitarsus; ovipositor sheath pubescent, and cup-shaped, i.e. narrower basally than apically ( Fig. 133 ).

Male. Unknown.

Holotype female. COSTA RICA, Heredia, Est. Biol. La Selva, 50–150 m, ii–iv.1993, P. Hanson leg., huertos, Malaise trap set by G. Wright. Deposited in UWIM.

Paratypes. Known only from holotype.

Comments. Centistes laticaudatus is quite distinctive from other Centistes species by the shape of its ovipositor sheaths ( Fig. 133 ).

Etymology. The name of this species is formed by the Latin prefix “lati” that means wide, and the Latin stem “caudatus”, meaning tail, emphasizing the widening ovipositor sheaths on the distal portion.

Figures

FIGURES 127 – 133. Centistes laticaudatus sp. n. 127) Lateral habitus, 128) anterior head, 129) dorsal head, 130) propodeum, 131) mesoscutum, 132) dorsal metasoma, 133) apically expanded and short ovipositor sheaths.