Centistes puntarenensis 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 : 39-40

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

( Figs 169–175 )

Female. Body length ( Fig. 169 ): 2.4 mm. Body color: head dark brown except clypeus yellow, and pedicel and scape light brown; mesosoma dark brown, except legs yellow; wings hyaline; metasoma dark brown except T1 and ovipositor sheats black-dark brown. Head ( Figs 170–171 ): antenna with 24 flagellomeres; flagellar length/width ratios as follows: F1 = 2.5, F10 = 2.3, F24 = 2.7; last flagellomere terminating apically in a sharp point; pedicel 0.9 × as long as wide; scape 1.8 × longer than wide; mandibles when closed overlapping for 0.5 × mandible length; mandible width basally 0.5 × mandible length; malar space 0.2 × eye height, and 0.9 × basal mandible width; gena pubescent; shortest distance between eyes equal to clypeus width; eye in lateral view 2.1 × taller than wide; lateral ocellus separated from compound eye by a distance equal to ocellar width; frons glabrous, except sparse setae around eyes; vertex with a few scattered setae; temple with few scattered setae; temple width 0.9 × eye width; occipital carina thick and complete. Mesosoma: pronotum glabrous; pronotum in lateral view mostly smooth, medially foveate, posteriorly carinate; propleuron smooth; median mesonotal lobe anteriorly pubescent, posteriorly glabrous; lateral mesonotal lobes glabrous, except lateral borders pubescent; notauli either absent or only present anteriorly ( Fig. 173 ); pit on mesoscutum small and oval ( Fig. 173 ); scutellar sulcus with one carina; scutellar disc sparsely pubescent; mesopleuron centrally glabrous, borders and area below precoxal sulcus pubescent; precoxal sulcus foveate; metanotum carinated; metapleuron pubescent; propodeum pubescent except dorsum glabrous; propodeum subdivided into anterior and posterior halves by a strong transverse carina, and with a medianlongitudinal dorsal carina present ( Fig. 172 ); propodeum with surfaces mostly smooth except medially and laterally rugulose. Legs: hind coxa 1.5 × longer than middle coxa; hind femora length 4.4 × maximum width; hind tibia length 11.2 × longer than maximum width; hind tibial spur 0.4 × as long as hind basitarsus; ratio of hind tarsomeres from basitarsus apically 16:8:7:6:9. Wings: fore wing length 2.6 mm; pterostigma 4.4 × longer than maximum width; length of marginal cell 2R1 along anterior wing margin 0.9 × the length of pterostigma; vein r-rs 0.7 × as long as pterostigma width; vein Rs+M complete; vein m-cu basal with vein RS; hind wing with three sickle-shaped hamuli. Metasoma: first tergite basally 0.6 × as wide as apical width, and 1.5 × longer than apical width; sculpture of first tergite longitudinally costate with costae almost parallel ( Fig. 174 ); spiracle of tergum one situated on lateral margin near the basal quarter of segment; hypopygium long, ventrally convex and with dorsal margin rounded; ovipositor sheath 3.9 × longer than basal width, and 1.2 × as long as basitarsus; ovipositor sheath densely pubescent, and terminating truncated ( Fig. 175 ).

Male. Unknown.

Holotype female. COSTA RICA: Puntarenas, San Vito Estacion Biologica Las Alturas, 1500 m, 15– 31.x.1991, P. Hanson Leg., Malaise. Deposited in UWIM.

Paratypes. Known only from holotype female.

Comments. Centistes puntarenensis and C. cartagoensis resemble each other by having long and narrow ovipositor sheaths, and other characters referred in the key, but the truncated end of those sheaths, plus the bigger ocelli, make C. puntarenensis quite distinctive.

Etymology. This species is named after the Costa Rican Puntarenas province.

Figures

FIGURES 169 – 175. Centistes puntarenensis sp. n. 169) Lateral habitus, 170) anterior head, 171) dorsal head, 172) propodeum, 173) mesoscutum, 174) dorsal metasoma, 175) apically ovipositor sheaths and ventrally protruding ovipositor.