Centistes muertensis 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 : 35-36

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

( Figs 148–154 )

Female. Body length ( Fig. 148 ): 2.0 mm. Body color: head brown-honey except clypeus, face, scape and pedicel yellow; mesosoma brown except pronotum and propleuron yellow; wings hyaline; metasoma light brown. Head ( Figs 149–150 ): antenna with 20 flagellomeres; flagellar length/width ratios as follows: F1 = 4.0, F10 = 3.0, F20 = 2.5; last flagellomere terminating apically in a sharp point; pedicel 1.3 × longer than wide; scape 1.6 × longer than wide; mandibles when closed overlapping for 0.2 × mandible length; mandible width basally 0.7 × mandible length; malar space 0.4 × eye height, and 1.5 × basal width of mandible; gena sparsely pubescent; shortest distance between eyes equal to clypeus width; eye in lateral view 1.8 × taller than wide; lateral ocellus separated from compound eye by a distance 1.5 × ocellar width; frons glabrous; vertex with a few scattered setae; temple with few scattered setae; temple width 0.8 × eye width; occipital carina thick and complete. Mesosoma: pronotum glabrous; pronotum in lateral view mostly smooth, medially carinate; propleuron smooth; median mesonotal lobe anteriorly pubescent, posteriorly glabrous; lateral mesonotal lobes mostly glabrous with a single row of setae on lateral border; notauli either absent or only present anteriorly ( Fig. 152 ); pit on mesoscutum absent ( Fig. 152 ); scutellar sulcus with one carina; scutellar disc sparsely pubescent; mesopleuron glabrous except dorsal and anterior borders pubescent; precoxal sulcus foveate; metanotum carinate; metapleuron pubescent; propodeum pubescent except dorsum glabrous; propodeum without a conspicuous transversal carina, and without a median-longitudinal dorsal carina ( Fig. 151 ); propodeum with dorso-posterior surfaces rugose-carinate, laterally rugose. Legs: hind coxa 1.3 × longer than middle coxa; hind femora length 5.5 × maximum width; hind tibia length 9.4 × longer than maximum width; hind tibial spur 0.4 × as long as hind basitarsus; ratio of hind tarsomeres from basitarsus apically 10:6:5:4:7. Wings: fore wing length 2.1 mm; pterostigma 2.7 × longer than maximum width; length of marginal cell 2R1 along anterior wing margin 1.3 × the length of pterostigma; vein r-rs 0.4 × as long as pterostigma width; vein Rs+M absent; vein m-cu interstitial with vein RS; hind wing with three sickle-shaped hamuli. Metasoma: first tergite basally 0.7 × as wide as apical width, and 2.1 × longer than apical width; sculpture of first tergite longitudinally costate with costae almost parallel ( Fig. 153 ); spiracle of tergum one situated on lateral margin near the basal quarter of segment; hypopygium short and ventrally convex; ovipositor sheath 3.2 × longer than basal width, and 1.3 × as long as basitarsus; ovipositor sheath pubescent, and terminating in a rounded point ( Fig. 154 ).

Male. Unknown.

Holotype female. COSTA RICA: San Jose, Cerro de la Muerte , 6 Km, N. San Gerardo, 2800 m, xi.1993, P. Hanson leg., Malaise. Deposited in UWIM.

Paratypes. Known only from holotype female.

Comments. Centistes muertensis and C. auristigma are similar in size, appearance, and color. However, they can be easily separated by the absence of the vein Rs+M in C. muertensis (vein present in C. auristigma ).

Etymology. This species receives its name from the type locality Cerro de la Muerte.

Figures

FIGURES 148 – 154. Centistes muertensis sp. n. 148) Lateral habitus, 149) anterior head, 150) dorsal head, 151) propodeum, 152) mesoscutum, 153) dorsal metasoma, 154) ovipositor sheaths with protruding ovipositor.