Aleiodes albigena, Shimbori, Eduardo Mitio & Shaw, Scott Richard, 2014

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 : 10-12

Aleiodes albigena sp. n. Figures 7-9

Description of holotype.

Male (holotype). Body length 5.2 mm; antenna length 7.0 mm; fore wing length 5.0 mm.

Color. Mostly black. Head and antenna dark brown; gena, mandibles and palp white, mandible tips dark brown. Pronotum, propleuron, mesoscutum, most of mesopleuron and scutellum honey yellow; metanotum, propodeum, metapleuron and dor sal 1/4 of mesopleuron, including the border with metapleuron, black; mesopleuron with whitish longitudinal stripe. Legs: all coxa, trochanter and trochantellus, mid femur and tibia, and most hind femur white; fore femur yellowish; fore tibia and tarsi and mid tarsi light brown; hind tibia and tarsi dark brow to black, but tibia with white basal band and fourth and fifth tarsi lighter; hind coxa, trochanter, trochantellus and femur black dorsally, except basal 1/5 of femur; tip of fore and mid femur and mid tibia with infuscate stains. Metasoma dark brown to black dorsally, laterally and ventrally white, but some lateral spots and the last sternites dark brown.

Head. 46 antennomeres, flagellomeres roughly 2.0 × as long as wide, apical flagellomere with short pointed apex; malar space moderate, length 1.4 × basal width of mandible, and 0.4 × eye height; in dorsal view eye height about 3 × temples; occipital carina complete, ventrally touching hypostomal carina; oral space small and circular, maximum width slightly smaller than basal width of mandible; clypeus not swollen; ocell–ocular distance 0.6 × diameter of lateral ocellus; maxillary palp not swollen. Face somewhat bulging, frons barely excavated and without lateral ridges. Head surface sculpturing, including frons, granulate, face coarsely granulate, occiput smooth and shining.

Mesosoma. Sculpturing mostly granulate; pronotum with few laterally running wrinkles laterally; mesopleuron rugose on dorso-anterior corner; propodeum rugose–granulate, with complete mid-longitudinal carina; notauli very shallowly indicated anteriorly, posteriorly disappearing in a depressed rugose area; posterior margin of mesoscutum with very short carina, just anterior to scutellar sulcus; scutellar sulcus with five short carina, not reaching anterior margin of sulcus.

Wings. Fore wing: stigma 5 × longer than high; vein r 0.5 × vein 2RS, about 0.64 × vein RS+Mb, and 0.56 × as long as vein m-cu; vein 3RSa about 0.4 times vein 3RSb, and as long as vein 2M; vein 1CUa 2.7 × vein 1cu-a; vein 1CUb about 2 × vein 1CUa; vein 1M evenly slightly curved. Hind wing: m-cu indicated as short nebulose vein interstitial to vein r-m; vein M+CU as long as vein 1M; vein 1M 1.5 × vein r-m; RS smoothly curved at middle; vein 2-1A present as a short stub.

Legs. Hind tibia without comb of modified setae; tarsal claw simple, with a comb of thin bristles medially; hind basitarsus 2.5 × length of inner apical spur of hind tibia.

Metasoma. T1-T3 granular-striated; remainder terga granular; mid longitudinal carina complete from T1 throughout T2; T1 length 1.3 × its apical width.

Female. Unknown.

Mummy. Length 9.0 mm, body reddish brown, head yellowish, setae pale brown, covered with setae, thorax compact and wrinkled, glue hole located ventrally on the thorax, exit hole irregular, located postero-dorsally, posterior to hind abdominal prolegs.

Type material.

Type-locality: ECUADOR, Napo Province, Yanayacu Biological Station, S00°35.9', W77°53.4', 2163 m, cloud forest, May 14, 2010.

Type-specimen: Holotype female and mummy, point mounted. Top label: "ECUADOR: Napo Province / Yanayacu Biological Station / S00°35.9', W77°53.4' 2163m / CAPEA - NSF-BSI-07-17458 / (hand written) April 2010 / 47082", back (hand written): “14-MAY-2010”; bottom label (hand written): "coll. 8 April 2010 / YY road, Chusquea / Arctiidae , inst. 2 / Beat 650 / pup. 23 April / em. 14 May 2010" (UWIM).

Biology.

Reared from a species near Desmotricha Hampson ( Erebidae ) larvae (voucher number YY-47082), feeding on Chusquea scandens ( Poaceae ). Parasitoid took three weeks to emerge after host mummification. This is the only described circumscriptus/gastritor-group species in Neotropical region known to attack Arctiinae hosts, producing a densely setose mummy.

Discussion.

Aleiodes albigena sp. n. belongs to circumscriptus/gastritor species-group. Some diagnostic characters are the very shallow notauli present only anteriorly; scutellar sulcus without bisecting carina; occipital carina complete dorsally; face bulging; and frons surface granular, not excavated, without a lateral carina. This species is similar to Aleiodes townsendi sp. n. and Aleiodes shakirae sp. n., but it can be distinguished from both by the mostly black head with contrasting whitish gena, yellowish in Aleiodes townsendi sp. n. and Aleiodes shakirae sp. n., and the almost straight vein 1M on fore wing, strongly curved in Aleiodes townsendi sp. n. and Aleiodes shakirae sp. n. Aleiodes albigena sp. n. resembles Aleiodes arbitrium in color pattern but differs in the shorter ocell–ocular distance relative to lateral ocelli diameter.

Etymology.

From the Latin roots meaning "white cheeks," named in reference to the contrasting white gena, as compared with the black head of this species.