Aleiodes albiterminus 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 : 12-13

Aleiodes albiterminus Townsend, 2009 Figure 10

Diagnosis.

Body length 4.4 mm; antenna with 33 segments; head color mostly black, with light orangish brown mark below eye; malar space 1.25 × basal width of mandible, ocelli small, ocell–ocular distance 1.3 × width of lateral ocellus; occipital carina interrupted at vertex; mesopleuron granulate; apex of hind tibia without comb of flattened setae; propodeum mostly granulate, with median propodeal carina present but incomplete; metasomal tergum 3 black basally, apically with irregular "half heart-shaped" off-white spot; ovipositor sheaths long, 1.3 × length of hind basitarsus.

Additional characters.

Last flagellomere lanceolate; mesoscutum with complete carina on posterior margin though not well defined; scutellar sulcus with a strong complete median carina and some irregular carina laterally; fore wing vein 1M slightly and evenly curved; hind wing vein 2-1A present as a very short stub, vein m-cu present and distinctly postfurcal to vein r-m; ovipositor sheaths 1.3 × longer than hind basitarsus.

Type material examined. (UWIM)

Biology.

Aleiodes albiterminus has been reared from an unidentified Geometridae larva on Alnus acuminata ( Betulaceae ).

Distribution.

Known only from the type locality, Rio Chalpi Grande, Napo province, ECUADOR, at 2,837 meters elevation.

Discussion.

For standardization reasons we provide the measurement of the ovipositor sheaths instead of the ovipositor itself. The ovipositor and the sheaths length in Aleiodes albiterminus are unusually long for Aleiodes species. This is the only species from Ecuadorian Northeastern Andes with the ovipositor sheaths longer than its hind basitarsus. Aleiodes albiterminus can be distinguished also by the absence of a median carina on the first to third metasomal terga, and the distinctive off-white markings at the apex of metasomal tergum 3.