Prasmodon bobrobbinsi Fernandez-Triana & Whitfield, 2014

Fernandez-Triana, Jose L., Whitfield, James B., Smith, M. Alex, Braet, Yves, Hallwachs, Winnie & Janzen, Daniel H., 2014, Review of the Neotropical genus Prasmodon (Hymenoptera, Braconidae, Microgastrinae), with emphasis on species from Area de Conservacion Guanacaste, northwestern Costa Rica, Journal of Hymenoptera Research 37, pp. 1-52 : 14-16

Prasmodon bobrobbinsi Fernandez-Triana & Whitfield sp. n. Figs 19-23 , 100

Type locality.

COSTA RICA, ACG, Alajuela Province, Sector Rincon Rain Forest, San Lucas, 320m, 10.91847, -85.30338.

Holotype.

♀ in CNC. Specimen labels: 1. DHJPAR0038915. 2. Voucher: D.H.Janzen & W.Hallwachs, DB: http://janzen.sas.upenn.edu, Area de Conservación Guanacaste, COSTA RICA, 10-SRNP-40484.

Paratype.

1 ♀, 1♂ (CNC). COSTA RICA, ACG database codes: DHJPAR0040012, 09-SRNP-3496.

Description.

Female. Body length 3.7-3.8 mm or 3.9-4.0 mm. Fore wing length 3.9-4.0 mm or 4.1-4.2 mm. Body color: mesosoma entirely yellow-orange (with the exception of a very small black spot on axillar complex), metasoma with brown to black areas covering most of mediotergites 4-7 (and also part of mediotergites 3 and 8) ( Figs 19, 22, 23 ). Scape color: partially dark brown to black. Flagellomeres color: all flagellomeres brown to black ( Figs 19, 21 ). Tegula and humeral complex color: tegula pale, humeral complex partially dark/partialy pale. Mesotibia color: entirely yellow. Metatibia color: posterior 0.1-0.3 dark brown to black. Metatibia spurs color: yellow-orange. Metatarsus color: dark brown to black (except for anterior 0.7 or less of first metatarsomere). Fore wing color pattern: uniformly and entirely infumate (except for small hyaline area near veins (RS+M)b and 2M). Fore wing veins color: all veins dark brown ( Fig. 21 ). Pterostigma color: entirely dark brown. Hypostomal carina: highly raised ( Fig. 20 ). Scutoscutellar sulcus: with 6 impressions ( Fig. 22 ). Areolet height÷vein r length (fore wing): 0.2 ×. Hind wing subbasal cell: mostly with setae. Hind tarsal claws: with pectination uniform, teeth thick and relatively evenly spaced. Shape of mediotergite 1: distinctly narrowing posteriorly, width at posterior margin clearly less than width at anterior margin and median width ( Fig. 23 ). Mediotergite 1 length÷width at posterior margin 4.1-4.5 × or 4.6-5.0 ×. Mediotergite 2 width at posterior margin÷length: 2.6-3.0 ×. Ovipositor sheaths length: 0.5 × as long as metatibia.

Male. Morphologically similar to females.

Molecular data.

Sequences in BOLD: 2, barcode compliant sequences: 2 ( Fig. 105 ).

Biology and ecology.

Host: Crambidae , Palpita jairusalis DHJ01.

Distribution.

Costa Rica, ACG rain forest.

Etymology.

This species is named in honour of Bob Robbins of the National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C, in recognition of his decades of taxonomic knowledge and support, contributing to understanding the species-level and higher taxonomy of the Lycaenidae of ACG, INBio and Costa Rica, as well as other parts of the world.

Figures

Figure 105. Neighbor-Joining tree (Saitou and Nei 1987) based on distances computed using the Kimura 2 - parameter method (Kimura 1980) of all Prasmodon sequences from the ACG. Tree tips are labeled with species name | specimen accession | host information | sequence length and ambiguities | type status.

Figures 19 - 23. Prasmodon bobrobbinsi. 19 Habitus 20 Head and mesosoma (partially), lateral view 21 Fore wing and antenna (partialy) 22 Head and mesosoma, dorsal view 23 Propodeum and metasoma, dorsal view.

Figure 100 - 101. 100 Cocoon of Prasmodon bobrobbinsi 101 Cocoon of Prasmodon almasolisae.