Meteorus atlanticus, Almeida, Luis Felipe Ventura De & Dias, Angélica Maria Penteado, 2015

Almeida, Luis Felipe Ventura De & Dias, Angélica Maria Penteado, 2015, Five new species of Meteorus Haliday (Hymenoptera: Braconidae: Euphorinae) from Brazil, Zootaxa 4057 (2), pp. 231-247 : 232-234

Meteorus atlanticus n. sp.

Figs 1–7 , 37

Diagnosis. Occipital carina incomplete; mandibles twisted; head height 1.74–1.90× eye height; notauli distinctive and black; mesonotal lobes well defined and yellowish ( Fig. 4 ); second submarginal cell of fore wing strongly narrowed anteriorly; wings slightly infuscate; tegula distinctively darker than humeral complex; propodeum whitish yellow, rugose and with a median depression ( Fig. 5 ); dorsope absent; ventral borders of first tergite separated basally and joined apically; ovipositor 1.73–2.07× T1 length.

Body color. Antenna black with pedicel and scape dark brown; head orange; propleuron yellow; pronotum dorsally orange, ventrally whitish yellow; mesonotum black with mesonotal lobes and scutellar sulcus orange-light brown; scutellar disc yellow; mesopleuron whitish yellow with a black spot dorsally ( Fig. 1 ); metanotum, metapleuron and propodeum whitish yellow; fore and mid legs yellow with telotarsus dark brown; hind legs yellow except tibia apically dark brown and tarsus brown; T1 yellow; T2–T8 black-dark brown, except T2 anteriorly and T8 yellow ( Fig. 7 ); sterna yellow; wings slightly infuscate; tegula distinctively darker than humeral complex.

Body length. 3.94 mm.

Head. Antenna with 28 flagellomeres; flagellomere length/width ratio as follows: F1 = 3.20; F2 = 2.60; F3 = 2.66; F26 = 2.66; F27 = 2.33; F28 = 3.33; head width 1.35× head height; head height 1.85× eye height; face maximum width 1.11× its minimum width; face minimum width 1.17× clypeus width ( Fig. 3 ); malar space length equals to mandible width basally; temple length 0.76× eye length in dorsal view; ocellar-ocular distance 1.66× ocellar diameter ( Fig. 2 ); occipital carina incomplete; vertex in dorsal view descending vertically behind the lateral ocelli; mandibles twisted; frons smooth; face finely rugulose, except smooth around eyes; clypeus finely rugulose.

Mesosoma . Notauli distinctive, rugose-carinate; mesonotal lobes well defined ( Fig. 4 ); scutellar furrow with one carina; pronotum smooth, except medially carinate; propleuron smooth; central lobe of mesoscutum finely rugulose with a median longitudinal carina; mesopleuron smooth with a rugulose area near the tegula; precoxal sulcus long and narrow, carinate; metapleuron smooth dorsally, carinate-rugulose ventrally; propodeum rugose, with a median depression and without defined transversal and longitudinal carinae.

Legs. Tarsal claw with small lobe basally; hind coxa puncticulate.

Wings. Fore wing: length 3.53 mm; vein r 1.71× length of vein 3 Rsa; vein 3 Rsa 0.37× length of vein r-m; second submarginal cell strongly narrowed anteriorly; vein m-cu antefurcal. Hind wing: vein 1M 1.70× length of vein cu-a; vein 1M 1.61× length of vein r-m.

Metasoma. Dorsope absent; first tergite costate, with costae almost parallel ( Fig. 6 ); ventral borders of first tergite separated basally and joined apically; remaining tergites smooth; ovipositor thickened basally and straight; ovipositor 1.71× T1 length.

Female variation. Body length 3.68–4.24 mm; propleuron dark brown anteriorly, yellow posteriorly; pronotum dorsally orange, ventrally black; mesopleuron more extensive dark area, covering also the anterior margin; T1 with small dark brown patches on posterior margin; T2 completely dark brown; head width 1.18–1.35× head height; head height 1.74–1.90× eye height; face maximum width 1.09–1.15× its minimum width; face minimum width 1.13–1.24× clypeus width; malar space length 1.00–1.11× mandible width basally; temple length 0.65–0.76× eye length in dorsal view. Fore wing: length 3.58–3.89 mm; vein r 1.22–1.66× length of vein 3 Rsa; vein 3 Rsa 0.38– 0.56× length of vein r-m. Hind wing: vein 1M 1.56–1.66× length of vein cu-a; vein 1M 1.31–1.58× length of vein r-m; ovipositor 1.73–2.07× T1 length; T1 with costae convergent.

Comments. Meteorus atlanticus n. sp. is most similar to M. townsendi , M. eaclidis and M. monoceros n. sp., with an incomplete occipital carina, dorsope absent, second submarginal cell strongly narrowed anteriorly, twisted mandibles and notauli distinctive. Meteorus atlanticus can be distinguished from the first two by the tarsal claw with a small lobe, black patches on mesosoma and metasoma, and wings only slightly infuscate, and can be distinguished from M. monoceros by the mesonotal lobes orange-light brown ( Fig. 4 ) and frons smooth without a protuberance ( Fig. 2 ). In the key provided by Aguirre et al. (2015) M. atlanticus run to couplet 58 but does not match any of the options due to having orange to light brown mesonotal lobes and black notauli.

Holotype. 1 female, DCBU 0 3155 São Luiz do Paraitinga, SP, PESM-Núcleo Santa Virginia, S 23 19' 27.1'' W 45 5' 38,4'', Armadilha Malaise 1, 22.iii.2010, N. W. Perioto & eq.

Paratypes. 6 females, DCBU 0 2156 idem holotype except, S 23 19' 27.2'' W 45 5' 38,5'', Armadilha Malaise 2, 22.i.2010; DCBU 0 2373 idem holotype except, S 23 19' 16,9'' W 45 5' 46,6'', Armadilha Malaise 5, 22.x.2009; DCBU 0 1775 Ribeirão Grande, SP, Brasil, Parque Estadual de Intervales, S 24 16' 23.6'' W 48 25' 21.8'' Armadilha Malaise 5, 21.iii.2011, N.W. Perioto e eq.; DCBU 0 2220 idem holotype except, S 23 19' 16,9'' W 45 5' 46,6'', Armadilha Malaise 5, 21.i.2010; DCBU 13206 idem holotype except, S 23 19' 24,6'' W 45 5' 40,1'',Armadilha Malaise 3, (no collection date); DCBU 11717 idem holotype except, S 23 19' 16,9'' W 45 5' 46,6'', Armadilha Malaise Pto. 5, 22.xii.2010.

Distribution. São Luiz do Paraitinga and Ribeirão Grande in the state of São Paulo, Brazil. ( Fig. 37 )

Etymology. The specific name refers to the Atlantic forest region where the type specimens were collected.

Figures

FIGURES 1 – 7. Meteorus atlanticus n. sp., female. 1. Lateral habitus, 2. Head, dorsal view. 3. Head, frontal view. 4. Mesoscutum, dorsal view. 5. Propodeum, dorsal view. 6. T 1, dorso-lateral view. 7. Metasoma, dorsal view.

FIGURES 37 – 44 Geographical distribution of Meteorus spp. in Brazil. 37. Meteorus atlanticus n. sp. 38. Meteorus ferruginosus n. sp. 39. Meteorus itatiaiensis n. sp. 40. Meteorus monoceros n. sp. 41. Meteorus strigatus n. sp. 42. Meteorus jerodi. 43. Meteorus laphygmae 44. Meteorus megalops.