Belvosia eldaarayae Fleming & Woodley, 2023

Fleming, AJ, Woodley, Norman, Smith, M. Alex, Hallwachs, Winnie & Janzen, Daniel H, 2023, Revision of Belvosia Robineau-Desvoidy (Diptera, Tachinidae) and 33 new species from Area de Conservacion Guanacaste in northwestern Costa Rica with a key to known North and Mesoamerican species, Biodiversity Data Journal 11, pp. 103667-103667 : 103667

Belvosia eldaarayae Fleming & Woodley sp. nov.

Materials

Type status: Holotype. Occurrence: occurrenceDetails: http://janzen.sas.upenn.edu; catalogNumber: DHJPAR0001158 ; recordedBy: D.H. Janzen, W. Hallwachs & gusaneros; individualID: DHJPAR0001158; individualCount: 1; sex: Male; lifeStage: adult; preparations: pinned; otherCatalogNumbers: HCIC038-05, 96-SRNP-7260.13, BOLD:AAC0626; occurrenceID: 39907FCC-A4CC-5643-919A-741F81F6F7CD; Taxon: scientificName: Belvosia eldaarayae; phylum: Arthropoda ; class: Insecta ; order: Diptera ; family: Tachinidae ; genus: Belvosia ; specificEpithet: eldaarayae; scientificNameAuthorship: Fleming & Woodley, 2023; Location : continent: Central America ; country: Costa Rica; countryCode: CR; stateProvince: Guanacaste; county: Sector Santa Rosa ; locality: Area de Conservacion Guanacaste ; verbatimLocality: Bosque San Emilio ; verbatimElevation: 300; verbatimLatitude: 10.8439; verbatimLongitude: -85.6138; verbatimCoordinateSystem: Decimal ; decimalLatitude: 10.8439; decimalLongitude: -85.6138; Identification : identifiedBy: AJ Fleming; dateIdentified: 2022; Event : samplingProtocol: Reared from the larvae of the Saturniidae , Rothschildia erycina; verbatimEventDate: 20-Apr-1997; Record Level: language: en; institutionCode: CNC; collectionCode: Insects; basisOfRecord: Pinned Specimen Type status: Paratype. Occurrence: occurrenceDetails: http://janzen.sas.upenn.edu; catalogNumber: DHJPAR0001155 ; recordedBy: D.H. Janzen, W. Hallwachs; individualID: DHJPAR0001155; individualCount: 1; sex: Female; lifeStage: adult; preparations: pinned; otherCatalogNumbers: HCIC014-05, 01-SRNP-12402; occurrenceID: F2E567EE-9EDD-5EFA-8EBB-77A44CACF9AC; Taxon: scientificName: Belvosia eldaarayae; phylum: Arthropoda ; class: Insecta ; order: Diptera ; family: Tachinidae ; genus: Belvosia ; specificEpithet: eldaarayae; scientificNameAuthorship: Fleming & Woodley, 2023; Location : continent: Central America ; country: Costa Rica; countryCode: CR; stateProvince: Guanacaste; county: Sector Santa Rosa ; locality: Area de Conservacion Guanacaste ; verbatimLocality: Cortafuegos Naranjo ; verbatimElevation: 285; verbatimLatitude: 10.8352; verbatimLongitude: -85.6248; verbatimCoordinateSystem: Decimal ; decimalLatitude: 10.8352; decimalLongitude: -85.6248; Identification : identifiedBy: AJ Fleming; dateIdentified: 2022; Event : samplingProtocol: Reared from the larvae of the Saturniidae , Rothschildia lebeau; verbatimEventDate: 19-May-2001; Record Level: language: en; institutionCode: CNC; collectionCode: Insects; basisOfRecord: Pinned Specimen Type status: Paratype. Occurrence: occurrenceDetails: http://janzen.sas.upenn.edu; catalogNumber: 82-SRNP-313 ; recordedBy: D.H. Janzen, W. Hallwachs & Lucia Rios; individualID: 82-SRNP-313; individualCount: 1; sex: Male; lifeStage: adult; preparations: pinned; otherCatalogNumbers: 82-SRNP-313; occurrenceID: 56118CC4-18BB-565E-B112-11D7FB3B530E; Taxon: scientificName: Belvosia eldaarayae; phylum: Arthropoda ; class: Insecta ; order: Diptera ; family: Tachinidae ; genus: Belvosia ; specificEpithet: eldaarayae; scientificNameAuthorship: Fleming & Woodley, 2023; Location : continent: Central America ; country: Costa Rica; countryCode: CR; stateProvince: Guanacaste; county: Sector Santa Rosa ; locality: Area de Conservacion Guanacaste ; verbatimLocality: Area Administrativa ; verbatimElevation: 295; verbatimLatitude: 10.837640; verbatimLongitude: -85.618710; verbatimCoordinateSystem: Decimal ; decimalLatitude: 10.83764; decimalLongitude: -85.61871; Identification : identifiedBy: AJ Fleming; dateIdentified: 2022; Event : samplingProtocol: Reared from the larvae of the Saturniidae , Rothschildia lebeau; verbatimEventDate: 25-Jun-1982; Record Level: language: en; institutionCode: CNC; collectionCode: Insects; basisOfRecord: Pinned Specimen

Description

Male (Fig. 37), length: 12-14mm. Head: head slightly wider than thorax; vertex 1/3 head width; gena 1/4 of head height, 1/3 of eye height. Fronto-orbital plate brilliant silver with three distinct rows of frontal setae, sparsely populated with short black hair-like setulae intermingled with setae, with a few dark colored setulae extending below lowest frontal seta; ocellar setae absent at most several hair-like setulae present on ocellar triangle; orbital setae absent. Parafacial light yellow in ground color, densely covered in silver tomentum making the entire surface reflective and brilliant appearance; almost bare along parafacial outside facial ridge, with only a small number of setulae extending just below lowest frontal setae; facial ridge setose along 3/4 of its length, with few black hair-like setulae emerging along outer edge of row; gena covered in black setulae. Antenna, pedicel black, concolorous with postpedicel; postpedicel black, 5X as long as pedicel; arista bare gradually tapering to a point at tip. Palps, orange apically darkening to a brown color basally and densely covered in short black setulae; only slightly clubbed, tapering to a slight point apically, devoid of setulae apically. Profile distinctly pointed at antennal insertion point giving the head a conical appearance when viewed laterally. Thorax: black ground color, with light gray tomentum throughout presuturally, postsuturally transitioning to brown-bronze when viewed from a caudal angle; scutellum appearing dark brown-black to the naked eye, under microscope glabrous adjacent to scutum, abruptly transitioning to dense bronze tomentum which becomes apparent when view on an oblique caudal angle; scutum with four dorsal vittae, one outer pair, one inner pair broken at suture; lateral surface of thorax densely covered in long hair-like setulae, these setulae all black, anepimeron covered bearing the same brown-bronze tomentum present on the scutum, remainder of pleural surfaces gray tomentose; chaetotaxy: 5-6 strong setae on postpronotum arranged in a line, acrostichal setae 3:3-4; dorsocentral setae 3:4; intra-alar setae 3:3; supra-alar setae 2:3; 4-5 katepisternal setae; scutellum, with 5-6 pairs of long flat marginal setae of subequal length; apical often absent but when present these are short, weak and erect, inserted above the plane of the marginal setae; 1 complete row of scutellar discal setae just posterior to marginal setae. Wing: strongly infuscate, slightly darkened but not orange at wing base, basicosta black with slight accent of orange along caudal edge; both upper and lower calypters also infuscate concolorous with remainder of wing; wing vein R4+5 setose, bearing only 2-3 setulae at base; halteres orange stalk with dark black/brown capitulum. Legs: black overall, covered in shimmering bronze tomentum, coxa on midleg and hindleg covered in black setulae; tarsal claws yellow-orange with black tips, with orange pulvilli subequal to length of tarsal claws; anterodorsal row of setae on hind tibia irregularly sized not fringelike. Abdomen: large, flattened globose, with black ground color, brown lateroventrally on ST1+2-T4; tomentum absent from T3, gold tomentum along anterior 10-15% of surface of T4 becoming more apparent under different angles, bisected medially by an area devoid of tomentum, densely gold tomentose throughout T5 not reaching to hind margin of tergite, black along caudal 10% of tergite, where it is devoid of gold; ventral surfaces of T3-T5 densely hirsute, reminiscent of sex-patches present in other Goniini , but lacking any definitive shape or form; middorsal depression on ST1+2 reaching to hind margin of tergite; one pair of median marginal setae present on ST1+2 and T3, and complete rows of setae on T4 and T5; T5 devoid of any setulae in the area of gold tomentosity.

Male terminalia (Fig. 38): sternite 5 with a deeply excavated median cleft along posterior edge, roughly V-shaped, margins covered in dense tomentum; posterior lobes rounded apically, densely covered in multiple long, fine hair-like setulae. Anterior plate of sternite 5, subequal to length of posterior lobes; unsclerotized "window" on anterior plate of sternite 5 rectangular, translucent. Cerci in posterior view, short, stubby triangular, marginally longer than wide, slightly longer than surstyli, pointed at apex, medially fused, separating only along anterior 2/5 of their length. Cerci in lateral view, over all slightly anteriorly curved, more acutely at apex; densely setose along almost 2/3 of its length, only bare at apex. Surstylus in lateral view, rounded along posterior edge and flat along anterior edge making the process look like a cleaver-type blade; surstylus appearing to be fused with epandrium; when viewed posteriorly surstyli straight. Pregonite broad and well developed, apically squared off, blunt, devoid of setulae. Postgonite, slightly narrowed, 1/3 as wide as pregonite, curved at apex, longer than pregonite, scythelike. Distiphallus broadly cone-shaped with a pronounced flare, with a slender median longitudinal sclerotized reinforcement on its posterior surface not reaching apex and a broad, anterolateral, sclerotized acrophallus, thickened apically appearing clubbed, ~1.6X as long as basiphallus.

Female (Fig. 39) length: 10-14mm, overall morphology as in male differing in the following traits: Head: fronto-orbital plate dull gray, sometimes appearing devoid of tomentum along vertex, bearing 4-6 pairs of proclinate orbital setae in addition to 1-2 pairs of reclinate orbital seta; profile of head not rounded as in males. Thorax: Thoracic chaetotaxy: acrostichal setae 3:4; dorsocentral setae 3:4; intra-alar setae 2:3; supra-alar setae 2:3. Abdomen: more globose than males, lacking the flattened character, setulae on abdomen not as dense appearing far less hirsute than male abdomen; differing in terminalia, and the gold tomentosity on T4 extending over 40-50% of tergal surface.

Diagnosis

Belvosia eldaarayae sp. n. can be distinguished from all other Belvosia by the following combination of traits: fronto-orbital plate pale silver gray, gena covered in black setulae, post sutural scutum mostly brassy-brown tomentose, both calypters dark, black basicosta, and apex of T5 black tomentose.

Etymology

Belvosia eldaarayae sp. n, is named in honor of Sra. Elda Araya in recognition of her decades of being part of the Parataxonomist Program of Area de Conservación Guanacaste (http://www.acguanacaste.ac.cr) in northwestern Costa Rica ( Janzen and Hallwachs 2011). Interim species-specific name included in previously circulating databases and publications, Belvosia Woodley05.

Distribution

Costa Rica, ACG (Provinces of Alajuela and Guanacaste), 96-690 m elevation.

Ecology

Belvosia eldaarayae sp. n. has been reared 64 times from three species of Lepidoptera in the family Saturniidae , Rothschildia erycina (Shaw, 1796) (N=5), R. lebeau (Guerin-Meneville, 1868) (N=58), R. triloba Rothschild, 1907 (N=1) in rain forest, dry forest, and dry-rain lowland intergrade.