Leptodrepana Shaw, 1983

Dadelahi, Samin D., Shaw, Scott R., Aguirre, Helmuth & Almeida, Luis Felipe V. de, 2018, A taxonomic study of Costa Rican Leptodrepana with the description of twenty-four new species (Hymenoptera, Braconidae, Cheloninae), ZooKeys 750, pp. 59-130 : 64-65

Genus Leptodrepana Shaw, 1983

Diagnosis.

Head wider than long and sculptured; anterior tentorial pits distinct; fronto-clypeal suture weak; apical clypeal margin rounded; mandibles bidentate with anterior tooth larger; maxillary palpi six-segmented; labial palpi four-segmented; antennae inserted high on face; scrobes carinate; ocelli prominent and arranged in an equilateral triangle; occipital carina complete and weak dorsally; female antennae with 17 flagellomeres, decreasing in length apically; male antennae with 22-26 flagellomeres, all longer than wide and tapering apically; mesosoma setose and sculptured: mesoscutum medially with roughly parallel lacunose grooves to areolate-rugose; notauli lacunose and often only visible anteriorly; mesonotal lobes varied; scutellar sulcus with 3-8 well-defined depressions; scutellar disc flat or slightly convex, polished-rugulose and punctate; anterior scutellar depression carinate, rarely foveolate; metanotum and posterior scutellar depression irregularly foveate; mesopleuron anteriorly rugose, medially varied, and indistinct to scrobiculate at precoxal sulcus; propodeum quadrate, areolate-rugose with median transverse carina raised into medial and lateral flanges; metatibial spurs shorter than half metabasitarsus length; wings setose, hyaline or infuscate; costa broken at base of stigma; three submarginal cells present in fore wing; veins RS+Mb, and r-m spectral; hind wing venation weak; metasoma dorsally setose and sculptured; tergites 1-3 fused to form a rigid carapace without transverse sutures, basally areolate-rugose; apically often flared above ovipositor; ventral cavity approximately the same length as carapace; ovipositor long slender and curved upwards; body color yellow, yellowish orange, orange, orangish brown, dark brown, brownish black, and black; body length 1.7-3.8 mm.

Remarks.

Twenty-four new species of Leptodrepana are recorded from Costa Rica. Examinations of these species reveal some variation from the characters originally used by Shaw (1983) to separate the two genera. Shaw’s (1983) diagnosis, based on North American species, states that the number of flagellomeres in females is sometimes reduced to 17, the scutellar sulcus has 7-10 depressions, and propodeal tubercles are usually short or indistinct. In Costa Rican Leptodrepana , the females consistently have 17 flagellomeres. The scutellar sulcus has anywhere from 3 to 8 depressions and the propodeal tubercles are often distinct, although sometimes the median flanges are much reduced in comparison to the lateral flanges. Reduction of the flagellum to just 17 flagellomeres is a character unique to only two of the N. American species described by Shaw (1983): L. opuntiae , and L. oriens . As all female Costa Rican Leptodrepana have 17 flagellomeres, this may be a synapomorphic character tying all Costa Rican Leptodrepana to L. opuntiae and L. oriens .

There is only one record of Ascogaster in the neotropics, A. bugabensis Cameron. This specimen was borrowed from the Natural History Museum (London) and upon examination proved to be a helconine in the genus Urosigalphus (Shaw and Dadelahi, 2002). However, based on our own vast experience sorting Costa Rican braconids, Ascogaster and Leptodrepana are easily distinguished with few, if any, of the intermediate forms that are (rarely) found in the Palearctic. Our examination of undescribed Costa Rican Ascogaster species found none with the number of flagellomeres reduced to 17.

Key to females of Costa Rican Leptodrepana species