Aleiodes nubicola, Shimbori, Eduardo Mitio & Shaw, Scott Richard, 2014

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 : 55-57

Aleiodes nubicola sp. n. Figures 84-91

Description of holotype.

Female (holotype). Body length 3.8 mm; antenna length 4.9 mm; fore wing length 3.6 mm.

Color. Mostly dark brown to black. Head: gena and clypeus honey yellow; mandibles and palp whitish, but teeth brown. Mesosoma: lighter stripe, brown to reddish brown, laterally on mesopeluron; mesoscutum and scutellum mid apically yellowish; metapleuron just posteriorly whitish. Legs mostly yellowish but all tibia and tarsi brownish, hind coxa, trochanter and trochantellus dark brown to black, 1/3 basal of hind femur brown. Metasoma: ventrally, central apical T4 and remainder apical visible terga whitish to light yellow; ovipositor sheaths dark brown. Wings hyaline, veins dark brown, but some apical veins, stigma and base of fore wind M+CU and 1A light brown to almost colorless.

Head. Antenna with 38 antennomeres, flagellomeres roughly 2.0 × as long as wide, apical flagellomere lanceolate, without pointed apex; malar space moderate, length 1.65 × basal width of mandible, and about 0.65 × eye height; in dorsal view sub-rectangular (temples not receding), eye height 2 × temples; occipital carina complete and well defined, reaching hypostomal carina; oral space small and circular, maximum width about equal to basal width of mandible; clypeus not swollen; ocelli small, ocell–ocular distance 1.6 × diameter of lateral ocellus; maxillary palp not swollen; head surface sculpturing finely granulate, but occiput smooth and shining.

Mesosoma. Sculpturing mostly granulate; pronotum with some wrinkles; mesopleuron anterior corner rugose; propodeum more coarsely granulate, with long mid-longitudinal carina on basal 2/3; notauli deep and crenulate anteriorly, porsteriorly meeting on depressed area; posterior margin of mesoscutum with short carina, just anterior to scutellar sulcus; scutellar sulcus with incomplete median carina, otherwise smooth.

Wings. Fore wing: stigma about 5 × longer than high; vein r 0.65 × vein 2RS, 0.8 × vein RS+Mb, and 0.7 × as long as vein m-cu; vein 3RSa about 0.3 times vein 3RSb, about 0.8 × vein 2M; vein 1CUa about 2.5 times vein 1cu-a; vein 1CUb about 2.3 times 1CUa; vein 1M evenly slightly curved. Hind wing: m-cu indicated as short pigmented not tubular vein just postfurcal to vein r-m; vein M+CU as long as vein 1M; vein 1M 1.8 × vein r-m; vein RS smoothly curved at middle; vein 2-1A present as a very short stub.

Legs. Hind tibia without apical comb of modified setae; tarsal claw simple, not pectinate; apical spurs on hind tibia small, hind basitarsus 4 × longer than inner spur.

Metasoma. T1-T3 rugose–striated with granulate background; remainder terga granulate; mid longitudinal carina complete from T1 throughout; metasoma outline narrow, petiole relatively small, T1 1.2 × longer than its apical width, ovipositor sheaths as long as hind tarsomere II.

Paratype variation. Body length 3.8-4.6 mm; antenna with 38-40 antennomeres; head in most specimens mostly dark brown, except most of gena and temples just behind eyes honey yellow, but the gena is entirely dark brown in two type specimens; the clypeus color is also variable, in most specimens it is contrasting honey yellow, but in two specimens the clypeus has the same color of face; scutellum color varies from entire black to yellow on apical half, scutellar sulcus varies from yellow to black; light lateral stripes on mesopleuron varies from brown, reddish brown to yellow, in one specimen the stripes are connected by ventral yellowish stripe; most paratypes with metasomal terga 4 and 5 mostly blackish; position of hind wing vein m-cu varies from just postfurcal to just antefurcal; hind basitarsus 4 –5× longer than inner apical spur on hind tibia.

Male. Essentially as in female, but eyes slightly smaller; antenna with 35 and 38 segments; metasomal terga entire dark brown in on specimen, the other with whitish central markings throughout all metasomal terga from apical tergite 1.

Mummy. Length 8.5-10.8 mm, entire brown, mummy with elongate aspect and thin skin, widening gradually from neck to posterior exit hole, thorax wrinkled, mummy attached to the substrate by silk posteriorly at prolegs region, exit hole irregular, located postero-dorsally anterior to abdominal prolegs, but in two specimens the hole is located postero-ventrally.

Type material.

Type-locality: ECUADOR, Napo Province, Yanayacu Biological Station, YY-47035, S00°35.9', W77°53.4', 2163 m, cloud forest, May 7, 2010.

Type-specimen: Holotype female and mummy, point mounted. Top label: "ECUADOR: Napo Province / Yanayacu Biological Station / S00°35.9', W77°53.4' 2163m / CAPEA - NSF-BSI-07-17458 / (hand written) em. 7 May 2010 / YY-47035"; back (hand written): "Abr-2010 / 7-May-2010". (UWIM)

Paratypes, 5 females and 3 males (UWIM), same data as holotype, different dates: 1♀ March 17, 2010, YY-45382; 2♀ May 4, 2010, YY-47069 and YY-46993; 1♀, October 8, 2010, YY-50796; 1♀, November 12, 2010, YY-52470; 1♂ March 18, 2010, YY-45448; 1♂ April 21, 2010, YY-46669; 1♂ April 22, 2010, YY-46568. 1♀, ECUADOR, Napo, Baeza, 2000m, Feb. '79 Mason. (CNC).

Biology.

All specimens reared on the same Geometridae host caterpillar species (common name "palito café chusquea") feeding on Chusquea scandens ( Poaceae ), collected from February to April. Consistent morphology of mummies and caterpillars support a single host species for this parasitoid. There is a variation in dorso-ventral orientation of the exit hole as observed in other species by M. Shaw (1983). All host caterpillars were collected during 2nd (all males and one female) or 3rd (only females) larval instars. Time span between host mummification and adult emergence varied mostly from two to three weeks, but one female took almost two months to emerge.

Discussion.

Aleiodes nubicola sp. n. is similar to Aleiodes cacuangoi sp. n. and Aleiodes atripileatus (see diagnosis of Aleiodes cacuangoi for differences). This species also resembles Aleiodes arbitrium in the size of ovipositor and the mostly dark brown head. It differs from Aleiodes arbitrium by the longer malar space, about 1.6 × longer than mandible width at base (about 1.0 × in Aleiodes arbitrium ), the mostly black pronotum and mesonotum (mostly brownish orange in Aleiodes arbitrium ), and the position of light marks on head bordering eyes on temples (same marks on vertex in Aleiodes arbitrium ). The host species "palito café chusquea" ( Geometridae ) is the same species attacked by Aleiodes mirandae sp. n. and Aleiodes shakirae sp. n.

Etymology.

From Latin, means "cloud inhabiting", a reference for the cloud forest habitat.