Heteropteron hasegawai Dabek & Whitfield, 2020

Dabek, Elizabeth Zhu, Whitfield, James B., Hallwachs, Winifred & Janzen, Daniel H., 2020, Two new reared species of Heteropteron Brulle (Hymenoptera, Braconidae, Cardiochilinae) from northwest Costa Rica, with the first definitive host records for the genus, Journal of Hymenoptera Research 77, pp. 151-165 : 151

Heteropteron hasegawai Dabek & Whitfield sp. nov.

Figs 6 , 7 , 8

Material examined.

Holotype: Female, Costa Rica: Guanacaste, Area de Conservacion Guanacaste, Sector Santa Rosa, Finca Jenny, el. 205 m, 10.86333, -85.57443, 29-V-2009; 10-SRNP-15367, host Carthara abrupta on Roupala montana . Deposited in USNM.

Paratypes: 3 females (10-SRNP-15373, 10-SRNP-15366, 10-SRNP-15356), 8 males (10-SRNP-15370, 10-SRNP-15354, 10-SRNP-15374, 10-SRNP-15351, 10-SRNP-15345, 10-SRNP-15361, 10-SRNP-15368, 10-SRNP-15369), all same data as holotype, no successful barcodes ; 1 male, Costa Rica: Guanacaste, Area de Conservacion Guanacaste, Sector Orosí, Intersección Mata Redonda, el. 565 m, 10.99574, -85.4948, 29-V-2009, host Carthara abrupta on Roupala montana (09-SRNP-13448, no successful barcode). Deposited in USNM, CNC, INHS, Museo Nacional de Costa Rica, Hymenoptera Institute (116 Franklin Ave, Redlands, CA 92373) .

Body length excluding head.

Average male, 6.75 mm; average female, 6.5 mm.

Body color (Fig. 6 ): Mesosoma pale except propleuron dark. Head black, metasoma terga 1-5 pale, 6-8 dark with tergum 5 variable with dark patch medially distinctly triangular or with dusky patch, rarely absent. Antenna color: scape, pedicel, and flagellum dark. Coxa dark, trochanter mostly dark with posterior trochanter small light patch. Medial femur dark (8/13), lacking dark patch (5/13). Tarsus, aroliar pad ventrally white and dorsally black (Fig. 8D ). Tarsal claw dark. Wings yellow and alternately banded light and dark (Figs 6 , 7C )).

Head. Epistomal sulcus present, very light impression. Setose except vertex and occiput, sparse on clypeus. Setae light yellowish in color. Clypeus weakly and evenly convex. Margin truncate. Clypeus 2.2 × broader than high, 2.4 × length of malar space. Scape 2 × longer than broad, inner side deeply excised apically, base 1.7 × narrower than broadest point. First flagellomere 2.6 × as long as broad.

Face (Fig. 7A ) 1.8 × broader than high. Galea dark, 1.2 × wider than long. Anterior tentorial pits very distinct, deep. Glossae light, bilobed. Frons smooth, deeply excavated, excavation extending longitudinally from base of antennae to vertex and transversely from inner margin of left eye to inner margin or right eye. Frons dorsally with distinct Y-shaped ridge with branches terminating immediately anterior to median ocellus (Fig. 7B ). Ocelli elevated within excavation with some setae between. Visible ridge at antennal base. Antenna with 34-36 flagellomeres.

Mesosoma. Pronotum unsculptured except weakly on marginal ridges anteriorly and posteriorly, long light yellow setae anterodorsally. Pronotum light in color laterally and posterodorsally, dark anteriorly and ventrally. Notauli smooth, incomplete, distinct anteriorly, evanescent posteriorly, extending about half length of mesoscutum; mesoscutum smooth, 1.1 × wider than long, flattened dorsally in lateral view, sparsely covered with yellow setae. Scutellum triangular, smooth, flat in lateral view, lateral areas of scutellum bare and smooth. Posterior end of scutellum lacking ridge at margin (Fig. 6A ).

Propodeum smooth, virtually without areola but with complete longitudinal furrow; pilosity abundant in vicinity of spiracles. Setae 6 × longer then distance between each setae; spiracles 1.4 × longer than wide.

Subalar depression smooth with median carina forming obtuse angle. Subalar prominence tapering posteriorly to pleural sulcus, smooth, convex. Pleural sulcus with double groove. Posterior margin of mesopleuron smooth, moderately setose ventrally with visible setal pits. Mesopleuron smooth (Fig. 8A ). Metapleuron with distinct dorsal-ventral groove starting halfway down the dorsal edge of the metapleuron and ending at the posterior end, moderately setose, setae light in color.

Legs. Hind tibia slightly broadening distally, distal end 1.8 × as long as proximal end. Hind femur 2.6 × as long as broad distally, distal end 2.1 × as long as proximal end. Hind basitarsus 1.2 × the length of tarsomeres 2-5 combined, inner spur of hind tibia half the length of basitarsus. Second tarsus of fore leg 1.4 × longer than broad, fifth tarsus of foreleg 1.7 × longer than broad; second tarsus of mid leg 1.3 × longer than broad, fifth tarsus of mid leg 1.3 × longer than broad; second tarsus of hind leg 1.7 × longer than broad, fifth tarsus of hind leg 1.3 × longer than broad. Tibial spines, generally <7, variable in number and pattern (Fig. 8C ).

Forewing. 1.15 × longer than body. Pterostigma elongate, issuing r from its middle. Second submarginal cell long. Banding pattern as in Fig. 7C .

Metasoma. First tergite 1.4 × broader posteriorly than long. Third tergite 1.4 × as long as second tergite. All tergites polished. Second latero-tergite visible in dorsal view (Fig. 6A ). Hypopygium broad, laterally truncate and rounded at tip (Fig. 8B ), irregular blackened spot near tip. Ovipositor sheath as long as mesosoma with white streak at ventral base (Fig. 8B ).

Cocoon.

Not recorded.

Host.

Caterpillars of Carthara abrupta ( Pyralidae ) on Roupala montana ( Proteaceae ). Carthara abrupta , as currently defined, feeds on a variety of plants; the form that hosts H. hasegawai is referred to informally as Carthara abruptaDHJ02.

Etymology.

Heteropteron hasegawai is named in honor of Dr. Motohiro Hasegawa of Japan International Collaboration Agency (JICA), who first came to ACG in 2015 and has since then, and hopefully decades more, been a major supporter of all aspects of ACG, ranging from financing to biomonitoring of a geothermal electricity project with insect thermometers to biodevelopment to DNA barcoding to international conservaton biopolitics.

Diagnosis.

This new species differs from H. fasciipennis most obviously in having a yellowish orange (in older specimens occasionally somewhat brownish) mesosoma rather than mostly blackish. From H. kidonoi , described above, it can be distinguished by its slightly to significantly lighter yellowish portions of the metasoma (Figs 6 , 8A ), more truncately pointed hypopygium tip (Fig. 8B ), less numerous and more linearly arranged small spines on the mid tibia (Fig. 8C ), and the whitish tarsal arolia (Fig. 8D ).

Figures

Figure 6. Heteropteron hasegawai Dabek & Whitfield A dorsal habitus B lateral habitus.

Figure 7. Heteropteron hasegawai Dabek & Whitfield A frontal view of face B dorsal view of frons and ocelli, showing y-shaped ridge C wings, showing banding pattern.

Figure 8. Heteropteron hasegawai Dabek & Whitfield A lateral view of mesosoma B lateral view of hypopygium tip and ovipositor with sheaths C tibial spines D last tarsal segment, showing pectinate claws and whitish arolium.