Mendesella itatiaia, Bortoni, Marco Aurélio, Souza-Gessner, Carolina Da Silva & Penteado-Dias, Angélica Maria, 2016

Bortoni, Marco Aurélio, Souza-Gessner, Carolina Da Silva & Penteado-Dias, Angélica Maria, 2016, The subfamily Mendesellinae (Hymenoptera: Braconidae) in Brazil, with the description of six new species, Zootaxa 4200 (3), pp. 406-416 : 413

Mendesella itatiaia sp. n. Souza-Gessner & Penteado-Dias

( Figs 8 –10)

Material examined. Holotype female ( DCBU 91337 ) “ Itatiaia , RJ, Brasil, Parque Nacional do Itatiaia , Malaise, 21.XI.2013, S 22°26'01.4" W 44°36'49.5", 1070m, R.F. Monteiro col.“

Description of holotype. Body length: 3.55 mm; fore wing length: 3.5 mm.

Color. Head yellow except for scape and pedicel dorsally brownish yellow, flagellomeres, stemmaticum and mandible tip dark brown. Mesosoma mostly yellow except for lateral lobes, anterior half of median lobe of mesoscutum and tegula dark brown, mesopleuron brownish, metapleuron and propodeum pale yellow. Legs yellow, except for fore tarsus, apex of hind tibia and hind tarsus dark brown. First, second and third metasomal tergites yellow, hypopygium pale yellow, remaining terga, ovipositor and sheaths brown.

Head. Entirely finely punctate and densely setose. Antennae with flagellum broken at 24th flagellomere.

Mesosoma. Mesoscutum finely punctate filled with short and fine semi erect setae, punctuation weak in the posterior half of median lobe of mesoscutum. Notauli crenulate anteriorly and absent posteriorly. Propleuron finely punctate with short and semi erect setae. Pronotum dorsally finely punctate with two depressions anteriorly, posteriorly with an small area filled with short semi erect setae, laterally with weak punctuation and a groove on each side. Scutellar sulcus with seven carinae, scutellum smooth, with fine and short semi erect setae. Mesopleuron smooth and glabrous medially, the remainder with fine short semi-erect setae. Metapleuron punctate with setae longer and semi erect. Propodeum slightly setose, setae short, fine and semi erect, strongly rugose areola narrow and nearly parallel-sided, inside with some small transverse carinae.

Wings. Infuscate.

Legs. All legs finely punctate with fine and short semi erect setae, with a row of pegs or spines along the on hind tibia.

Metasoma. Apical width of first metasomal tergite 1.6 × basal width. Length of first metasomal tergite 1.5 × apical width. Hypopygium dorsal view (lateral not visible) 1.04 × as long as wide. Ovipositor 2.0 × the hind tibia length, curved upwards with two subapical sinuations and slightly deflected down at the apex. first metasomal tergite weakly rugose laterally with erect setae laterally, dorsal carina narrowing about mid length, remaining parallel until end of tergum, small lateral transverse carinae. Second and third metasomal tergites mostly desclerotized, laterally smooth and sparsely setose. The remaining terga smooth with a row of fine and semi-erect setae along width.

Diagnosis. This species is similar to M. amazonica and M. brasiliensis with the dorsal carinae of first metasomal tergite converging at mid length and diverging posteriorly. Resembles M. amazonica in the size of ovipositor and the areola on propodeum, differs by the color of pronotum and mesopleuron. Resembles M. brasiliensis by the color of pronotum and mesopleuron, differs by the areola on propodeum and the size of ovipositor.

Male. Unknown

Biology. Unknown.

Distribution. Dense submontane ombrophylous forest at Parque Nacional do Itatiaia , Rio de Janeiro State, Brazil.

Etymology. This species is named after Parque Nacional do Itatiaia , where the specimen was collected.

Figures

FIGURES 7 – 9. Mendesella albida sp. n. 7, habitus, lateral view; 8, mesosoma, lateral view; 9, T 1, T 2 and T 3, dorsal view; Figs 10 – 12, Mendesella itatiaia sp. n. 10, habitus, lateral view; 11, mesosoma, lateral view; 12, T 1, T 2 and T 3, dorsal view.