Ammonoencyrtus autone, Noyes, 2023

Noyes, John Stuart, 2023, ENCYRTIDAE OF COSTA RICA (HYMENOPTERA: CHALCIDOIDEA), 4 Subfamily Encyrtinae: tribes Arrhenophagini, Habrolepidini, Cerapterocerini, Cheiloneurini, Trechnitini, Cercobelini, Polaszekiini, Protyndarichoidini, Gahaniellini and Syrphophagini (part), mainly primary parasitoids and hyperparasitoids of Coccoidea and Psylloidea (Hemiptera), Taxonomic Monographs on Neotropical Hymenoptera (Oxford, England) 2 (11), pp. 1-921 : 531-532

Ammonoencyrtus autone sp.nov.

(Hab. E 194)

DIAGNOSIS. Female (length about 2.3mm): area above mouth margin dark brown; mesoscutum and scutellum orange with a weak metallic sheen; all coxae pale orange; legs otherwise pale orange except dark orange-brown hind basitarsus; head about 7.2X as wide as frontovertex; pedicel with dorsal margin not produced in lateral view; sensory part of clava about 2X as long as straight part of ventral margin; frontovertex with about 15 setae, excluding those along eye margin; scutellum mostly with uniform conspicuous, polygonally reticulate sculpture that is clearly deeper than shallower imbricate-reticulate sculpture of mesoscutum, only extreme side and apex smooth and shiny; exserted part of ovipositor shorter than mid tibial spur. Male: Unknown.

Female (holotype): length, including ovipositor, 2.27mm; excluding ovipositor, 2.14mm ( CPD) .

Head generally orange with a very weak purple and brassy sheen; a narrow area above transfacial carina with a moderately strong purple sheen mixed blue and violet, this continuing laterally between eye and scrobal margin onto upper gena; temple with a weak purple and violet sheen; lower face with a curved, transverse, brown band between toruli and mouth margin; setae on frontovertex, temple, gena and interantennal prominence dark brown; radicle orange, apex dark brown; scape orange, ventral margin dark brown, dorsal margin dark brown, distally with a strong metallic purple sheen mixed metallic green and dark blue; pedicel dark brown, dorsally metallic green and purple sheen; funicle dark orange-brown, dorsally dark brown with a slight brassy sheen, clava dark brown; thorax generally orange; pronotum with neck partially dark orange-brown; mesoscutum with a weak brassy and purple sheen; axilla and scutellum more or less matt, but with weak coppery and brassy reflections; mesopleuron with a weak brassy, blue and purple sheen; legs, including coxae, generally pale orange, but apical tarsomeres dark brown and hind basitarsus dark orange-brown in distal two-thirds; fore wing mostly infuscate but hyaline towards base and at apex, venation pale orange, proximal part of parastigma and marginal vein brownish, apices of postmarginal and stigmal veins connected by a fairly straight hyaline streak; hind wing hyaline; propodeum pale orange with a weak brassy lustre, side slightly dusky with a metallic green and purple sheen, setae outside spiracle translucent pale brown and moderately conspicuous; gaster largely orange with Gt1-Gt6 dorsally dark brown with a mixed purple, coppery and brassy sheen, side of Gt2-Gt5 with a metallic green and purple sheen, sternites brown, apex of outer plate of ovipositor and apex of syntergum pale brown; gonostylus pale orange-brown, apex very pale orange.

Head about 7.2X as wide as frontovertex, in profile about 1.5X as long as deep, frontovertex evenly convex from occiput to top of scrobes then virtually straight to mouth margin with interantennal prominence only slightly protuberant; vertex with a distinct, elongate, oval, shiny bottomed depression adjacent to eye margin between posterior ocellus and occipital margin; ocelli forming an angle of about 45°; frontovertex about 4.5X as long as broad, narrowest slightly in front of anterior ocellus, slightly shiny with fine, polygonally-reticulate sculpture of cell diameter about 0.5X diameter of eye facet, completely smooth above transfacial carina; temple and gena with longitudinally elongate, imbricate-reticulate sculpture of similar depth to that on frontovertex; eye reaching occipital margin, virtually naked, but clothed with very inconspicuous, very short, translucent setae that are each much shorter than diameter of facet; occipital margin sharp, carinate; narrowest point between eye and transfacial carina about 3X diameter of facet; width of interantennal prominence meeting frontovertex about 0.5X diameter of anterior ocellus; area immediately above transfacial carina with about 13 setae; antenna with scape subtrapezoidal with proximal part of dorsal margin 0.5X length of distal part and with the proximal part of the ventral margin about 1.6X as long as the distal part; distal part of dorsal margin of scape and dorsal margin of pedicel virtually flat but slightly concave and completely smooth and shiny; pedicel not expanded dorsally, nearly 0.5X as wide as F1, setae uniform; F1 about 1.1X as long as F2 and subequal in width, remaining segments progressively narrower so that clava is about 0.85X as wide as F1; clava dorsally about as long as F2-F6 combined, sutures oblique, apex strongly obliquely truncate with sensory area about 2X as long as ventral margin; mandible tridentate, upper tooth rounded. Relative measurements: HW 93, HH 79, FVL 59; FV 13, POL 9.5, OOL 0, OCL 7, AOL 11, EL 52, EW 48, MS 36, SL (dorsal margin) 61, SL (lamina) 67, SW 40.

Thorax with polygonally reticulate to imbricate-reticulate sculpture on pronotum and mesoscutum that is of similar depth and mesh size to sculpture on frontovertex; axilla with slightly deeper, slightly transversely elongate, polygonally reticulate sculpture; scutellum with similar sculpture to axilla, but conspicuously deeper and more rounded; visible part of mesoscutum about 1.5X as broad as long; scutellum about as broad as long; mid tibia with a weak external carina in proximal half; hind femur about 4.1X as long as broad; fore wing with area proximad of anal angle hyaline; costal cell with 11 or 12 setae dorsally at apex; apices of postmarginal and stigmal veins connected by a naked, hyaline streak; propodeum medially about 0.13X as long as scutellum, quite smooth but with a few shallow, longitudinal carinae posteriorly near middle, about 15 setae anterior to and outside spiracle. Relative measurements: FWL 106, FWW 48; HWL 80, HWW 23.

Gaster with hypopygium reaching about 0.6X to apex, with an inconspicuous, posterior, median projection (mucro); last tergite about 0.7X as long as mid tibia, with apex acute; ovipositor slightly exserted, the exserted part about 0.5X as long as mid tibial spur or 0.15X length mid tibia; gonostylus about 1.2X as long as mid tibial spur.

Variation. Only holotype examined.

Male. Unknown.

DISTRIBUTION. Costa Rica.

HOSTS. Unknown.

MATERIAL EXAMINED.

Type material. Holotype E: COSTA RICA, Puntarenas, Monteverde , 1780m, Est. Biol. Monteverde, 3.ix.1996 (S. Seaton) . Holotype in NHMUK .