Szelenyiopria talitae Loiacono et Margaria, sp. nov.
Creators: name: Loiácono, Marta
name: Margaría, Cecilia
name: Moreira, Denise D. O.
name: Aquino, Daniel
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2013
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Hymenoptera
Diapriidae
Szelenyiopria
Szelenyiopria talitae

description: Szelenyiopria talitae Loiácono et Margaría sp. nov.   
(Figs 1–3)  
 Female (Figs 1 A, B). Holotype. Length 3.4 mm, color dark chestnut brown, except antenna, tegula and legs slightly light; body smooth and shinny.   
 Head. In dorsal view (Fig. 1 A) subglobular, wider than long (1.30), frons unarmed, antennal shelf not margined posteriorly; temples behind eyes relatively long, gradually rounded, POL:LOL:OOL= 3.5:1.5:4; head in lateral view with torulus in upper half of eye (Figs 1 B, 2A); eyes small, ovoid, higher than half head height (1.60), posterior margin rounded; ommatidia relatively small, not convex, ocellus distinctly larger than ommatidium (2.15); postgenal cushion well developed, occipital flange rudimentary; head in frontal view with mandible bidentate, lower tooth slightly longer than upper tooth; palpal formula 5-2; antenna (Fig. 2 C) 11-segmented; clava strong with 4-clavomeres subrectangular and flattened ventrally, apical segment subconical, longer than preceding clavomere; A1 long and cylindrical, unarmed apically; antennomeres in proportions: (13:2.7), (2.6:1), (2:1.4), (1.85:0.7), (1.38:1), (0.75: 0.3), (0.32:0.26), (0.5:0.42), (0.5:07), (0.4:1), (1.4:0.8).   
 Mesosoma. In dorsal view slightly longer than wide (1.15) (Fig. 1 A), with massive hairy cushion anterodorsally; mesoscutum as long as wide; anterior scutellar pit large, rather deep, slightly transverse; scutellar disc moderately convex, axilla slightly smaller than scutellar pit; dorsellum well developed, with three keels; propodeum strongly developed, median keel only moderately produced anteriorly; posterolateral corners of propodeum strongly developed; posterior margin deeply excavated medially; mesopleuron in lateral view moderately convex, metapleuron densely hairy (Fig. 1 B). Wings slightly glassy (Fig. 2 B); fore wings 3.6 times longer than wide, submarginal vein reaching proximal third of wing length, stigmal vein moderately developed; hind wings narrow, 10.5 times longer than wide. Legs slender, with long and straight sparse light setae (Figs 1 A, B).   
 Metasoma (Fig. 1 A). Petiole 1.5 times longer than wide, completely covered by long whitish hairs; metasoma post petiole in dorsal view about 1.6 times longer than wide, with sparse specialized setae.   
 Male (Fig. 3 A). Body color slightly lighter than female. Antenna (Fig. 3 B) 14-segmented, relatively short and strong, A4–A13 distally knotted with row of verticillate bristles, antennomeres in proportions: (7.3:1.6), (1.7:0.9), (1.9:0.7), (2:0.7), (2:0.7), (2:0.7), (2:0.7), (2:0.5), (0.7:0.4), (0.7:0.4), (0.5:0.4), (0.4:0.4), (0.4:0.4), (1.7:0.4).   
 Material examined: Holotype, female (MZUSP); paratypes, female and male (MLEF); paratypes, female and male (UFPR); 4 females and 18 males (MLP): Bom Jardin (22° 0 9 07'S e 42° 25' 10'' W), Río de Janeiro, Brazil, V- 2011, Moreira coll.   
 Diagnosis. This species differs from other Szelenyiopria species by the combination of the following characters: clava strong, anterior scutellar pit rather deep, and median keel only moderately produced anteriorly. Szelenyiopria talitae is similar to the species of [S. pilosa-S. coriacea-S. lucens-S. pampeana] clade (Loiácono & Margaría 2000) by head ratio; POL>LOL (S. lucens and S. pampeana); hind wing proportions (S. coriacea); gaster short, keel sculpture of propodeum (S. pilosa).   
 Etymology. The new species is named in honor of Mrs. Talita de Oliveira Moreira, mother of one of the authors (D.D.O.M.).   
 Biology. In this study, we found that Szelenyiopria talitae attacks mature larvae of A. subterraneus. subterraneus. All larvae parasitoidized belong to worker forms of the ants and were easily recognized by the dark coloration through the cuticle where the wasps were developing (Fig. 4 A). Szelenyiopria talitae is predominantly a solitary parasitoid, but can be gregarious with two to 10 wasps per larva (Fig. 4 B). Each larva contains wasps of one sex. The September nest was 100% parasitized (510 ant larvae) but the percentage of parasitoidism of the other nest could not be established. Inside the fungus chamber it was possible to see worker ants taking care of larvae attacked (Fig. 4 D) as if they were healthy larvae (Fig. 4 C).
description: Published as part of Loiácono, Marta, Margaría, Cecilia, Moreira, Denise D. O. & Aquino, Daniel, 2013, A new species of Szelenyiopria Fabritius (Hymenoptera: Diapriidae), larval parasitoid of Acromyrmex subterraneus subterraneus (Forel) (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) from Brazil, pp. 228-234 in Zootaxa 3646 (3) on pages 229-231, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.3646.3.2, http://zenodo.org/record/217862