Eucelatoria jorgecortesi Burington 2022, sp. nov.
Creators: name: Burington, Zelia L.
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2022
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Diptera
Tachinidae
Eucelatoria
Eucelatoria jorgecortesi

description: Eucelatoria jorgecortesi sp. nov.
(Figs 13, 58, 179)
Type material. Holotype ♀, labeled “LEGS AWAY/ FOR DNA”, “DHJPAR0042611”, “Voucher: D.H. Janzen & W. Hallwachs / DB: http://janzen.sas.upen.edu/ Area de Conservacion Guanacaste,/ COSTA RICA./ 11 -SRNP- 1776”, “ HOLOTYPE / Eucelatoria / jorgecortesi/ ZL Burington [red label]”, “ Eucelatoria / Janzen10.1”, “ZLB_E.Ferox 00401” (CNC).
Recognition. This species is similar to E. woodorum sp. nov. and E. crambivora sp. nov., in that all have four thin thoracic vittae, thick and even dorsal abdominal bands, yellow palpi, and (presumably) a short female piercer. They differ in that E. woodorum sp. nov. has a wider, triangular shaped piercer in caudal view and E. crambivora sp. nov. has a gray parafacial.
Etymology. By recommendation of Dr. Daniel Janzen, this species “is named in recognition of Dr. Jorge Cortés Nuñez for his full support of the new collaborations between Costa Rica’s Area de Conservación Guanacaste, CIMAR, and the Universidad de Costa Rica, and quite specifically, supporting ACG coral biology and the ACG marine parataxonomists”.
Redescription. Female [described from 1 specimen]. Length 7.3 mm.
Head. Parafacial, fronto-orbital plate, vertex, post-ocular plate, and vibrissal angle tomentum dense yellow, appearing gold. Genal dilation, postgena, and occiput tomentum yellow-gray, appearing gray-gold. Pale occipital setulae yellow-gray. Ocellar setae weak, three-fourths length of posterior reclinate orbital seta. Gena with 4–5 setae, subvibrissal ridge with 1 seta. Facial ridge with setulae on less than lower one-third. Postocellar setae subequal to length of ocellar setae. Paravertical seta one-half to two-thirds length of postocellar setae. Outer vertical seta slightly differentiated to undifferentiated, no more than one-fourth length of inner vertical seta. Reclinate orbital setae 2. Frontal setae 7–8, last frontal seta level with base of postpedicel. Eye apparently bare. Eye height to head height ratio 0.88. Postpedicel length 0.40 height of head. Facial ridge length 0.49 height of head. Parafacial width 0.09 lateral length of head. Pedicel 0.38 length of postpedicel. Postpedicel 2.0 times width of parafacial in lateral view. Vertex 0.22 width of head in dorsal view. Palpus yellow, dilated and flattened at apex; with dense short, stout setulae dorsoapically, longer and thinner setulae mediolaterally.
Thorax. Dorsomedial length 1.3 times width of thorax. Lateral tomentum ash-gray, merging to yellow-gray on upper half of anepisternum. Dorsal tomentum dense yellow. Presutural outer vitta subtriangular, pointed anteriorly, disconnected from anterior margin. Postsutural outer vitta fusiform, disconnected from presutural outer vittae and inner vittae, extending nearly to level of last dorsocentral seta. Inner thoracic vittae bar shaped, slightly divergent, extending to level of second postsutural dorsocentral seta. Scutellar dorsal tomentum yellow, covering more than one-half area. Postpronotum with 3 setae. Presutural area with 2 supra-alar setae. Postsutural area with 3 dorsocentral setae. Scutellum with 1 pair discal setae. Fore tibia missing. Wing hyaline. Calypters tan to cream colored.
Abdomen. Cuticle and setulae entirely black. Dorsal tomentum bands yellow-gray, covering one-half to threefourths area of T 3–5 in nearly continuous bands, with only a narrow, indistinct median vitta. Ventral tomentum bands ash-gray, covering two-thirds to three-fourths of T3–5, with diffuse tomentum also on margin of T1+2. T4 with 1 pair erect median marginal setae and 4 pairs of decumbent lateral marginal setae.
Female terminalia (Fig. 58). Piercer not extending past base of T4, in lateral view straight, slightly curved at apex; in posterior parallel sided to apex. Aculeate lobe subequal height of segment 7 base. Terminal segments not visible [holotype is only known specimen].
Host(s). One individual was reared from Aponia minithalis (Druce) (Crambidae) feeding on Callicarpa acuminata Kunth (Verbenaceae) (Janzen & Hallwachs 2008).
Geographic extent and seasonal occurrence. The type was collected from tropical moist forest in Guanacaste Province, Costa Rica, at 560 m elevation (Fig. 179).
Discussion. The holotype female of E. jorgecortesi sp. nov. differs in appearance from the E. crambivora sp. nov. type mainly in the parafacial color. Genetic evidence suggests that these two species are closely related yet distinct (Fig. 1). It is otherwise difficult to compare the two without same-sexed specimens. Females of E. woodorum sp. nov. are nearly identical in appearance to E. jorgecortesi sp. nov., but the difference in piercer shape is distinctive enough to warrant their separation.
description: Published as part of Burington, Zelia L., 2022, A taxonomic revision of the Eucelatoria ferox species group (Diptera: Tachinidae), pp. 1-104 in Zootaxa 5143 (1) on pages 35-36, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.5143.1.1, http://zenodo.org/record/6601404