Triraphis willei Valerio, sp. nov.
Creators: name: Valerio, Alejandro A.
name: Shaw, Scott R.
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2015
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Hymenoptera
Braconidae
Triraphis
Triraphis willei

description: Triraphis willei Valerio, sp. nov.
Figures 12, 95–100, 114.
Description. Female. Body color: yellow, with antennal basal 11 flagellomeres black, remainder flagellomeres yellow (?); tarsal claws light brownish yellow. Fore wing: C+SC+R yellow as M+Cu basal 2/3, remainder brownish yellow as remainder veins; hind wing: veins 1M, r – m and 2M brownish yellow, remainder veins yellow. Body length = 8.24 mm; fore wing length = 7.69 mm.
Head: Head height/head length = 1.26; maximum height of compound eye/maximum width of compound eye = 1.57; distance between basal edges of tentorial pits and the basal area of toruli/Maximum width of face measured at dorsal edge of clypeus = 0.97; width of vertex/minimal distance between toruli and the medial ocellus = 2.15; width of oral opening/height of oral opening = 2.25; distance between tentorial pits = 0.27 mm; minimal distance between external edge of tentorial pits and compound eye = 0.10 mm. Antenna, flagellomeres all longer than wide; malar space slightly narrow than basal width of mandible; occipital carina present and divided dorsally, not fused with hypostomal carina, clearly separated; median ocellus slightly bigger than lateral ocellus; space between lateral ocellus black/dark brown; ocell-ocular distance slightly bigger than 1/3 Lateral ocellus width.
Mesosoma: Length of mesosoma in dorsal view/width of mesosoma = 3.04; height of mesosoma = 1.68 mm; propleuron dorso-lateral area medially with less defined colliculate sculpturing, remainder nitid; notauli punctate, defined medially; medial longitudinal pit small, deep, smooth without longitudinal punctate sculpturing; remainder mesonotum nitid; sternauli striate, union with prepectal carina nitid, area bellow nitid with scattered pits by presence of setae; mesopleuron immaculate except dorso-lateral area with less defined colliculate and large lineate sculpturing; metapleuron granulate, ventral 1/3 with conspicuous rugose sculpturing; propodeum, spiracles sub – oval; first lateral areas of propodeum with less defined colliculate and light areolate-rugulose sculpturing, remainder with conspicuous areolate-rugulose and fine colliculate sculpturing; medial carina 1/3 Propodeum length; areola sinuate, with triangular shape; ventral tubercles present with carinae over them and densely granulate.
Legs: basal lobe of hind tarsal claws elongate and acute at tip.
Wings: fore wing: 1Cub/RS+Ma = 0.97; 3RSa/1RS = 5.17; pterostigma length/width = 2.67; r = 0.41 mm. hind wing: 1M/r – m = 2.23; 1A/cu – a = 1.0; m+cu = 1.06 mm; m+cu interstitial with 2RS; 2RS straight; angle at union of veins 2RS – 2M acute; pterostigma yellow.
Metasoma: Length of first metasomal tergum/width of first metasomal tergum = 1.30; length of second metasomal tergum/width of second metasomal tergum = 0.71; length of third metasomal tergum/width of third metasomal tergum = 0.35; basal width of first metasomal tergum = 0.59 mm; hypopygium = 0.78 mm. first metasomal tergum dorso – basal triangular area of first metasomal tergum close with carinae present, medial carina cristate at basal 1/2; first metasomal tergum lineate sculpturing more spaced, conspicuous and less dense than second metasomal tergum sculpturing; third metasomal tergum lineate sculpturing finer, less conspicuous and as dense as second metasomal tergum sculpturing, not reaching third metasomal tergum distal edge; fourth metasomal tergum without fine lineate sculpturing
Male. Unknown.
Female holotype. Costa Rica, Guanacaste, ACG, Sector Santa Rosa, Bosque San Emilio, 4/vii/91, Col. D.J. Janzen. Holotype deposited at the RMSEL.
Distribution. The altitudinal distribution of this species is Pacific lowlands. The type of forest present at site of collecting was tropical dry forest.
Biology. Specimen reared from Perola sinaolensis (Limacodidae) feeding on Maclura tinctoria (Moraceae).
Comments. Antennae broken on specimen. Similar to Triraphis ikelosops and T. melasops by the head light brown to brownish yellow, the acute angle at union of veins 2RS – 2M and the union of veins 1M, r – m, 2M brownish yellow, but can be identified by the black/dark brown head, conspicuous sculpturing at propodeum, ratio of hind wing measurements 1M/r – m bigger than 2x, ratio of head measurements Width of vertex/minimal distance between toruli and the medial ocellus smaller than 2.3x and ocell-ocular distance bigger than 1/3 of lateral ocellus width.
Etymology. This species is named in honor of Dr. Alvaro Wille, pioneer Costa Rican hymenopterist.
Triraphis species Host record Host family Plant family Plant genera
baios Melanis sanginea Riodinidae Bromeliaceae Bromelia
Euphorbiaceae Hieronima Fabaceae Albizzia Parasawalesca Limacodidae Annonaceae Annona
Unknown Limacodidae Unknown Unknown
guarusa Perola sinaolensis Limacodidae Moraceae Maclura
Ocaria sp. Limacodidae Sterculiaceae Guazuma Napaeaumbra Riodinidae Bromeliaceae Bromelia Norape sp. Megalopygidae Bromeliaceae Bromelia Fabaceae Inga
Lonchocarpus Pithecellobium Unknown Limacodidae Meliaceae Cedrela
ikelops Arawakis sp. Lycaenidae Solanaceae Solanum
melasops Vipsania rosabella Limacodidae Sapindaceae Thouinidium
paraholos Acraga sp. Dalceridae Euphorbiaceae Hieronima Apart from the 13 new species described and four new combinations, there are two new lepidopteran families as host records for the genus Triraphis Ruthe; the family Dalceridae with the genus Acraga sp. parasitized by Triraphis paraholos sp. nov., and the family Megalopigydae with the genus Norape sp. parasitized by T. guarusa sp. nov.
The new species Triraphis baios and T. sicbaios are gregarious parasitoids as the previously described Triraphis gregarius (Watanabe, 1970). However, the actual number of host records and biological information for the genus Triraphis, as Rogas sensu lato, is poor (Shaw 1996) and the present number of gregarious species is probably underestimated by the present lack of biological information.
Otherwise, the genus Triraphis in Costa Rica is using the lepidopteran families Riodinidae (2 genera), Lycaenidae (2 genera) and Limacodidae (4 genera) as host. Interestingly, some of the host caterpillars are using totally unrelated host plant families for feeding (i.e. Melanis sanguinea is feeding on the plant families Bromeliaceae, Fabaceae and Euphorbiaceae). In summary, the total known number of host plant genera used by the lepidopteran larvae as host by Triraphis in Costa Rica is 17, in 16 different families (see Table 1).
description: Published as part of Valerio, Alejandro A. & Shaw, Scott R., 2015, Thirteen new Costa Rican species belonging to the genus Triraphis Ruthe (Braconidae: Rogadinae) with their host records, pp. 501-540 in Zootaxa 3904 (4) on pages 534-539, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.3904.4.2, http://zenodo.org/record/234390