Perilampus ute Yoo & Darling 2024, sp. nov.
Creators: name: Yoo, Jeong Jae
name: Darling, D. Christopher
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2024
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Hymenoptera
Perilampidae
Perilampus
Perilampus ute

description: Perilampus ute Yoo & Darling sp. nov.
Figs 18, 19
Type locality.
USA, Colorado, Idledale.
Type material.
Holotype. “ USA, Colorado, Jefferson Co., Idledale, Sawmill Gulch, 1981 m, 39°40'N, 105°14'W, 20–27. viii. 2001, Malaise, Irwin, Lambkin, Metz & Hauser ”. The holotype is point-mounted (Female ROME 182768, TAMU). BOLD: AEE 9091 / ITS 2. ROM Online Collection.
Paratypes. USA: 3 females, 1 male. Arizona: 1 female. Cochise Co., Coronado National Forest, Huachuca Mts., Copper Canyon, 31°21'44"N, 110°18'02"W: (1 female: ROME 182763 - TAMU; BOLD: AEE 9091; ITS 2). California: 1 male. San Bernardino Co., Kellers Peak, 34°12'22"N, 117°02'36"W: (1 male: ROME 182781 - UCRC; BOLD: AEO 1509; ITS 2). Colorado: 1 female. Jefferson Co., Idledale, Sawmill Gulch, 39°40'N, 105°14'W: (1 female: ROME 182768 - TAMU; BOLD: AEE 9091; ITS 2). New Mexico: 1 female. Grant Co., 14 mi N Silver City, Cherry Creek Campground, 32°54.8'N, 108°13.6'W: (1 female: ROME 152676 - CNC; BOLD: AEE 9091; ITS 2).
Material examined.
USA: 9 females, 5 males. (Suppl. materials).
Additional material examined.
Mexico: 1 male. Jalisco: 1 male. (1 male: ROME 200745 - HNHM). USA: 1 male. California: 1 male. Mono Co., Golden Gate Mine, 4.6 mi NW Walker: (1 male: ROME 201998 - CAS).
Etymology.
The specific epithet is a noun in apposition — a reference to the Ute, indigenous people of the Great Basin regions of present-day Utah and Colorado where the holotype was collected.
Description.
Female (Fig. 18). Length: 3.0– 3.5 mm. Color: head iridescent greenish blue or violet; mesosoma and metasoma iridescent greenish blue or violet; clypeus ventral margin black (Fig. 18 I); antenna with scape and pedicel weakly iridescent greenish blue or violet, flagellum brown or black, lighter ventrad and distad.
Head (Fig. 18 G – J): in dorsal view transverse, width slightly greater than twice length, HW / HL 2.1–2.2. Frontal carina: in anterior view straight to weakly sinuate below midlevel of eye; in dorsal view gradually narrowed V shape around median ocellus, FC / MOD about 1.5; distance from lateral ocellus short, FCLO / LOD 0.5–0.6. Scrobal cavity (Fig. 18 H): in anterior view wide, SW / HW about 0.5. Ocelli (Fig. 18 G): a line between anterior margin of lateral ocelli reaching anterior margin of median ocellus. POL / OOL 1.7–1.9. Ocellar ratios LOD: POL: OOL: LOL 1, 2.7–3.1, 1.5–1.8, 1.1–1.2. Vertex: with strong to weak transverse striations, without large piliferous punctures. Parascrobal area: in lateral view gradually narrowed towards lower eye margin; width narrow, PSW / EL 0.2–0.3; sculpture strongly to weakly striate, without large piliferous punctures. Gena: mostly striate along outer eye margin with narrow and short smooth area, striate behind. Malar space: MSL / EH about 0.2. Lower face (Fig. 18 H, I): with setae sparse or dense and narrowly distributed laterad torulus, and sparse or dense below. Clypeus (Fig. 18 I): CW / CH about 1.4; ventral margin concave; setae evenly distributed, or with small bare area without setae medially.
Mesosoma (Fig. 18 B – F, K, L): Lateral panel of pronotum: about as wide or wider than prepectus, LPP / PPT 0.8–1.1; usually with large triangular flange below level of mesothoracic spiracle in posterior oblique view (Fig. 18 D, arrow). Mesofemoral depression: usually smooth, rarely weakly rugulose or weakly imbricate ventrad (Fig. 18 E). Mesoscutum: punctures angulate, with narrow and weakly coriarious interspaces (Fig. 18 B); lateral lobe smooth along notaulus (Fig. 18 C), rarely coriarious; parascutal carina broadly curved, acuminate. Mesoscutellum: apex with inner margins gradually diverging (Fig. 18 K); punctures angulate, with narrow and weakly coriarious interspaces. Axilla: in lateral view imbricate dorsad and carinate ventrad. Axillula: smooth dorsad. Fore wing: stigma small, 2.0–2.5 × as wide as postmarginal vein.
Male (Fig. 19). Length: usually smaller, 2.6–2.9 mm. As in female, except: Color: black coloration often present between frontal carina and lateral ocellus, and mesonotum almost entirely black with weak bluish iridescence mesad (Fig. 19 F) or rarely green with weak cupreous iridescence laterad. Frontal carina: distance from lateral ocellus shorter, FCLO / LOD 0.3–0.4. Scape (Fig. 19 H, I): pits dense, covering about 0.3–0.4 × scape length.
Diagnosis.
Perilampus ute can usually be distinguished by the lateral panel of pronotum with an expanded triangular flange in posterior oblique view (Figs 18 D, 19 B, C cf. Figs 16 D, 17 B) and densely pitted male scape (Fig. 19 H, I cf. Fig. 15 F, G). Females rarely have a small flange on a pronotum as in P. seneca (Fig. 18 E, arrow), but can be reliably differentiated from the latter by the lack of black coloration between the frontal carina and lateral ocellus (Fig. 18 G cf. Fig. 16 G, arrow). Males can be confused with P. seneca with an expanded triangular flange on the pronotum in posterior oblique view but can be distinguished by the lack of cupreous iridescence on the mesonotum (Fig. 19 F cf. Fig. 17 E). Perilampus ute is restricted to the southwestern and central USA and the range of P. seneca extends to southeastern Canada and eastern USA.
Distribution
(Fig. 25 F). Southwestern and southcentral USA, and possibly western Mexico: USA (Arizona, California, Colorado, New Mexico, Utah), Mexico (Jalisco).
Host association.
Perilampus ute is a hyperparasitoid, parasitizing dipteran parasitoids of Lepidoptera. Hosts: Tachinidae (Diptera), Lespesia aletiae (Riley) from Apatelodes pudefacta Dyar (Apatelodidae).
Variation.
An unsequenced male from California (ROME 201998) has a greenish iridescence along the midline of a mesonotum with a weak cupreous iridescence laterad.
Remarks.
Perilampus ute is recovered as monophyletic (Fig. 1), but the molecular species delimitation methods identify the specimen from California (ROME 182781) as a unique molecular taxonomic unit in COI while merging it with the eastern specimens in ITS 2 (Suppl. materials 2, 5). This is likely due to the relatively large genetic divergence in COI between ROME 182781 and the eastern specimens (1.7–2.0 %), possibly a result of reduced gene flow between disjoint coastal and eastern inland glacial refugia in California (Roberts and Hamann 2015) prior to range re-expansion of the parasitoid populations. There are currently two unique BINs on BOLD assigned for five specimens of this species: AEO 1509 for the specimen from California (ROME 182781) and AEE 9091 for the four specimens from the more eastern regions. The color of the mesonotum is used to differentiate the males of P. ute from those of P. seneca. However, more thorough genetic sampling is required because only a single male from California has been sequenced and there are no sequenced P. seneca specimens from the southwestern USA.
description: Published as part of Yoo, Jeong Jae & Darling, D. Christopher, 2024, Integrative taxonomic revision of the Nearctic Perilampus hyalinus species complex (Hymenoptera, Chalcidoidea, Perilampidae) resolves 100 years of confusion about the host associations of P. hyalinus Say, pp. 1301-1383 in Journal of Hymenoptera Research 97 on pages 1301-1383, DOI: 10.3897/jhr.97.133255