Perilampus sonora 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 sonora

description: Perilampus sonora Yoo & Darling sp. nov.
Figs 22, 23
Type locality.
USA, Arizona, Santa Cruz County, Sonoita.
Type material.
Holotype. “ ARIZONA: Santa Cruz Co. Sonoita, 2 mi S of town center 31°38'N, 110°39'W, 16–22. VI. 2008 Malaise trap in juniper / oak grasslands, EE Grissell ”. The holotype is point-mounted (Female ROME 152670, USNM). BOLD: AEO 0861 / ITS 2. ROM Online Collection.
Paratypes. Mexico: 1 male. Oaxaca: 1 male. 19 mi S San Miguel Suchixtepec at Puente Jalatengo: (1 male: ROME 182754 - TAMU; BOLD: AEO 0861; ITS 2). USA: 1 female, 1 male. Arizona: 1 female, 1 male. Cochise Co., Coronado National Forest, Chiricahua Mts., 1 mi N Rustler Park, 31°54'53"N, 109°16'07"W: (1 female: ROME 186060 - TAMU; BOLD: AEO 0861; ITS 2). Santa Cruz Co., (1 male: ROME 198215 - USNM; ITS 2).
Material examined.
Mexico: 15 females, 3 males. USA: 3 females. (Suppl. materials).
Additional material examined.
USA: 1 female. Arizona: 1 female. Cochise Co., Bisbee, 1429 Franklin St., 31°24'23.8"N, 109°55'57.6"W: (1 female: ROME 152671 - USNM; BOLD: AEO 0861; ITS 2).
Etymology.
The specific epithet is a noun in apposition — a reference to both the Sonoran Desert and to the state of Mexico where most of the specimens were collected.
Description.
Female (Fig. 22). Length: 2.1–3.2 mm. Color: head iridescent olive with cupreous tinge, with or without black coloration between lateral ocellus and frontal carina; pronotum and mesonotum cupreous, prepectus, meso- and metapleuron, and metasoma iridescent bluish violet; clypeus ventral margin black (Fig. 22 I); antenna with scape and pedicel weakly iridescent greenish blue or violet, flagellum brown or black, lighter ventrad and distad.
Head (Fig. 22 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 1.5–1.7; distance from lateral ocellus short to long FCLO / LOD 0.6–1.0. Scrobal cavity (Fig. 22 H): in anterior view wide, SW / HW about 0.5. Ocelli (Fig. 22 G): a line between anterior margin of lateral ocelli reaching anterior margin of median ocellus or nearly bisecting median ocellus. POL / OOL 1.8–2.1. Ocellar ratios LOD: POL: OOL: LOL 1, 2.9–3.3, 1.5–1.8, 1.1–1.3. 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: entirely striate along outer eye margin, striate posterad. Malar space: MSL / EH about 0.2. Lower face (Fig. 22 H, I): with setae sparse or dense and narrowly distributed laterad torulus, and sparse or dense below. Clypeus (Fig. 22 I): CW / CH 1.4–1.5; ventral margin concave; setae evenly distributed, or with small bare area without setae medially.
Mesosoma (Fig. 22 B – F): Lateral panel of pronotum: about as wide as prepectus, LPP / PPT about 0.9; without flange (Fig. 20 D) or with small rounded flange below level of mesothoracic spiracle in posterior oblique view. Mesofemoral depression: usually smooth (Fig. 22 L), rarely weakly rugulose or weakly imbricate ventrad. Mesoscutum: punctures angulate, with narrow and weakly coriarious interspaces (Fig. 22 B); lateral lobe smooth or weakly coriarious along notaulus (Fig. 22 C); parascutal carina broadly curved, acuminate. Mesoscutellum: apex with inner margins gradually diverging; Axilla: in lateral view imbricate dorsad and usually carinate (Fig. 22 F), rarely rugose-areolate ventrad. Axillula: smooth dorsad. Fore wing: stigma small, 2.0–2.5 × as wide as postmarginal vein.
Male (Fig. 23). Length: usually smaller, 2.5–2.8 mm. As in female, except: Frontal carina: distance from lateral ocellus as wide or shorter, FCLO / LOD 0.5–0.6. Scape (Fig. 23 G, H): pits sparse, covering about 0.3 × scape length.
Diagnosis.
This species is distinguished by the strong cupreous iridescence on the mesonotum of both females and males (Figs 22 B, 23 A cf. Figs 4 B, 5 A), in combination with the lateral panel of pronotum without a flange or with a small and rounded flange below the level of mesothoracic spiracle (Figs 22 D, 23 B cf. Figs 16 D, 17 B). Perilampus pilosus can also have a strong cupreous iridescence on the mesonotum (Fig. 15 A), but P. sonora has sparser setae laterad of the torulus (Figs 22 I, 23 E cf. Figs 14 I, 15 E). Also, the female metasoma of P. sonora is always violaceous but usually mostly greenish in the strongly cupreous P. pilosus specimens (Fig. 22 A cf. Fig. 15 B). Perilampus seneca males also often have a strongly iridescent mesonotum (Fig. 17 E), but P. sonora males differ in having sparser pits on scapes (Fig. 23 G, H cf. Fig. 17 G, H). And the Nearctic distribution of P. sonora is limited to southwestern USA and western Mexico, and the range of P. seneca extends to southeastern Canada and eastern USA,
Distribution
(Fig. 25). Southwestern USA, and western and southern Mexico: USA (Arizona), Mexico (Chiapas, Guerrero, Morelos, Oaxaca, Sonora).
Host association.
Perilampus sonora is a hyperparasitoid, parasitizing dipteran and hymenopteran parasitoids of Lepidoptera. Hosts: Probably Tachinidae (Diptera) and / or Ichneumonoidea (Hymenoptera) from Utetheisa ornatrix (Linnaeus) (Erebidae). The potential hosts are: Gymnosoma sp. (Tachinidae), Lespesia sp. (Tachinidae), and Cotesia sp. (Braconidae) (G. R. Buckingham, personal communication).
Variation.
A female from Arizona (ROME 152671) has an iridescent green head and weakly iridescent green midlobe of mesoscutum and scutellum. COI and ITS 2 suggest that this specimen is a morphological variant of P. sonora. A female from Sonora, Mexico (ROME 189103), has a strongly transverse clypeus with CW / CH about 1.7.
Remarks.
The distribution ranges of P. sonora and its undescribed Neotropical sister species, P. hyalinus 17 (Fig. 1), appear to be divided by the Central Mexican Plateau. Perilampus sonora occurs along the western side of the plateau from Chiapas to Arizona (Fig. 25) and the Central American population of P. hyalinus 17 is distributed along the eastern side of the plateau from Panama to Tamaulipas, which may indicate allopatric or parapatric speciation. Perilampus sonora is supported by both genes (Fig. 1, Suppl. material 5), and there are four BINed specimens on BOLD (AEO 0861) from Arizona and Oaxaca, Mexico.
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