Paramomirax Whitfield & Fernandez-Triana 2025, gen. nov.
Creators: name: Whitfield, James B.
name: Fernandez-Triana, Jose L.
name: Boudreault, Caroline
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2025
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Hymenoptera
Braconidae
Paramomirax

description: Paramomirax Whitfield & Fernandez-Triana gen. nov.
Remarks.
As with the following new genus, Paramomirax shares with other Miracinae the antenna with flagellomeres fixed at 12, the proximal 1–3 of which have no placodes, the more distal ones possessing one rank of placodes, ancestral maxillary palpal segments 5 and 6 fused to reduce the number of segments to four, the characteristic reductions in wing venation (Figs 2 C, 3 E) and the medium-length ovipositor and sheaths and a sharp but evenly sclerotized hypopygium (Figs 2 A, 3 A, B), as well as the characteristics shared with other microgastroids (Mason 1981; Whitfield and Mason 1994) – the separation of the first metasomal spiracle in the lateral membrane or on a more or less well-defined laterotergite rather than laterally on the medial tergite. In Miracinae this membranous lateral area is usually at least partly strongly striate (Figs 1 A – C, 2 E, 3 H). The possession of bracoviruses, and some modifications of the ovarioles to accommodate them (Whitfield and Mason 1994), are presumably also shared but not usually observable in preserved specimens.
The form of the anterior metasomal segments (desclerotization patterns, Y-shaped skeleton of remaining sclerotized tergites (Fig. 1 A – C) typical for previously known Miracinae (as outlined by Mason (1981) and Whitfield and Mason (1994) and numerous descriptive papers by many authors) is profoundly different in Paramomirax, although in a different manner than in Fusimirax. In Paramomirax, tergites 2 and 3 are extensively although weakly sclerotized and externally smooth, with only the lateral portions of the first tergum strongly desclerotized, rather than mostly desclerotized (as in most Miracinae) with a transverse to broadly C-shaped narrow plate anterior to a desclerotized medial area covering (sometimes) the posterocentral area of T 2 and (almost always) the anterocentral portion of T 3 (Figs 2 A, D, 3 F, G). The outlines of the Y-shaped skeleton of tergites is vaguely suggested by darker areas in the cuticle, but these tergites are not clearly outlined (see Fig. 3 F). The propodeum has a percurrent longitudinal medial carina (i. e., extending posteriorly beyond the transverse carina, unlike at least most Centistidea) and an angular transverse carina just past its midlength, often with some rugosity as well, but not always in the same areas. The ovipositor and sheaths are relatively long, roughly the length of the hind tibiae (again, unusual for Miracinae). The notauli are weakly indicated at best, and only anteriorly (Figs 2 E, 3 H).
The genus name makes reference to the high altitude paramo habitat of the type species, Paramomirax peckorum sp. nov., described below.
description: Published as part of Whitfield, James B., Fernandez-Triana, Jose L. & Boudreault, Caroline, 2025, Two new Neotropical genera of Miracinae (Hymenoptera, Braconidae) with unusual metasomal morphology, pp. 509-524 in Journal of Hymenoptera Research 98 on pages 509-524, DOI: 10.3897/jhr.98.150254