Meteorus imaginatus Jones, new species
Creators: name: Jones, Guinevere Z.
name: Shaw, Scott R.
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2012
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Hymenoptera
Braconidae
Meteorus
Meteorus imaginatus

description: Meteorus imaginatus Jones, new species
(Figs 18–22)
Holotype Female. Body length 4.5 mm; fore wing length 5.0 mm.
Body color: Cream face; ocellar patch dark brown; mandibles cream with brown teeth; palpi cream; fore- and mid-coxae cream, all tibia light brown, hind coxae brown except for cream lateral anterior patch; wings transparent light brown with brown venation; mesonotal lobes defined through coloration, medial lobe is brownish-orange, lateral lobes are dark brown; metasoma medially gold, laterally dark brown; propodeum dark brown; first tergite anteriorly cream and posteriorly dark brown (Fig. 20); tergum two medially cream, laterally dark brown; posterior tergites cream; ovipositor and sheath light brown.
Head: Antenna with 29 flagellomeres; flagellar length/width ratios as follows: F1 = 4.0, F2 = 2.0, F3 = 3.7, F27 = 2.3, F28 = 2.0, F29 = 3.5; OCOD /OCD ratio 0.8, ocelli large; eyes nearly parallel and large, face maximum to minimum width ratio 1.3, head height 1.2 X eye height; minimum face width same as clypeus width; mandibles strongly twisted; clypeus transversely ridged; face and frons smooth; occipital carina complete.
Mesosoma: Mesonotal lobes slightly defined by foveolate notauli; pronotum, mesopleuron lightly rugose with slightly foveate sternaulus; metapleuron lightly rugose; propodeum areolate-rugose.
Legs: Rugose hind coxae; tarsal claws simple.
Wings: 3 RSa vein twice as long as r vein; lacking (RS + M)b vein at 2RS insertion point.
Metasoma: Ovipositor long, 2 times longer than tergite one; tergite one longitudinally costate.
Cocoon (Fig. 21). Dark brown; ovoid; missing cap that was evenly chewed away; corpus 6.0 mm long; moderately baled in silk, with apical end of corpus much smoother and middle to posterior portion more densely baled; short suspension thread attached.
Material examined.
Holotype female: Ecuador: Napo Province, reared at Yanayacu Biological Station with database number YY #15210, S 00°35.9’ W 77°53.4’, 2163 m, collected 2 June 2006, Yanayacu Road, parasitoid pupated 10 July 2006, adult wasp emerged 21 July 2006, host caterpillar Hypena valkeralis (Noctuidae), associated plant Boehmeria bullata (Urticaceae). Deposited in UWIM.
Distribution. Known only from the holotype locality in Napo Province, Ecuador.
Biology. Meteorus imaginatus is a solitary species, reared from Hypena valkeralis Schaus Miller (Noctuidae) larvae (Fig. 22). The host caterpillar was found feeding on Boehmeria bullata (Urticaceae).
Etymology. The name is derived from Latin for an image or something imaginary; chosen due to the obscure image formed dorsally on the metasoma.
Comments. This particular group of host caterpillars, Hypena spp., has also been recorded as a host for another parasitoid wasp: Aleiodes atripileatus Townsend (2009). The rearing record also indicates that the aforementioned Hypena spp. were found feeding on Boehmeria caudata. Morphologically, there are a few Meteorus species with distinct patterns on tergite 2: M. oviedoi, M. rugonasus and M. horologium. These three had a variable “hourglassesque” color variation, but M. imaginatus has a unique shape shown in Fig. 20.
description: Published as part of Jones, Guinevere Z. & Shaw, Scott R., 2012, Ten new species of Meteorus (Hymenoptera: Braconidae) from Ecuador reared at the Yanayacu Biological Center for Creative Studies, pp. 1-23 in Zootaxa 3547 on pages 9-11, DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.210884