Corresponding author: AJ Fleming (
Academic editor: Daniel Whitmore
We describe a new species of
The genus
The present study is part of a larger group of studies documenting the tachinid species living within the 120,000 km2 terrestrial part of Area de Conservación Guanacaste (
All flies and rearing information described here were collected within the 35+ year–old ongoing inventory of the caterpillars, their food plants, and their parasitoids, across the three major ecosystems of the terrestrial portion of Area de Conservación Guanacaste (ACG) in northwestern Costa Rica (
This inventory has reared more than 600,000 wild-caught caterpillars since (1978). All frequencies of parasitization reported here need to be considered against this background inventory (
The individual and comparative details of the parasitization ecology of these flies will be treated in later papers, once the overall knowledge of the caterpillar-attacking tachinids found in ACG is more complete (
Habitus and terminalia photographs were taken using the methods outlined in
Adult flies were dissected following standard practice (
CNC - Canadian National Collection of Insects, Arachnids and Nematodes, Ottawa, Canada
MNCR - Museo Nacional de Costa Rica (formerly Instituto Naciónal de Biodiversidad), San José, Costa Rica
USNM - National Museum of Natural History (formerly United States National Museum), Washington, D.C., U.S.A
The management of voucher specimens has been detailed in previous papers in this series (
All DHJPARxxxxxxx-coded tachinids had one leg removed for DNA barcoding and couriered to the Biodiversity Institute of Ontario (BIO) in Guelph. All associated data and successful barcodes are permanently and publicly deposited in the
All inventoried specimens discussed herein were collected under Costa Rican government research permits issued to DHJ, and the
The dates of capture cited for each fly are the dates of eclosion of the fly, and not the date of capture of the caterpillar. The fly eclosion date is much more representative of the time when that species is on the wing than is the time of capture of the parasitized caterpillar. The “collector” is the parataxonomist who found the caterpillar, rather than the person who later retrieved the newly eclosed fly and processed it by freezing, pinning, labeling and oven–drying. The biology and parasitization rates of individual tachinid speciesecies will be the subject of later papers. The holotype of the new species is deposited in the
Names of undescribed host species follow a standardized, interim naming system used for taxonomic units considered as distinct species and identified by DNA barcodes. The interim names are given in the format "
The standard DNA barcode region from the 5’ end of the mitochondrial cytochrome
The following redescription applies to both males and females, which differ only very slightly; any differences between the sexes are noted.
Described from 1 male and 1 female. Length: 6mm.
The new species differs from
Costa Rica, ACG, Guanacaste, Estacion Pitilla, rain forest, 675m.
Reared twice from larvae of
Described from 2 males and 2 females. Length: 8–9mm.
Holotype: Costa Rica, Tucurrique (USNM). Other material: Costa Rica, ACG, Guanacaste, Quebrada Trigal, rain forest, 290m (CNC).
This species was reared from three out of a total of 88 caterpillars of
The DNA barcode sequences recovered from the two species of ACG
We gratefully acknowledge the unflagging support of the team of ACG parataxonomists (Janzen et al. 2009, Janzen & Hallwachs 2011) who collected and reared the specimens used in this study, and the team of biodiversity managers who protect and manage the ACG forests that host these tachinids and their caterpillar hosts. The study has been supported by U.S. National Science Foundation grants BSR 9024770 and DEB 9306296, 9400829, 9705072, 0072730, 0515699, and grants from the Wege Foundation, International Conservation Fund of Canada, Jessie B. Cox Charitable Trust, Blue Moon Fund, Guanacaste Dry Forest Conservation Fund, Area de Conservación Guanacaste, Permian Global, and University of Pennsylvania (DHJ&WH). This study has been supported by the Government of Canada through its ongoing support of the Canadian National Collection, Genome Canada, the Biodiversity Institute of Ontario, and the Ontario Genomics Institute (2008–0GI–ICI–03) (MAS), and by a Discovery Grant from Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (MAS).
General morphology of
habitus in dorsal view
head in frontal view
habitus in lateral view
habitus in dorsal view
head in frontal view
habitus in lateral view
General morphology of
habitus in dorsal view
head in frontal view
habitus in lateral view
habitus in dorsal view
head in frontal view
habitus in lateral view
General morphology of the male terminalia of
terminalia in lateral view
terminalia in oblique fronto-lateral view,showing orientation of surstylus relative to cercus
phallus in lateral view
terminalia in posterior view
sternite 5 in ventral view
ACG
Neighbor-joining tree
File: oo_73368.pdf