New records of Ticapimpla Gauld, 1991 (Hymenoptera: Ichneumonidae: Pimplinae) from Brazil and French Guiana, with taxonomic notes

Abstract Background We report the genus Ticapimpla Gauld, 1991 from French Guiana and the species Ticapimpla amazonica Palacio et al., T. carinata Palacio et al., T. matamatae Palacio et al. and T. soinii Palacio et al. from Brazilian Amazonia. The new discoveries suggest that the genus is widely distributed in Amazonian lowland rain forests. In addition, we diagnose and illustrate the males of T. carinata and T. matamatae for the first time. Short diagnoses and layer-photos for all the Amazonian species are provided. New information The genus Ticapimpla is reported for the first time from French Guiana and the species T. amazonica, T. carinata, T. matamatae and T. soinii from Brazilian Amazonia. In addition, the males of T. carinata and T. matamatae are diagnosed and illustrated for the first time.


Introduction
is a small Neotropical genus belonging to the Polysphincta group of genera. Ticapimpla species structurally resemble species of Acrotaphus Gravenhorst and Hymenoepimecis Viereck. These three genera share the following set of features: 1) occipital carina strongly raised and forming a flange-like protuberance (in most species), and 2) epomia absent (Gauld 1991, Gauld andDubois 2006). Ticapimpla is easy to distinguish from Acrotaphus and Hymenoepimecis by having densely hirsute mesoscutum and the complete submetapleural carina (Palacio et al. 2010). In addition, the species of Ticapimpla are usually smaller than the species of Acrotaphus and Hymenoepimecis.
Nothing is known about the biology of Ticapimpla but species of the Polysphincta group of genera are known to be koinobiont ectoparasitoids of active spiders (Gauld and Dubois 2006).
The aim of the paper is to report the genus for the first time from French Guiana and the species T. amazonica Palacio et al., 2010, T. carinata Palacio et al., 2010, T. matamatae Palacio et al., 2010and T. soinii Palacio et al., 2010 from Brazilian Amazonia. In addition, we diagnose and illustrate the males of T. carinata and T. matamatae for the first time and provide diagnoses and layer-photos for all the Amazonian species.

Materials and methods
The specimens examined in this paper are deposited in the following natural history collections: Invertebrate Collection of Instituto The distributional data of the species was obtained from the labels and Palacio et al. (2010). The new country records of the genus were marked with "**" and new species records with "*". The maps were made using SimpleMappr (https://www.simplemappr.net). In the distributional maps of Ticapimpla species, red circles indicate known records and yellow stars indicate new records. One symbol may represent many specimens.

Diagnosis
This species can be distinguished from all other species of Ticapimpla by the combination of the following characters: 1) tarsal claw without auxiliary tooth, with a quadrangular flattened lobe, lobe with inner margin slightly convex (tarsal claw simple, without auxiliary tooth or preapical lobe in male); 2) epicnemial carina short, present only ventrally; 3) fore wing infumate (or very faintly infumate) with a weakly yellowish band between junction of vein R1 up to pterostigma until middle of the vein M; 4) hind leg orange, with distal 0.6 of tibia and tarsus black; 5) metasoma orange with tergites VI+ black; 6) occipital carina not forming a strongly raised flange in the occiput (Fig. 1a, Fig. 2a, Fig. 3a, Fig. 4a).

Description
Male (Fig. 4b). Similar to female in structure and coloration, but body about 5.0-7.0 mm; tarsal claw simple, without auxiliary tooth or preapical lobe.

Diagnosis
This species can be distinguished from all other species of Ticapimpla by the combination of the following characters: 1) tarsal claw with auxiliary tooth and with inner margin strongly concave (tarsal claw simple, without auxiliary tooth or preapical lobe in male); 2) epicnemial carina short, present only ventrally; 3) fore wing infumate, with a weakly yellowish band between junction of vein R1 up to pterostigma until middle of the vein M or very faintly yellowish with apex and area adjacent to pterostigma of fore wing clearly infumate; 4) hind leg orange, with distal 0.6 of tibia and tarsus black; 5) metasoma orange with tergites VI+ black; 6) occipital carina forming a strongly raised flange in the occiput (Fig. 1b, Fig. 2b, Fig. 3b, Fig. 4b)

Description
Male (Fig. 4c). Similar to female in structure and coloration, but body about 7.0 mm; tarsal claw simple, without auxiliary tooth or preapical lobe.

Diagnosis
This species can be distinguished from all other species of Ticapimpla by the combination of the following characters: 1) tarsal claw with a preapical auxiliary tooth (tarsal claw simple, without auxiliary tooth or preapical lobe in male); 2) epicnemial carina entirely absent; 3) fore wing yellowish, with apex infumate and with an infumate median band extending backwards from anterior margin, just proximal to the pterostigma, right until the junction of the veins Rs&M with cu-a; 4) hind leg orange, with femur, tibia and tarsus black; 5) metasoma orange with tergites V+ or VI+ black; 6) occipital carina forming a strongly raised flange in the occiput (Fig. 1c, Fig. 2c, Fig. 3c,  Fig. 4c).

Diagnosis
This species can be distinguished from all other species of Ticapimpla by the combination of the following characters: 1) tarsal claw without auxiliary tooth, instead with a preapical, flattened lobe, lobe with inner margin concave (tarsal claw simple, without auxiliary tooth or preapical lobe in male); 2) epicnemial carina short, present only ventrally; 3) fore wing very faintly yellowish, the fore wing with apex and area adjacent to pterostigma infumate; 4) hind leg orange, with distal 0.6 of tibia and tarsus black; 5) metasoma orange with tergites VI+ black; 6) occipital carina forming a strongly raised flange in the occiput (Fig. 1d, Fig. 2d, Fig. 3d, Fig. 4d).

Distribution
Brazil*, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru (Fig. 5d). Palacio et al. (2010) proposed that Ticapimpla is a taxon of South American origin. Only one species, T. vilmae Gauld, 1991, is known from Central America. In South America, the genus is best represented in Amazonian lowland rain forests. Palacio et al. (2010) reported most of the specimens from Western Amazonia. The present study shows that the genus is widely distributed in Amazonia. Interestingly, despite of studying a vast number of new ichneumonid samples collected from Amazonia, we have not been able to discover new species of Ticapimpla. This indicates that this genus is among the best known Pimplinae genera in the Neotropical region.