A new synonym of the Neotropical parasitoid wasp genus Notiospathius (Braconidae, Doryctinae), with redescription of two species and description of five new species from Brazil

Abstract A junior synonym of the parasitoid wasp genus Notiospathius Matthews and Marsh, Hansonorum syn. n., with two new combinations, Notiospathius carolinae (Marsh) comb. n. and Notiospathius pauli (Marsh) comb. n., are proposed. Two species of Notiospathius from Brazil originally described in early twentieth century are redescribed, Notiospathius caudatus (Szépligeti) and Notiospathius diversus (Szépligeti). Five new species of Notiospathius from southern Brazil are also described: Notiospathius atra sp. n., Notiospathius johnlennoni sp. n., Notiospathius novateutoniae sp. n., Notiospathius sulcatus sp. n., and Notiospathius xanthofasciatus sp. n. Most of the type specimens of the above new species were collected in the mid twentieth century in the Nova Teutonia region, which is now part of the municipality of Seara in the state of Santa Catarina.

Keywords parasitoid wasps, Brazil, Notiospathius, Dorcytinae, Braconidae introduction The braconid subfamily Doryctinae represents one of the most speciose subfamilies of braconid parasitic wasps, with species distributed on all continents but being especially diverse in the tropics (Belokobylskij, 1992;Belokobylskij et al., 2004a,b;Marsh, 2002). In the Neotropical Region, Notiospathius Matthews and Marsh potentially represents the second most diverse doryctine genus, only after the cosmopolitan Heterospilus. Its extraordinary species richness, however, has largely been overlooked, with only 27 species described to date De Jesús-Bonilla, 2010, 2011). Notiospathius was erected by Matthews and Marsh (1973) to contain 14 species from Central and South America that were originally placed in the mainly Holarctic and Oriental Spathius. Since then, only 15 additional species of Notiospathius have been described, all of them from Costa Rica (Marsh, 2002), whereas two of the species that were transferred in the description of the genus, N. meliorator (Fabricius) and N. necator (Fabricius), were found to belong to an undescribed doryctine genus that is similar to Ptesimogaster (Zaldívar-Riverón and De Jesús-Bonilla, 2010).
Recent molecular phylogenetic (Zaldívar-Riverón et al., 2007, 2008) studies suggested the paraphyletic nature of Notiospathius with respect to three small Neotropical doryctine genera: Hansonorum Marsh, Masonius Marsh, and Tarasco Marsh. Species of the above four genera are morphologically similar, all having different degrees of enlargement of the basal sternal plate of the first metasomal tergum (acrosternite sensu Belokobylskij, 1992). Species of Masonius and Tarasco can be mainly distinguished from those of Notiospathius and Hansonorum by absence of the fore wing vein r-m, lack of hind wing vein cu-a (only Masonius), and a face swollen between antennae and clypeus (only Tarasco) (Marsh, 1993). In contrast, species of Hansonorum, are only distinguished from those of Notiospathius by the presence of a basal tubercle on the hind coxa (Marsh, 2002), this being one of the features traditionally employed to separate supraspecific taxa in Doryctinae. The relationships recovered by the aforementioned molecular phylogenetic studies revealed that this tubercle was gained and lost on several occasions within the subfamily. Moreover, as confirmed in other doryctine genera (e.g. Ptesimogaster Marsh;, recent molecular work has revealed that this morphological feature varies among closely related species or even intraspecifically in Notiospathius/Hansonorum (Ceccarelli et al., submitted).
Currently, only three described species assigned to Notiospathius have been recorded for Brazil despite the actual enormous richness of the genus in this country (Nunes, unpubl.): N. caudatus (Szépligeti), N. diversus (Szépligeti), and N. leucacrocera (Enderlein). In this work we describe five new species of Notiospathius from southern Brazil, considering Hansonorum to be a junior synonym of Notiospathius syn. n. [N. carolinae (Marsh) comb. n., N. pauli (Marsh) comb. n.] based on the above molecular phylogenetic evidence. We also redescribe N. caudatus (Szépligeti) and N. diversus based on their holotypes, which were originally described more than a century ago (Szépligeti, 1902). We decided to maintain the generic status of Masonius and Tarasco until additional molecular and morphological information help us to confirm whether they should be synonymised with Notiospathius. Most of the type specimens belonging to the new species of Notiospathius described in this work were collected during the mid twentieth century in the municipality of Seara, formerly known as Nova Teutonia, in the state of Santa Catarina, by the German entomologist Fritz Plaumann. This region, which was originally composed of mainly Atlantic forest (Mata Atlântica), has been subject to intense deforestation over the last two decades (Baptista, 2008), illustrating the urgency for describing its highly overlooked biodiversity.

Methods
This study was based on material deposited in the following collections: The Natural History Museum, London, UK (NHML), Departamento de Ecologia e Biologia Evolutiva, Universidade Federal de São Carlos, São Carlos, SP, Brazil (DCBU), Colección Nacional de Insectos, Instituto de Biología, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (CNIN-UNAM), Hungarian Natural History Museum (HNHM) and Canadian National Collection of Insects, Ottawa, Canada (CNCI). The surface sculpture and wing venation terminologies employed follow Marsh (2002). Colour digital photographs were taken and edited with a Leica ® Z16 APO-A stereoscopic microscope, a Leica ® DFC295/ DFC290 HD camera, and the Leica Application Suite ® program. Digital SEM photographs were taken with a FEI Quanta TM 250 SEM in low vacuum mode. Specimens assigned to the five new species described below were compared with type specimens belonging to most of the described species of Notiospathius (= Hansonorum syn. n.).
Paratypes. Four females (NHML, CNIN-UNAM). Same data as holotype. Biology. Unknown. Etymology. From the Latin atra, meaning dark or black, due to the dark body colour of the species.
Holotype (1) suture between second and third median tergites strongly sinuate, with two lateral, subparallel depressions (Fig. 4E) (not sinuate and without subparallel depressions in the remaining species), (2) fourth median tergite costate on basal half, smooth on apical half (see N. atra diagnosis for character states of remaining species), and (3) hind coxa with a distinct tubercle at base (Fig. 4F) (see N. atra diagnosis for character states of remaining species).

Biology. Unknown.
Etymology. The name novateutoniae refers the previous name of the type locality of this and all species described in this study, Nova Teutonia. This municipality is currently named as Seara and is located in the state of Santa Catarina, in the south of Brazil.  (coriaceous in N. atra and N. novateutoniae, rugose-coriaceous in N. xanthofasciatus sp. n., coriaceous-rugose in N. caudatus, coriaceous-rugose in N. diversus, smooth-rugose in N. johnlennoni and N. leucacrocera Description. Female. Colour: Head brown, orbit surrounding eyes light brown; scape light brown, with a longitudinal brown stripe laterally, pedicel brown; first flagellomere brown, following flagellomeres light brown, turning brown at apex, seven apical flagellomeres yellow; palpi white to pale yellow. Mesosoma light brown; propleuron and pronotal groove region brown to dark brown; lateral mesoscutal lobes brown medially; venter of mesopleuron and venter of propodeum dark brown to black. First metasomal tergum light brown to brown, remaining terga light brown to pale yellow, with sutures between median tergites brown. Ovipositor and sheaths honey yellow to light brown, dark brown to black at apex. Legs honey yellow to brown, usually with fore and middle coxae, trochanter and trochantellus lighter. Wings slightly dusky, stigma,veins and tegula light brown to honey yellow. Body length: 6.5 mm (lateral view), ovipositor 7.2 mm. Head: Clypeus granulaterugose, face striate-rugose, frons and vertex rugose to striate-rugose, temple striate, gena smooth (Fig. 5A); eye 1.4 times higher than wide (lateral view); malar space 0.5 times eye height (lateral view); temple 0.5 times eye width (dorsal view); hypoclypeal depression elliptic; ocular-ocellar distance 3.2 times diameter of lateral ocellus; length of scape 1.7 times its width (frontal view); antenna with 34 flagellomeres. Mesosoma: Length of mesosoma twice its maximum height; pronotum laterally costate to costate-rugose, pronotal groove smooth to weakly scrobiculate, propleuron costate anteriorly, smooth posteriorly; mesoscutal lobes transversally costate to costate-rugose, median mesoscutal lobe costatecoriaceous medially, with a deep longitudinal groove running medially; notauli deep and scrobiculate, meeting before scutellum at middle of mesoscutum in a large costate-rugose area (Fig. 5C); scutellar disc smooth; mesopleuron porcate dorsally, smooth medially and ventrally, slightly costate-rugose antero-ventrally (Fig. 5B); precoxal sulcus wide, scrobiculate, as long as mesopleuron; venter of mesosoma smooth; propodeum and metapleuron entirely rugose, without visible median carina or areola; apical lateral corners without distinguishable tubercles, spines over hind coxae short and slightly pointed. Wings: Fore wing length 3.5 times its maximum width, length of pterostigma 4.7 times its maximum width, vein r about 0.2 length of vein 3RSa, vein m-cu interstitial with vein 2RS, vein 1cu-a slightly to distinctly postfurcal to vein 1M; hind wing vein M+CU 0.5 length of vein 1M. Legs: Hind coxa rugose ventrally, costate dorsally without tooth or tubercle at base; middle tibia with a row of at least seven spines. Metasoma: First metasomal median tergite rugose basally, turning costate-rugose apically, length around 3.2 times its apical width (lateral view) (Fig. 5D); basal sternal plate (acrosternite) about 0.6 times length of tergum; second median tergite costate with rugose microsculpture (Fig. 5D); third median tergite finelly costate; suture between second and third median tergites weakly sinuate; suture between third and fourth median tergites almost indistinct; remaining median tergites smooth and polished; ovipositor 2.5 times length of metasoma.

Notiospathius sulcatus
Male. Smaller than female. Fourth metasomal median tergite rugose basally, mesosoma of some specimens slightly darker than females; suture between third and fourth median tergites considerably curved to base. yellow transverse stripe in the middle (Fig. 6C) (hind femur without yellow transverse stripe in the remaining species), (2) fourth metasomal median tergite sculptured on basal half (Fig. 6D) (see N. atra diagnosis for character states of remaining species), (3) mesopleuron rugose dorsally (Fig. 6A) (at least partially porcate or coriaceous dorsally in the remaining species), and (4) hind coxa with a distinct tubercle at base (see N. atra diagnosis for character states of remaining species).
Description. Female. Colour: Head brown to light brown, eye orbits yellow; scape and pedicel honey yellow; flagellomeres honey yellow, turning brown at apex; palpi yellow to white. Mesosoma and first metasomal tergum brown to dark brown, remaining terga brown except the last one, which is light brown. Ovipositor and sheaths light brown, dark brown to black at apex. Fore and middle coxae, trochanter and trochantellus yellow, fore femur yellow, turning brown dorsally, middle femur brown with a lighter transversal stripe medially, fore and middle tibiae light brown; hind coxa dark brown to black, trochanter and trochantellus yellow, femur brown with yellow transverse stripe medially, tibia light brown, turning yellow to white apically; tarsi light brown to honey yellow. Wings dusky, veins brown, stigma brown with yellow at extreme base, tegula honey yellow to ligth brown. Body length: 5.0 mm, ovipositor 6.0 mm. Head: Clypeus granulate, face striate-rugose, frons striate-rugose to rugose, vertex strongly rugose anteriorly, striate-rugose posteriorly, temple striate, gena smooth; eye 1.2 times higher than between ocelli evidently longer. We also found considerable variation in some diagnostic features in the above specimens, suggesting there is more than one undescribed species involved, though we need to confirm their boundaries before describing any of them.