Five new species of Dolichomitus Smith from the tropical Andes, with a key for the South American species (Hymenoptera, Ichneumonidae, Pimplinae)

Abstract

Dolichomitus Smith is a widely distributed pimpline genus with more than seventy known species. There are eight species previously reported from South America: D. annulicornis (Cameron), D. bivittatus Townes, D. hypermeces Townes, D. jatai Loffredo & Penteado-Dias, D. longicauda Smith, D. megalourus (Morley), D. moacyri Loffredo & Penteado-Dias and D. zonatus (Cresson). In this paper, we describe five new species: D. mariajosae Araujo & Pádua, sp. nov., D. menai Araujo & Pádua, sp. nov., D. orejuelai Araujo & Pádua, sp. nov., D. pimmi Araujo & Pádua, sp. nov., and D. rendoni Araujo & Pádua, sp. nov. All have been collected in cloud forests in the Colombian tropical Andes. An illustrated key to the South American species of the genus is also provided.

A striking new species of Dolichomitus Smith, 1877 (Hymenoptera: Ichneumonidae; Pimplinae) from South America

“…nov. also resembles the ovipositor tip of Umanella . Both genera are known to exist in Western Amazonian rainforests and tropical Andes ( Herrera-Florez and Molina 2018 , Araujo et al 2020 ).…”

“…Dolichomitus meii sp. nov. resembles D. orejuelai Araujo & Pádua, 2020 in colour pattern, with body partly dark and metasomal tergites I-V predominantly orange, but it differs from the latter in having mesosoma entirely black with blue reflections (mesosoma mostly reddish-black with red marks in D. orejuelai), metasomal tergite I and III-V entirely orange and metasomal tergite II orange with two small black spots on posterior margin just near hind corners (metasomal tergites yellowish-brown with posterior margins of tergites II-V reddish-black in D. orejuelai) and wings yellowishorange with distal darkened area (wings yellowish, but without distal darkened area in D. orejuelai). In case of the wing colouration, D. meii sp.…”

“… Step 6 of the key, provided by Araujo et al (2020) , should be modified as follows: …”

“… Dolichomitus Smith is a widespread genus of pimpline Darwin wasps, represented in the Neotropical Region by 20 described species ( Yu et al 2016 , Araujo et al 2020 ). The tropical species of the genus are moderately large (fore wing length from 5.0 to 22.0 mm), vividly coloured and possess long ovipositors ( Gauld 1991 , da Silva Loffredo and Penteado-Dias 2012 , Araujo et al 2020 ). These characteristics make them especially conspicuous amongst the tropical Darwin wasps.…”

“…The Central American species of Dolichomitus may be identified with the key provided by Gauld (1991) and Gauld et al (1998) . The South American species may be identified using the key provided by Araujo et al (2020) and the current article.…”