Seven new species of Spathidexia Townsend (Diptera: Tachinidae) reared from caterpillars in Area de Conservación Guanacaste, Costa Rica

Abstract

We describe seven new species of Spathidexia (Diptera: Tachinidae) reared from Area de Conservación Guanacaste (ACG), northwestern Costa Rica. All were reared from ­various species of ACG caterpillars during an ongoing inventory of caterpillars, their food plants and their parasitoids. By coupling morphology, photographic documentation, life history and molecular data, we provide a clear and concise description of each species. All are known to be previously undescribed as a result of a comprehensive study of the genus by DMW. Spathidexia atripalpus sp. n., Spathidexia juanvialesi sp. n., Spathidexia marioburgosi sp. n., Spathidexia luisrobertogallegosi sp. n., Spathidexia luteola sp. n., Spathidexia hernanrodriguezi sp. n. and Spathidexia aurantiaca sp. n. are all authored and described by Fleming and Wood. Minthodexiopsis Townsend is proposed by Wood as a new synonym of Spathidexia. A new combination proposed by Wood as a result of the new synonymy is S. flavicornis (Brauer & Bergenstamm) comb. n.

DNA barcoding the Lepidoptera inventory of a large complex tropical conserved wildland, Area de Conservacion Guanacaste, northwestern Costa Rica

“…The feedback to the taxasphere is "oops, which, if any, of our five matches the holotype of S. leucophleps; and please be aware that your drawer of S. leucophleps is a complex that may be resolved only by barcoding or dissection or via some other biological clue". When this is resolved, one of the five species, perhaps, can continue to march forward as S. leucophleps and the other four have to get new names, a process that can take many years and much energy by the taxasphere (e.g., Burns et al 2010;Chacon et al 2012Chacon et al , 2013Grishin et al 2013aGrishin et al , 2013bPhillips-Rodriguez et al 2014;Fleming et al 2014aFleming et al , 2014bFleming et al , 2015aFleming et al , 2015bFernandez-Triana et al 2014a Brown et al 2014;Hansson et al 2015, etc.). To reinforce this problem, Fig.…”

Five new species of Vibrissina Rondani (Diptera: Tachinidae) from Area de Conservación Guanacaste in Northwestern Costa Rica

“…The procedures surrounding the management of voucher specimens has been detailed in previous papers in this series (Fleming et al 2014a, Fleming et al 2014b, Fleming et al 2015a, Fleming et al 2015b, Fleming et al 2015c). In brief, caterpillars reared from the ACG efforts receive a unique voucher code in the format yy–SRNP–xxxxx; any parasitoid emerging from a caterpillar receives the same voucher code, and if/when later dealt with as an individual, receives a second unique voucher code in the format DHJPARxxxxxxx.…”

“…The last major work on Neotropical Tachinidae, conducted by Guimaraes (1971), catalogued some 2,864 species, a number much larger than that of any other faunal region. Based on what has recently been discovered in Costa Rica (Smith et al 2007, Fleming et al 2014a, Fleming et al 2014b, Fleming et al 2015c, Fleming et al 2015a, Fleming et al 2015b) and what is already present in museum collections, this number is undoubtedly just a small fraction of what actually exists in nature.…”

A new species of Voria Robineau-Desvoidy (Diptera: Tachinidae) from Area de Conservación Guanacaste in northwestern Costa Rica

“…This paper is part of a larger effort to describe new species reared during the ACG inventory (Fleming et al 2014a, Fleming et al 2014b, Fleming et al 2015a, Fleming et al 2015c, Fleming et al 2015b, Fleming et al 2015d, Fleming et al 2016a, Fleming et al 2016b, Fleming et al 2017). This series of taxonomic papers will represent the foundation for subsequent, detailed ecological and behavioral studies extending across ACG ecological groups, whole ecosystems, and taxonomic assemblages much larger than that represented by a genus.…”