A new species of Cordyligaster Macquart, reared from caterpillars in Area de Conservacion Guanacaste, northwestern Costa Rica

Aj Fleming; D Monty Wood; M Alex Smith; Daniel Janzen; Winnie Hallwachs

doi:10.3897/BDJ.2.e4174

A new species of Cordyligaster Macquart, reared from caterpillars in Area de Conservacion Guanacaste, northwestern Costa Rica

Biodivers Data J. 2014 Nov 24:(2):e4174. doi: 10.3897/BDJ.2.e4174. eCollection 2014.

Authors

Aj Fleming¹, D Monty Wood¹, M Alex Smith², Daniel Janzen³, Winnie Hallwachs³

Affiliations

¹ Canadian National Collection, Ottawa, Canada.
² Department of Integrative Biology, University of Guelph, Guelph, Canada.
³ Department of Biology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Philadelphia, United States of America.

Abstract

We describe a new species of Cordyligaster Macquart (Diptera: Tachinidae) from Area de Conservacion Guanacaste (ACG) in northwestern Costa Rica. Cordyligastercapellii sp. n., is described and photographed. All specimens of C.capellii were reared from Syngamiaflorella (Stoll, 1781) (Lepidoptera, Crambidae, Spilomelinae), a leaf-rolling caterpillar collected in ACG rain forest. By coupling morphology, photographic documentation, life history and molecular data, we provide a clear and concise description of this new species. In addition the authors provide new distribution and host records for C.fuscipennis (Macquart) reared in ACG.

Keywords: Cordyligaster; Crambidae; Diptera; Tachinidae; caterpillar inventory; host-specificity; parasitoid fly; tropical dry forest; tropical rain forest.