Revison of Metaplagia Coquillett (Diptera: Tachinidae) with description of five new species from Area de Conservación Guanacaste in northwestern Costa Rica

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

doi:10.3897/BDJ.9.e68598

Revison of Metaplagia Coquillett (Diptera: Tachinidae) with description of five new species from Area de Conservación Guanacaste in northwestern Costa Rica

Biodivers Data J. 2021 Jul 29:9:e68598. doi: 10.3897/BDJ.9.e68598. eCollection 2021.

Authors

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

Affiliations

¹ Agriculture Agri-Food Canada, Ottawa, Canada Agriculture Agri-Food Canada Ottawa Canada.
² University of Guelph, Guelph, Canada University of Guelph Guelph Canada.
³ Department of Biology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, United States of America Department of Biology, University of Pennsylvania Philadelphia United States of America.

Abstract

Background: We revise the genus Metaplagia Coquillett, 1895 and describe five new species from Area de Conservación Guanacaste (ACG) in northwestern Costa Rica. All new species were reared from an ongoing inventory of wild-caught caterpillars spanning a variety of species within the family Sphingidae (Lepidoptera: Sphingidae). Our study provides a concise description of each new species using morphology, life history, molecular data and photographic documentation. In addition to the new species, the authors provide a re-description of the genus and a revised key to the species of Metaplagia.

New information: The following five new species of Metaplagia are described: Metaplagia leahdennisae Fleming & Wood sp. n., Metaplagia lindarobinsonae Fleming & Wood sp. n., Metaplagia paulinesaribasae Fleming & Wood sp. n., Metaplagia robinsherwoodae Fleming & Wood sp. n. and Metaplagia svetlanakozikae Fleming & Wood sp. n.The following is proposed by Fleming & Wood as new combination of Plagiomima Brauer & Bergenstamm, 1891: Plagiomima latifrons (Reinhard, 1956) comb. n.

Keywords: Dexiinae; Voriini; ACG; caterpillars; cloud forest; host-specificity; parasitoid flies; tropical dry forest; tropical rain forest.

AJ Fleming, D. Monty Wood, M. Alex Smith, Winnie Hallwachs, Daniel Janzen.