A new species of Labania Hedqvist ( Braconidae , Doryctinae ) from Costa Rica , reared from aerial root galls of Ficus obtusifolia Kunth

A new species of the Doryctinae genus Labania Hedqvist, L. ficophaga sp. n. from Costa Rica is described. This new species was reared from aerial root galls of Ficus obtusifolia Kunth. An updated key to the five described species of Labania and digital pictures of L. ficophaga sp. n. and L. minuta Marsh are provided.

A new species of Labania Hedqvist (Braconidae, Doryctinae) from Costa Rica, reared from aerial root galls of Ficus obtusifolia Kunth

Introduction
The genus Labania Hedqvist is a small doryctine group restricted to the Neotropical region and is currently composed of four species.This genus was erected by Hedqvist (1963) based on a single species from Honduras, L. straminea Hedqvist.In the description, Labania was placed within the morphologically heterogeneous subfamily Hormiinae, but it was subsequently transferred to the Doryctinae in a tribal reclassi-fication of this subfamily (Belokobylskij 1992).To date, only three additional species of Labania have been described from Costa Rica (Marsh 2002), L. hansoni Marsh, L. minuta Marsh and L. prolata Marsh, with the first two being reared from aerial root galls on Ficus citrifolia Mill.and leaf galls on F. colubrinae Strandl., respectively.
In his tribal reclassification of the Doryctinae, Belokobylskij (1992) placed Labania as the single member of the tribe Labaniini based on several putative apomorphic features.More recently, however, three molecular phylogenetic studies consistently recovered a clade exclusively composed of genera whose species are associated with galls from different plant families, including Labania (Zaldivar-Riveron et al. 2007, 2008, 2014).In the most recent of these studies (Zaldívar-Riverón et al. 2014), the authors described three new gall-associated doryctine genera whose species with rearing records were all associated with Ficus species.One of them, Ficobolus Belokobylskij & Zaldívar-Riverón, was recovered as sister to Labania; the latter genus was represented in that study by an undescribed species from Costa Rica.
In this work, this new species of Labania, which was reared from aerial roots on F. obtusifolia Kunth is described, and observations that suggest that this new species is phytophagous are provided.An updated key (adapted from Marsh 2002) to the five described species of Labania is given.

Material and methods
All specimens of the new species of Labania described here were reared from a single tree of F. obtusifolia (see details below).Specimens belonging to two of the remaining species of the genus were also examined, as well as digital photographs of the holotype of L. straminea, deposited at National Museum of Natural History (Washington, D.C., USA).The type material of the new species is deposited in the following collections: Colección Nacional de Insectos, Instituto de Biología, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (CNIN IB-UNAM); Museo de Zoología, University of Costa Rica, San José, Costa Rica (MZCR); Zoological Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, St. Petersburg, Russia (ZISP); and National Museum of Natural History, Washington, DC (NMNH).
The terminology employed in this work for the morphological features and measurements follows Belokobylskij and Maetô (2009).The wing venation nomenclature follows Belokobylskij and Maetô (2009) and Sharkey and Wharton (1997) in parentheses.Photographs were taken with a Leica IC 3D digital camera mounted on a Leica® MZ16 microscope and using the Leica Application Suite® imaging system.
Mesosoma: length 1.6-1.7 times its height.Median lobe of mesoscutum distinctly and highly convex (lateral view), slightly protruding forward and rounded anteriorly (dorsal view).Oblique submedian furrow on side of pronotum narrow and densely crenulated.Notauli complete, deep, narrow and densely crenulated, joining at the end of mesoscutum in a longitudinally striate-rugose area.Prescutellar depression long, deep, with several more or less high carinae, densely and distinctly reticulate-striate between carinae, 0.25-0.35times as long as scutellum.Scutellum 1.2 times longer than maximum anterior width.Scuto-scuttelar suture absent.Precoxal sulcus almost absent or very weak, short.Metanotal tooth low (lateral view).Metapleural flange quite short and wide, almost indistinct.Propodeal lateral tubercles large and wide.
Legs: hind coxa without basoventral corner and tubercle, 1.4-1.5 times longer than maximum width, about 0.8 times as long as propodeum.Hind femur 2.8-3.1 times longer than width.Hind tarsus 0.8-0.9times as long as hind tibia.Basitarsus of hind tarsus 0.55-0.60 times as long as second to fifth segments combined.Second segment of hind tarsus 0.5 times as long as basitarsus, 0.9 times as long as fifth segment (without pretarsus).Claws large.
Metasoma: 1.0-1.1 times longer than head and mesosoma combined.First tergite distinctly and almost linearly widened from base to apex, with slightly impressed spiracular tubercles in basal third, with distinct, almost complete and slightly convergent posterior dorsal carinae.Maximum width of first tergite about 2.0 times its minimum width; length 0.9-1.0 times its apical width, 1.4-1.5 times length of propodeum.Suture between second and third tergites quite shallow and almost complete.Median length of second and third tergites 1.1-1.2times basal width of second tergite, 0.8-0.9times maximum width of these tergites.Ovipositor short, its sheath about as long as first tergite of metasoma, 0.40-0.45times as long as mesosoma, 0.18-0.22times as long as fore wing.
Sculpture and pubescence: head entirely smooth, sometimes frons near antennal sockets with several curved striae.Mesoscutum smooth, with rugulosity in short and small medioposterior area.Scutellum mainly smooth, finely striate laterally.Mesopleuron mostly smooth.Propodeum widely rugose-striate, with all areas distinctly delineated by carinae; basolateral areas short, semi-rounded, mainly smooth; areola wide, about as long as maximum width; basal carina 0.2-0.3times as long as basal fork of areola.Hind coxa and femur smooth.First tergite mainly striate with rugosities, finely reticulate to almost smooth between dorsal carinae.Remaining tergites entirely smooth.Vertex with numerous, dense and semi-erect pale setae.Mesoscutum mainly glabrous, with dense and erect pale setae arranged in almost single lines along notauli and laterally.Mesopleuron medially rather widely glabrous.Hind tibia dorsally with dense, relatively long and semi-erect pale setae, its length 0.5-0.8times maximum width of hind tibia.
Colour: head entirely light reddish brown or sometimes yellowish brownish, ocellar triangle often black.Antenna black, dark reddish brown basally, two basal segments yellowish brown.Palpi pale brown.Mesosoma almost reddish black, with light brown on narrow stripe along lower margin of pronotal sides and along area of precoxal sulcus.Metasoma mainly dark reddish brown, dorsal basal and apical parts black.Fore and mid-dle legs light reddish brown to yellowish brown.Hind leg mainly dark reddish brown, tibia faintly paler and light reddish brown basally and apically, hind tarsus entirely light reddish brown.Ovipositor sheath almost black.Fore and hind wings distinctly and evenly darkened, veins dark brown.Pterostigma black, slightly paler apically.
Male.Body length 2.9-3.9 mm; fore wing length 2.5-2.7 mm.Antenna slender, filiform or narrow basally and weakly thickened apically, 20-22-segmented.First flagellar segment 4.5-4.8times longer than its apical width.Hind femur strongly widened, 1.9-2.1 times longer than width, dark brown or dark reddish brown.Hind tibia almost entirely light reddish brown.Metasoma 0.9-1.0 times as long as head and mesosoma combined.Length of first tergite 1.1 times its apical width, 1.2-1.5 times length of propodeum.Otherwise similar to female.
Biology.All examined specimens of L. ficophaga were reared from aerial root galls on a single F. obtusifolia tree.Each gall (Fig. 2C) was approximately 1.5 cm in diameter and contained multiple larval chambers.Galls were frequently grouped together forming a mass that measured up to 6 cm in diameter and 12 cm in length.A photograph of these galls is shown in Zaldívar-Riverón et al. (2014;Fig. 1B).They are similar to the galls induced by L. hansoni Marsh on F. citrifolia, as reported by Marsh (2002).It should be noted that the identification of the F. citrifolia requires verification; it is possible that the correct identity is F. eximia Schott.
Galls of L. ficophaga were tracked on the host tree during a two years period (2011-2012), during which time the tree was visited every month.All wasps, including four additional species that are probably parasitoids, emerged during April and May.No wasps emerged during any other month.New galls began appearing in May and June and became full-sized in August.
Two lines of evidence suggest that L. ficophaga is the gall inducer.First, it is larger than the other four species emerging from these galls (parasitoids are expected to be slightly smaller, unless they feed on gall tissue).Second, of the five species of hymenopterans reared from these galls (no other insects were reared), L. ficophaga was the only species that was present in all the samples and in most samples it was also the most numerous species.Transverse diameter of eye 2.0-2.2 times wider than temple (Fig. 1C).Eye covered with short and sparse setae.Malar space 0.35-0.40times height of eye (Fig. 1D).Propodeum mainly rugose-striate, smooth only in basolateral areas (Fig. 1C).Discoidal (first discal) cell sessile (Fig. 1F).Dorsal carinae of first metasomal tergite almost complete (Fig. 1E).Vertex and frons light reddish brown or brownish yellow ..

Figure 1 .
Figure 1.Labania ficophaga sp.n. (female, paratype): A habitus, lateral view B head and palpi, ventrolatero-posterior view C head and mesosoma, dorsal view D head and mesosoma, lateral view E metasoma, dorsal view F fore wing G hind wing.

Figure 3 .
Figure 3. Labania minuta Marsh (female A-C, E; male D): A habitus, lateral view B head and mesosoma, dorsal view C head and mesosoma, lateral view D hind femur E metasoma, dorsal view.