Charles C. Porter.
Trachysphyrus and the new genus Aeliopotes in the coastal desert of Perú and North Chile (Hymenoptera: Ichneumonidae).
Psyche 92:513-546, 1985.

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TRACHYSPHYRUS AND THE NEW GENUS AELIOPOTES IN THE COASTAL DESERT OF PERU AND NORTH CHILE (HYMENOPTERA: ICHNEUMONIDAE).
Department of Biological Sciences, Fordham University Bronx, NY 10458
The Study Area
As here considered, the Coastal Desert includes the Peruvian and north Chilean littoral zone and contiguous west Andean slopes between about 5' and 23' South Latitude. Eastward it is bounded by 4-6000 m high Andean peaks, which impose both a rain shadow and a thermic barrier. Westward, the Pacific Ocean with its cold Humboldt Current, creates another rain trap and further exacer- bates Coastal Desert aridity. Northward, in Ecuador where the Humboldt Current turns out to sea, the Desert yields abruptly to Thorn Scrub and Tropical Humid Forest. On the far south, below Iquique, Chile, the Andean and Humboldt Current rain shadows intensify and determine a 1000 km stretch of wasteland, which reaches up to 3000 m and is practically unrelieved by rivers. Consequently, there is little contemporary biotic peregrination between the Coastal Desert and more humid tropical communities on the north or with the Mediterranean Scrub of central Chile on the south. Some high-Andean animals and plants extend across the Peruvian and Bolivian highlands onto the upper west Andean slopes of Peru and Chile, but the Andes are so huge at these latitudes that such interchange is limited to relatively few cold-tolerant species. For this reason, the Coastal Desert possesses many endemic species of flora (Solbrig 1976: 34) and fauna (Porter 1983: 523-47), and plausibly may be recognized as a strongly defined biotic subprov- ince of the Neotropic Realm.
The mesostenine ichneumonid genus Trachysphyrus and its Coastal Desert offshoot, Aeliopotes, conform well to the foregoing 'Research Associate, Florida State Collection of Arthropods, Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, P.O. Box 1269, Gainesville,FL 32602. Manuscript received by the editor June 4, 1985.



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314 rsyche [VOI. 92
biogeographic pattern. Eight species (A. paitensis, T. metallicus, T. carrascoi, T. agalma, T. aegla, T. aglaus, T. imperator, and T. escomeli) have not been collected outside the zone and probably constitute endemics. Three additional species are known from the Desert. Trachysphyrus cleonis is a high-Andean element that ranges at least as far inland as Cuzco, Peru; T. venustus extends widely over the Altiplano and Puna in Peru, adjacent Chile, Bolivia, and northwest Argentina. In contrast, T. viridis ranges from southern Peru to Patagonian Argentina, with a preference for Subandean Desert and Chaco habitats. Solbrig (1976: 34-9, notes that many Coastal Desert plants, like the ichneumonid Trachysphyrus viridis, show Chaco and Subandean affinities (e.g., Geoffroea decorticans, Prosopis chilensis, Acacia caven, Bulnesia retama, and Larrea divaricata). Such disjunct geographic patterns probably demon- strate that the Argentine Chaco and the Peruvian-Chilean Coastal Desert were not always so rigorously separated, physically and cli- matically, as has been the case during the Pleistocene and much of the later Tertiary.
Taxonomy and Relationships
Trachysphyrus and Aeliopotes are confined to subequatorial South America. The latter is a Coastal Desert endemic. The former has approximately 20 species distributed from Ecuador to Tierra del Fuego in Andean, subtropical, temperate, and Neantarctic habitats. Of these 20, at least 10 are confined (in Peru, Bolivia, north Chile, and northwest Argentina) to the Andean Puna and Altiplano between 2800 m and more than 4000 m, and 7 of these seem re- stricted to the western Puna.
The Trachysphyrus-Aeliopotes complex includes large mesos- tenines with uniformly dark wings; no white markings on the meso- soma; a metallic (blue, green, purple, etc.) or black and red ground color; the notauli strong and usually more than half the length of the mesoscutum; the mesoscutal surface punctured but shining; the dis- cocubitus gently arched to a little angled; the mediella straight; the axillus located halfway between the anal margin of the hind wing and the submediella; the propodeal spiracle elongate; the 2nd gastric tergite polished or mat but never strongly punctured; and the ovi- positor strong, elongate, moderately compressed, straight to a little upcurved and with a distinct nodus. Other features diagnostic for



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19851 Porter - Trachysphyrus & Aeliopotes 515 this group, include the unmodified female flagellum; presence of tyloids on the male flagellum; relatively low (convex to subpyrami- dal) clypeal profile; usually unmodified apical margin of clypeus; epomia strong in scrobe; stout but never inflated female fore tibia; sharp externo-ventral basal groove on hind coxa; large areolet with intercubiti parallel to moderately convergent above; strongly expanded female postpetiole; and well developed ventro-lateral ca- rina of 1st gastric tergite.
Aeliopotes is a low-altitude (0-2800 m) Coastal Desert relative of Trachysphyrus. Its chief distinguishing characters reside in its black and red (not metallic) ground color; dorsally produced and lamel- lately modified epomia; strong triangular projection laterally at base of petiole (vestigial in small males); and complete lack of a notch at the summit of the nodus on the dorsal valve of the ovipositor tip. My present concept of Trachysphyrus differs from that of other recent authors (Townes 1969, Porter 1967) in that it restricts the genus to those South American species closely allied to the geno- type, T. imperialis Haliday. I consider both Trachysphyrus and Aeliopotes to be phyletically proximate to the Sonoran, Floridian, Cuban, and disjunctly South American genus Compsocryptus. Compsocryptus particularly resembles Aeliopotes in having an expansion at the base of the postpetiole (weak to obsolete in all males). It also has a sympatric Coastal Desert species, C. fuscofasci- atus (Brullk). Compsocryptus easily may be differentiated from related genera by the contrastingly yellow and dark banded fore wing, mat mesoscutum with weak and short notaulus (less than half the mesoscutum), and definitely upcurved ovipositor. Ecology and Hosts
Information about habit preferences of many species is summar- ized under the discussion of each taxon. The only rearing data for this generic group correspond to T. viridis (Brullk), which has been associated in Argentina with the saturniid moths Catocephala lauta and Automeris cresus (Porter 1967: 309). According to Forbes (192: 670), species of Automeris construct their cocoons "between leaves on the ground". This habit renders Automeris a plausible host for T. viridis and other Trachy- sphyrus, whose females most often are found flying just above or crawling among low vegetation and ground litter.



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Listed below in alphabetic order are collections which furnished material for this study and/ or in which type and voucher specimens are or are to be deposited. I refer to institutional collections by the name of the city where they are located and to individual collections by the surname of the owner. Specimens of Aeliopotes paitensis, Trachysphyrus carrascoi, and T. metallicus will be distributed to Arica, Cambridge, College Station, Gainesville, Lawrence, Porter, Townes, and Washington.
ARICA.
Centro de Investigacih y Capacitacih Agricola, De- partamento de Agricultura, Universidad de Tarapach, Arica, Chile.
BUENOS AIRES.
Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales. Avenida Angel Gallardo 470, Buenos Aires, Argentina. CAMBRIDGE.
Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard Univer- sity, Cambridge, MA 02138.
COLLEGE STATION.
Department of Entomology, Texas A & M
University, College Station, TX 77843.
GAINESVILLE.
Florida State Collection of Arthropods, Bureau of Entomology, Division of Plant Industry, Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, P.O. Box 1269, 191 1 SW 34th Street, Gainesville, FL 32602.
LAWRENCE. Department of Entomology, Snow Entomological Museum, The University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS 66045. LONDON. Department of Entomology, British Museum (Natural History), London, SW 7 5 BD, England.
PORTER. Collection of Charles C. Porter, 301 North 39th Street, McAllen, TX 78501.
TOWNES. American Entomological Institute, c/ o Dr. Virendra Gupta, Bureau of Entomology, Division of Plant Industry, Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, P.O. Box 1269, Gainesville, FI 32602.
TURIN.
Museo ed Istituto di Zoologia Sistematica, Via Giolitti 34, Turin, Italy.
WASHINGTON.
Department of Entomology, U.S. National Museum, NHB 168, Washington, DC 20560.




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19851
Porter - Trachysphyrus & Aeliopotes
Genus AELIOPOTES Porter, new genus
Type species: Amblyteles paitensis Cockerell. Fore wing 6.9-12.5 mm long. Coloration black with red gaster, partly red legs, white on flagellum, and wings blackish with metallic reflections. Flagellum moderately long and slender, scarcely flat- tened below apicad in female, in male with delicate and linear tyloids developed on some segments, its 1st segment 4.6-4.9 as long as deep at apex in females and 3.0-3.7 as long as deep in males. Clypeus weakly to very weakly, more or less symmetrically convex in profile, its apical margin slightly convex. Occipital carina sharp and narrow, joining the moderately elevated hypostomal carina below. Malar space 0.8-1.0 as long as basal width of mandible. Pronotum: submarginal groove broad and usually rather shallow; epomia strong in scrobe and developed above into a broad and sharply differentiated, bluntly triangular or obtuse plate-like struc- ture. Mesoscutum: notauli fine and narrow, reaching 0.7-0.8 the length of mesoscutum; surface shining with uniformly dense moder- ately small, sharp, adjacent to subadjacent punctures. Mesopleuron with the swollen speculum mostly smooth and shining; surface opposite speculum above along prepectal carina with a shining cal- lous that may be finely and densely punctate or which sometimes is punctured and longitudinally striate throughout or only peripher- ally invaded by longitudinal wrinkles and whose surface on upper half beyond callous is radiately wrinkled and on lower half is quite uniformly and coarsely puncto-reticulate and wrinkled. Fore tibia stout but not inflated. Hind coxa with a sharp and strong subverti- cal groove externo-ventrally near base. Wing venation: areolet large, intercubiti rather weakly to strongly convergent above; 2nd abscissa of radius 0.6-0.8 as long as 1 st intercubitus; 2nd recurrent a little reclivous, weakly and evenly curved or sometimes compara- tively more strongly curved on upper half; discocubitus gently arched, without a ramellus; mediella straight beyond base; axillus far from anal margin of wing, intermediate between anal margin and submediella. Propodeum: spiracle elongate, 2.0-2.5 as long as wide; profile varying from moderately short and high (female) to rather low and elongate (male); basal trans-carina finely traceable through- out or often weak and irregular toward middle; apical trans-carina



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occasionally fine but sharp throughout, more often faint and irregular to almost absent; basal area usually distinct; median longitudinal carinae sometimes faintly demarking a hexagonal areola; cristae broadly low-cuneate to short subligulate. First gastric tergite: with a strong, bluntly triangular lateral expansion at base of petiole (weak only in dwarf males); postpetiole in female 1.4-1.7 as wide apically as long from spiracle to apex, in male 0.8-1.4 as wide; ventro-lateral carina strong on petiole, variably developed on post- petiole; dorso-lateral carina weak, most distinct toward apex of petiole and on base of postpetiole; dorsal carinae in female visible but not sharp for some distance on petiole and on about basal half of postpetiole, where they define a weak median elevation, absent in male. Second gastric tergite in female smooth and shining to a little dull, with vague to fine but strong micro-reticulation and sparse, medium sized, shallow punctures that emit short, well separated setae and in male similar but with abundant, well separated, rather small and superficial punctures that emit long, considerably over- lapping setae. Ovipositor 0.60-0.70 as long as fore wing; straight or slightly upcurved; moderately stout, somewhat compressed; nodus low but distinct and without a notch; tip 0.13-0.18 as high at nodus as long from nodus to apex; ventral valve on tip with fine, well spaced, inclivously oblique ridges.
GENERIC NAME. From the Greek nouns aelius, "sun" and potes, "drinker".
1. Aeliopotes paitensis (Cockerell)
(Figs. 17, 19-22)
Amblyteles paitensis Cockerell, 1927. Entomologist 60: 158. Type 8: Peru, Paita (Washington).
Trachysphyrus paitensis Townes, 1966. Mem. Amer. Ent. Inst. 8: 72. Aeliopotespaitensis was redescribed (Porter 1967: 272-75) from 3 females and 6 males (including the holotype) collected throughout most of the Peruvian Coastal Desert between Paita near the Ecua- dorian border on the north to Arequipa in the far south. More recent fieldwork has added 2 females and 19 males from much of the same region, This material permits some modification of my original diagnosis.




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Fig. I. Trachysphyrw wg/a, 8. Paratype. SEM photograph (ZSX), showing seta- ion of 2nd gastric tergite. Fig. 2. Trachysphyrus aegia, 8. Paratype. SEM photo- 'raph (ax), showing mesoscutum with short notauli and sparse punc~ation.



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FEMALE. Color: sometimes with a little white at base of 1st fla- gellomere; white flagellar band sometimes reaching onto 10th flagel- lomere; fore and mid legs sometimes with only very faint blackish staining, except on fore coxa; gaster sometimes with considerable black staining.
Length of fore wing: 8.5-12.5 mm. First flagellomere: 4.6-4.9 as long as deep at apex. Malar space: 0.8-1.0 as long as basal width of mandible. Temple: 0.3-0.5 as long as eye in dorsal view. Mesoscu- turn: notauli reaching 0.7-0.8 the length of mesoscutum. Mesopleu- ron: swollen area along prepectal carina above opposite speculum sometimes punctured and longitudinally striate throughout. Wing venation: rad'al cell 3.5-4.0 as long as wide. Propodeum: spiracle 2.0-2.5 as long as wide; cristae broadly low-cuneate to short subligu- late; apical trans-carina occasionally fine but sharp throughout. First gastric tergite: postpetiole 1.4-1.7 as wide apically as long from spiracle to apex; ventro-lateral carina often sharp throughout on postpetiole as well as on petiole. Second gastric tergite: occasionally rather dull because of unusually well developed but fine micro- reticulation. Ovipositor: sheathed portion 0.6-0.7 as long as fore wing; tip 0.13-0.18 as high at nodus as long from summit of nodus to apex.
MALE.
Color: gaster sometimes with extensive and conspicuous black staining; wings in small specimens but weakly fuscous and with only faint metallic reflections.
Length offore wing: 6.9-12.5 mm. Flagellum: tyloids all fine and linear; 1st flagellomere 3.0-3.7 as long as deep at apex. Malar space: 0.8-0.9 as long as basal width of mandible. Temple: 0.6-0.8 as long as eye in dorsal view. First gastric tergite: 0.8-1.4 as wide apically as long from spiracle to apex; small males have the baso-lateral expan- sion only weakly developed, in large males it is as strong as in females.
NEW SPECIMENS EXAMINED. 29 and 193: PERU, Lima Prov- ince, Cupiche, 26-VI-1976, C. Porter, C. Calmbacher; La Libertad Province, Samne, 40 km NE Trujillo, ca. 1500 m, 12-17-VII-1975, C. Porter, L. Stange.
VARIATION.
Aeliopotes paitensis seems widely and perhaps dis- junctly endemic to the Coastal Desert at altitudes from 0 to 2800 m. Nonetheless, the variation outlined above appears strictly individ- ual. In spite of this insect's extensive range, it shows no phaenotypi- cally discrete local populations.




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19851 Porter - Trachysphyrus & Aeliopotes 32 1 FIELD NOTES. My specimens of A. paitensis were collected in flight, usually not far off the ground in grassy areas near water. I have not taken the species on Baccharis. Genus TRACH YSPH YR US
Trachysphyrus Haliday, 1836. Trans. Linnean Soc. London 17: 3 17. Type: Trachy- sphyrus imperialis H aliday .
Cyanocryptus Cameron, 1903. Entomologist 36: 12 1. Type: Cyanocryptus metallicus Cameron.
Lamprocryptus Cameron, 1910. Trans. Amer. Ent. Soc. 35: 435. Name preoccupied by Schmiedeknect, 1904. Type: (Cryptus kinbergi Holmgren) = viridis (Brullk) Mesocryptus Szkpligeti, 1916. Ann. Mus. Natl. Hungarici 14: 251. Name preoccu- pied by Thomson, 1873. Type: Mesocryptus pulcherrimus Szkpligeti) = venus- tus Myers
Pseudomesocryptus Strand, 1917. Internatl. Ent. Ztschr. 10: 137. New name for Mesocryptus.
Fore wing 6.0-16.0 mm long. Coloration metallic green, blue, purple, golden or often varicolored metallic; no pale markings on mesosoma and in only 1 species with white on gaster; wings brown- ish to black, with a metallic lustre, never contrastingly light and dark banded. Flagellum moderately long and slender, scarcely flat- tened below toward apex in female, in male with tyloids well devel- oped on some segments and varying from linear to elliptic or ovoid, its 1st segment 3.5-5.5 as long as deep at apex in females and 2.2-3.7 as long as deep in males. Clypeus: in profile almost flat to moder- ately high convex or, rarely, subpyramidal; its apical margin straight to rather strongly convex, edentate, occasionally a little produced and feebly bilobed on meson. Occipital carina: sharp but not strongly raised; joining the sharp but not much raised hypo- stoma1 carina below. Malar space 0.70-1.8 as long as basal width of mandible. Pronotum: submarginal groove broad and variably strong; epomia usually sharp in scrobe but never strongly turned mesad or produced into a plate-like structure above. Mesoscutum: notauli usually strong, extending 0.3-0.9 the length of mesoscutum; surface mostly smooth and shining, sparsely to densely but not grossly punctate, never strongly wrinkled or extensively mat. Meso- pleuron with speculum usually smooth and shining but occasionally more or less puncto-reticulate; surface otherwise wholly or in part finely to grossly and usually reticulately wrinkled; no projection or ridge on prepectus below. Fore tibia never inflated. Hind coxa with a sharp and strong subvertical groove externo-ventrally near base.



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Wing venation: areolet large to very large, intercubiti almost paral- lel to moderately convergent above; 2nd abscissa of radius 0.7-1.2 as long as 1st intercubitus; 2nd recurrent practically straight or gently and evenly curved; discocubitus gently and evenly curved, weakly sinuate, or sometimes a little angled, ramellus absent to sometimes very long; mediella straight beyond base; axillus far from anal margin of hind wing, usually about intermediate between hind margin and submediella. Propodeurn: spiracle elongate or very elongate; profile varying from short and high to moderately elon- gate and sloping rearward (especially in males); basal trans-carina, apical trans-carina, and median and lateral longitudinal carinae sometimes all at least weakly detectable or, often, more or less effaced; cristae varying from low and broad subligulate or subcu- neate to very strongly projecting ligulate. First gastric tergite: with- out a lateral expansion at base of petiole; postpetiole in female 1.1-2.3 as wide apically as long from spiracle to apex, in male 0.7- 1.7 as wide; ventro-lateral and dorso-lateral longitudinal carinae usually well developed throughout; dorsal carinae varying from obsolete to at least partly sharp. Second gastric tergite smooth and polished or mat and finely granular; in female with widely scattered, inconspicuous, short setae which may be uniformly much shorter to sometimes in part only a little shorter than their interspaces and in male with long, mostly overlapping setae or with short setae as in female; punctures variably abundant, tiny to moderately large, superficial to sharp, but never large, strong, and extensively subad- jacent or adjacent. Ovipositor: 0.50-0.90 as long as fore wing; mod- erately stout, palpably compressed, straight to gently upcurved; nodus more or less distinct; notch weak to large and deep; tip 0.16-0.24 as high at notch as long from notch to apex; ventral valve on tip with fine, sharp, well spaced, inclivously oblique ridges. FEMALES
(Females of T. aegla, T. aglaus, and T. imperator unknown) 1. Head mostly white; gastric tergites 4-7 with broad white apical bands; apical margin of clypeus on median 0.5 gently pro- duced and bilobed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .lo. T. venustus Myers



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19851 Porter - Trachysphyrus & Aeliopotes 523 1'. Head at most with narrow white markings; no white on gaster; apical margin of clypeus entire, not or scarcely produced medially ........................................... 2 2. Second gastric tergite uniformly mat and finely granular; notau- lus sharp and narrow, reaching 0.8 or more the length of mesoscutum ........................................ 3 2'. Second gastric tergite smooth and polished with at most faint micro-reticulation; notaulus 0.3-0.8 as long as mesoscutum, in most species no more than 0.5 as long. .............. .4 3. Mesoscutum with very abundant, mostly subadjacent to conflu- ent, medium sized to large punctures; flagellum usually with a white band; head and mesosoma purple with blue reflec- tions; gaster mostly blue or blue-green; no golden sheen on thoracic pleura and propodeum ...... .9. T. viridis (Brullk) 3'. Mesoscutal punctures strong and dense only anteriorly on cen- tral lobe but elsewhere mostly sparse; flagellum dark; body blue or blue and purple, with golden reflections on thoracic pleura and propodeum. ............. 8. T. cleonis Viereck 4. Clypeus subpyramidal in profile; notaulus 0.8 the length of mesoscutum; propodeum with moderately strong reticulate wrinkling; flagellum with white on more or less of segments 4-8 ........................... 7. T. escomeli (Brkthes) 4'. Clypeus low, gently convex to almost flat in profile; notaulus 0.3-0.5 the length of mesoscutum; propodeum with gross reticulate wrinkling; white on flagellar segments 1, 2 or 3-8, 9,or 10 ............................................ 5 5. Areolet asymmetric, apical abscissa of cubitus inserted unusually far dorsad; 1st flagellomere 3.2 as long as deep at apex; mesoscutum with numerous but mostly well separated punc- tures; propodeal cristae broad and strongly projecting sub- ligulate; sheathed portion of ovipositor 0.60 as long as fore wing, no groove extending forward from notch on dorsal valve of ovipositor .................. .3. T. agalma n. sp. 5'. Areolet not asymmetric, apical abscissa of cubitus in normal position; 1st flagellomere 3.9-4.2 as long as deep at apex; mesoscutum with punctures, at least on basal 0.5, dense and separated by little more than their diameters; propodeal cris- tae not broadly projecting, rather inconspicuously subligu-



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late or subcuneate; sheathed portion of ovipositor 0.70-0.90 as long as fore wing; dorsal valve of ovipositor with a deep ..
groove that reaches forward some distance from notch. .6
6. Dorsal valve of ovipositor strongly rippled on tip, profile of dorsal valve between notch and apex slightly concave basad but becoming convex apicad; sheathed portion of ovipositor 0.80-0.90 as long as fore wing ....... 2. T. carrascoi Porter 6'. Dorsal valve of ovipositor smooth or slightly wrinkled on tip, profile of dorsal valve directly declivous between notch and apex; sheathed portion of ovipositor 0.70-0.80 (usually 0.70) as long as fore wing ..........
1. T. metallicus (Cameron)
MALES
(Male of T. escomeli lost)
......... 1. Second gastric tergite uniformly mat and granular .2 1'. Second gastric tergite smooth and polished, with more or less distinct micro-reticulation ........................... .3 2. Mesoscutum with many, almost uniformly distributed, medium sized to large punctures; flagellum usually with a white band; hind tarsomeres 3-4 usually white; purple with blue or green .... gaster and no golden on thoracic pleura or propodeum. ................................. -9. T. viridis (Brullk) 2'. Mesoscutum with punctures usually dense only toward base of central lobe; no white on flagellum or on hind tarsus; purple or blue and purple with golden reflections on thoracic pleura ..................... or propodeum 8. T. cleonis Viereck 3. Head very broadly white; gastric tergites 4-7 with broad white bands; apical margin of clypeus somewhat produced and feebly bilobed on median 0.5. ...... .lo. T. venustus Myers