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
