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

Abstract

We describe a new species of Cordyligaster Macquart (Diptera: Tachinidae) from Area de Conservacion Guanacaste (ACG) in northwestern Costa Rica. Cordyligaster capellii sp. n., is described and photographed. All specimens of C. capellii were reared from Syngamia florella (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

• <i>Cordyligaster</i>
• Diptera
• Tachinidae
• tropical rain forest
• tropical dry forest
• parasitoid fly
• host-specificity
• caterpillar inventory
• Crambidae