A new species of Heredius Marsh 2002 ( Hymenoptera : Braconidae : Doryctinae ) from Brazil

A new species of Heredius Marsh, 2002 is described from Brazil. H. flavus n. sp. differs from the other known Heredius species by its yellow mesosoma and metasoma, acinose-carinate face, acinose temple, malar space length about 0.56 times eye height, ocello-ocular distance about 4.0 times diameter of the lateral ocellus; acinose-rugose mesoscutal lobes, sternaulus finely scrobiculate and almost complete, and first metasomal tergum with apical width almost equal its length.


Introduction
Doryctinae is one of the most diverse subfamilies of Braconidae (Marsh, 1997(Marsh, , 2002;;Belokobylskij et al., 2004) with almost 1000 described species and roughly 180 recognised genera of which two thirds are distributed in the Neotropical region (Zaldivar-Riverón et al., 2008).This subfamily is considered to be a monophyletic group distinguished by the presence of a row of anterodorsal spines on the fore tibia and a double node in the ovipositor apex (Hanson and Gauld, 2006).Despite its high diversity, the biology of the Doryctinae is scarcely known (Wharton et al., 1997).Most species with known biology are idiobionts ectoparasitoids of Coleoptera (Zaldivar-Riverón et al., 2008).
Among the Doryctinae, the genus Heredius is distinguished by the coriaceous or acinose frons and vertex (Marsh, 2002).It includes one species described from Costa Rica, and the new species described in this present paper.Its known distribution is Costa Rica and Brazil. Recently (Loffredo and Penteado Dias, 2008a,b;Onody and Penteado-Dias, 2006) other Ichneumonoidea species from the Neotropical region have been studied and figured.

Material and Methods
The specimen was collected from Savannah area at the Parque Estadual de Vassununga, Santa Rita do Passa Quatro, São Paulo state, Brazil.The genus was identified by using Marsh (2002).The material examined was compared with the original description of the other species.This study is part of a large project on the richness and diversity of Doryctinae from Savannah areas in São Paulo state, Brazil.The figures were made with Leica equipment.
The holotype is deposited at DCBU Collection (Departamento de Ecologia e Biologia Evolutiva da Universidade Federal de São Carlos, São Carlos, Brazil).
Comments: This species is distinguished from the other described species by its predominantly acinose-rugose sculpture and yellow colour; malar space 0.56 times the eye height, ocello-ocular distance about 4.0 times the diameter of the lateral ocellus, sternaulus finely scrobiculate and almost complete, first metasomal tergum with apical width about equal to the length.
Etymology: The name of the species refers to its predominant colour.
Acknowledgements -We are grateful to the Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq), Coordenadoria de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES), Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP), and the Instituto Nacional de Ciência e Tecnologia dos Hymenoptera Parasitóides da Região Sudeste Brasileira (INCT-Hympar Sudeste) for financial support, to the Instituto Florestal do Estado de São Paulo, and the Parque Estadual de Vassununga for permitting the collection of material.