A NEW LESPESIA CONFUSED WITH L. ALETIAE (DIPTERA: TACHINIDAE) Curtis W. Sabrosky Systematic Entomology Laboratory, IIBIII, Agric. Res. Serv., USDA^ ABSTRACT — Lespesia stonei, n. sp., pre\iously confused with the common L. aletiae, is described as a parasite of notodontid genera Stjmmerista and Hetero-campa. The recognition characters for L. laniiferae are revised and a partially revised key to Lespesia is presented. The genus Lespesia Robineau-Desvoidy (formerly Acliaetoneum) is one of the commonest genera of North American Tachinidae. Twenty-one Nearctic species are recognized in the latest revision (Beneway 1963), and adults of several of the species, including L. aletiae (Riley), are commonly reared from numerous lepidopterous hosts. Lespesia aletiae has been one of the most distinctive species, both terga 1 + 2 and 3 of the abdomen lacking median marginal bristles, a character shared only with L. rileyi (Williston) in this genus. Recently, I realized that two species, at least the males, have been confused under the name aletiae. A survey of available material indicates that true aletiae is so much more common that misidentifi-cations are probably relatively few. I am indebted to Dr. John F. Anderson of the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station at New Haven for securing a good series of specimens from the red-humped oakworm, Symmerista canicosta Franclemont, which made possible the recognition and definition of the new species near aletiae. Males of the new species keyed directly and easily to L. aletiae because of the absence of median marginal bristles on terga 1 + 2 and 3, but the females had median marginals on tergum 3 and hence did not agree with females of aletiae. The male genitalia proved to be distinct from those of aletiae, and other less obvious differences were also found. Extensive comparisons were carried out with other species, especially to be sure that the female had not been described elsewhere, and it was finally concluded that the species was unde-scribed. Males alone would undoubtedly have been misidentified in the past as aletiae, a species regarded as so distinct on the basis of abdominal chaetotaxy that the male genitalia were not examined. Unassociated females, if identified beyond genus — a more or less uncertain matter in Lespesia — might have been called cuculliae or schizurae. The published descriptions of aletiae fit the present species so well that a full description seems unnecessary. ^ Mail address: c/o U. S. National Museum, Washington, D. C. 20560. 142
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