The parasitoid wasp genus Mason, 1981 is revised, based on a combination of basic morphology (dichotomous key and brief diagnostic descriptions), DNA barcoding, biology (host data and wasp cocoons), and distribution data. A total of 49 species is considered; the genus is almost entirely Neotropical (48 species recorded from that region), but three species reach the Nearctic, with one of them extending as far north as 45° N in Canada. parasitizes exclusively Hesperiinae caterpillars (Lepidoptera: Hesperiidae), mostly feeding on monocots in the families Arecaceae, Bromeliaceae, Cannaceae, Commelinaceae, Heliconiaceae, and Poaceae.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFZootaxa
May 2023
With more than 633 species, Apanteles is the largest genus within the subfamily Microgastrinae (Hymenoptera, Braconidae). We describe three new species reared from pests of commercial fruits, Apanteles ahuacatl Shimbori, Giacomelli & Fernández-Triana sp. n.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe parasitoid lifestyle is largely regarded as a key innovation that contributed to the evolutionary success and extreme species richness of the order Hymenoptera. Understanding the phylogenetic history of hyperdiverse parasitoid groups is a fundamental step in elucidating the evolution of biological traits linked to parasitoidism. We used a genomic-scale dataset based on ultra-conserved elements and the most comprehensive taxon sampling to date to estimate the evolutionary relationships of Braconidae, the second largest family of Hymenoptera.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFA new genus of Microgastrinae parasitoid wasp endemic to New Zealand, Notogaster gen. nov. Fernández-Triana and Ward, is described, with ten new species: Notogaster avilai sp.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe descriptive taxonomic study reported here is focused on , a species-rich genus of hymenopteran parasitoid wasps. The species were found within the framework of two independent long-term Neotropical caterpillar rearing projects: northwestern Costa Rica (Área de Conservación Guanacaste, ACG) and eastern Andes, Ecuador (centered on Yanayacu Biological Station, YBS). One hundred thirty-six new species of Ashmead are described and all of them are authored by Arias-Penna.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAnnu Rev Entomol
January 2018
The braconid parasitoid wasp subfamily Microgastrinae is perhaps the most species-rich subfamily of animals on Earth. Despite their small size, they are familiar to agriculturalists and field ecologists alike as one of the principal groups of natural enemies of caterpillars feeding on plants. Their abundance and nearly ubiquitous terrestrial distribution, their intricate interactions with host insects, and their historical association with mutualistic polydnaviruses have all contributed to Microgastrinae becoming a key group of organisms for studying parasitism, parasitoid genomics, and mating biology.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFFour new species of the genus Diolcogaster Ashmead, 1900 (Hymenoptera: Braconidae: Microgastrinae) are described and illustrated: Diolcogaster andamanensis n. sp. from the Andaman Islands, and D.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe Barcode of Life Data Systems (BOLD) is designed to support the generation and application of DNA barcode data, but it also provides a unique source of data with potential for many research uses. This paper explores the streamlining of BOLD specimen data to record species distributions - and its fast publication using the Biodiversity Data Journal (BDJ), and its authoring platform, the Pensoft Writing Tool (PWT). We selected a sample of 630 specimens and 10 species of a highly diverse group of parasitoid wasps (Hymenoptera: Braconidae, Microgastrinae) from the Nearctic region and used the information in BOLD to uncover a significant number of new records (of locality, provinces, territories and states).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe New World genus Venanus (Hymenoptera: Braconidae: Microgastrinae) is a small group of parasitoid wasps that includes two Nearctic and seven Neotropical species. Here two additional species, authored by Fernández-Triana & Whitfield, are described from Costa Rica: V.johnnyrosalesi sp.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThis paper is the first to consider braconid parasitoid wasps in conservation efforts in Canada. Out of the 28 genera of the subfamily Microgastrinae (Hymenoptera: Braconidae) present in the country, 13 genera were studied and 16 species were identified as potential candidates to be included in the Species Candidate Lists of COSEWIC (The Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada). For every selected species a brief summary of its broad geographical distribution is provided, with detailed and in many cases new information of its distribution and collecting dates in Canada, hosts (Lepidoptera) if known, and color pictures of all wasp species.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFNearly 3,500 specimens of microgastrine wasps (Hymenoptera: Braconidae) were reared during caterpillar surveys undertaken in 2010-2013 across India, covering 16 States and one Union Territory (Andaman & Nicobar islands), and deposited in the National Bureau of Agriculturally Important Insects, Bangalore, India. The caterpillar inventory recovered over two hundred morpho-species within 22 families of Lepidoptera and yielded 90+ morpho-species of microgastrine wasps distributed among 13 genera: Apanteles Förster, Buluka de Saeger, Cotesia Cameron, Diolcogaster Ashmead, Distatrix Mason, Dolichogenidea Viereck, Fornicia Brulle, Glyptapanteles Ashmead, Microgaster Latreille, Microplitis Förster, Neoclarkinella Rema & Narendran, Parapanteles Ashmead, and Protapanteles Ashmead. Records of hyperparasitoids are also included: Mokrzeckia menzeli Subba Rao (Pteromalidae), Pachyneuron groenlandicum (Holmgren) (Pteromalidae), Pediobius foveolatus (Crawford) (Eulophidae), Trichomalopsis thekkadiensis Sureshan & Narendran (Pteromalidae), Eurytoma sp.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFFour new localities for the species Microgasterdeductor Nixon (1968) are recorded from the Nearctic (Canada and the United States) and the Palaearctic (Sweden), expanding significantly the range of the species. Microgasterdeductor seems to be widely distributed in boreal areas of the Holarctic, and it is characterized by unique morphological (tarsal claw structure) and molecular (COI) traits. Preliminary evidence, to be corroborated when more data is available, suggests that the species might have shifted northwards between 1950 and the present day.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMore than half a million specimens of wild-caught Lepidoptera caterpillars have been reared for their parasitoids, identified, and DNA barcoded over a period of 34 years (and ongoing) from Area de Conservación de Guanacaste (ACG), northwestern Costa Rica. This provides the world's best location-based dataset for studying the taxonomy and host relationships of caterpillar parasitoids. Among Hymenoptera, Microgastrinae (Braconidae) is the most diverse and commonly encountered parasitoid subfamily, with many hundreds of species delineated to date, almost all undescribed.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe New World species of Iconella (Hymenoptera: Braconidae, Microgastrinae) are revised. Iconella andydeansi Fernández-Triana, sp. n.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBased on the study of 12,000+ specimens, an annotated checklist of 28 genera and 225 species of Microgastrinae braconids from Canada and Alaska is provided, increasing by 50% the number of species for the region. The genera Distatrix, Iconella, Protomicroplitis and Pseudapanteles for Canada, and Diolcogaster for Alaska are recorded for the first time; all but Iconella and Protomicroplitis represent the northernmost extension of their known distribution. Eight new species are described: Apanteles huberisp.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCurrent understanding of Cuban ichneumonids (Hymenoptera: Ichneumonoidea) is analysed. A new Subfamily (Tersilochinae) including 13 genera and two species are first reports for Cuba. In contrast with Braconidae, the sister group, the ichneumonids are poorly known because of the lack of local taxonomists and bacause nets, rather than interception, light and yellow pan traps have been used.
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