Cotesia rubecula (Marshall, 1885)

Figs 7B, 23 C–D

Apanteles rubecula Marshall, 1885: 175 (holotype, ♀, NHMUK).

Cotesia rubecula – Mason 1981: 113 (transferred from Apanteles s.l.).

For a full bibliography, see Shenefelt (1972: 615), Yu et al. (2016) and Fernández-Triana et al. (2020).

Diagnosis

T1 consistently broadening posteriorly, often with a middle patch of rugosity on posterior smooth band of scutellum (under scutellar triangular disk); scutellar disk with only shallow punctures; mesosoma not dorsoventrally flattened; hind coxa and metasoma dark; ocelli normal sized, OOL/posterior ocellus diameter <2.4; fore wing vein r normally longer than, occasionally of similar length to 2RS; distal quarter of hind tibia darkened, including in lateral view.

Material examined

AUSTRALIA • 3 ♀♀, 7 ♂♂; South Australia, Urrbrae; 27 Feb. 1987; M.A. Keller leg.; on broccoli ex. cocoon; Apanteles rubecula det A. D. Austin 1987; WINC • 2 ♀♀; South Australia, Adelaide; reared in culture; 1 Aug. 1989; M.A. Keller leg.; “ Cotesia rubecula ”; WINC .

Distribution

Europe (type). Introduced into Australia and New Zealand (Wilson 1960; Cameron & Walker 2002). For global distribution, see Fernández-Triana et al. (2020).

Host

Pieris rapae (Pieridae) . Solitary. Record from original description. See Shenefelt (1972: 615) and Yu et al. (2016) for extra-limital host records.

Remarks

This species forms a distinct clade in the COI phylogeny (Fig. 1) using sequences available on BOLD from outside of Australia. No Australian specimens were sequenced in this study.