Ooencyrtus marcelloi Guerrieri and Noyes, 2010

Guerrieri, Emilio, Huigens, Martinus E., Estrada, Catalina, Woelke, Jozef B., Rijk, Marjolein de, Fatouros, Nina E., Aiello, Annette & Noyes, John S., 2010, Ooencyrtus marcelloi sp. nov. (Hymenoptera: Encyrtidae), an egg parasitoid of Heliconiini (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae: Heliconiinae) on passion vines (Malpighiales: Passifloraceae) in Central America, Journal of Natural History 44 (1 - 2), pp. 81-87 : 82-86

Ooencyrtus marcelloi Guerrieri and Noyes sp. nov

( Figures 1 A–G )

Female

Holotype. Length, 0.9 mm. Body black, head and thorax slightly shiny, gaster with a faint green lustre laterally; scape ( Figure 1A ) yellow with a narrow brown stripe along dorsal margin, remaining segments brown with pedicel appearing slightly darker; tegula dark brown; setae on dorsum of thorax dark brown; legs largely yellow except mid and hind coxae, a basal ring on mid and hind tibiae, hind femur and apices of all tarsi, brown; wings hyaline, venation brown.

Head on frontovertex with fine, shallow, raised, fairly regular, polygonally reticulate sculpture of mesh size clearly smaller than an eye facet; ocellar angle about 90°; occipital margin sharp but not carinate; frontovertex about 0.6 times head width; antenna ( Figure 1A ) with scape about four times as long as broad; all funicular segments nearly quadrate and with linear sensilla; clava with sutures parallel and with a sensory area along ventral surface of the last segment, giving it a slightly obliquely truncate appearance; mandible ( Figure 1B ) with two teeth and a short truncation, appearing almost tridentate; scutellum with sculpture similar to that of mesoscutum but shallower on sides; mesopleuron more or less touching base of gaster; forewing ( Figure 1C ) about twice as long as broad, with marginal vein about as long as broad, postmarginal vein about as long as stigmal; mid-tibial spur as long as mid-basitarsus; gaster with hypopygium ( Figure 1D ) transverse and extending not more than 0.6 times the gaster length, its posterior margin with a median invagination; ovipositor hidden or hardly exerted.

Relative measurements: HW 40, FVW 25, POL 7, OOL 2, OCL 1, OD 2, SL 16, SW 4, FWL 78, FWW 39, SMV 33, MV 2, PMV 6, SV 6.

Paratype. Gonostylus ( Figure 1E ) about 0.6 times as long as mid-tibial spur; second valvifer with four subapical setae; ovipositor about as long as mid-tibia (30: 32) or about five times as long as gonostylus.

Relative measurements: OL 32, MT 30, GL 6.5.

Male

Length 0.7–0.8 mm: generally similar in appearance to female except for antenna ( Figure 1F ) and genitalia ( Figure 1G ); antenna ( Figure 1F ) with all funicular segments much longer than broad and clothed in setae that are generally much longer than diameter of segments; genitalia ( Figure 1G ) without parameres and with a single pair of setae at apex; digitus about four times as long as broad and with two apical hooks; aedeagus slender, apically rounded and about half as long as mid tibia.

Variation

Virtually no variation in the material at hand except for the body length which in females varies from 0.8 to 0.9 mm.

Hosts

Reared from eggs of Heliconiini ( Lepidoptera : Nymphalidae , Heliconiinae ) on Passiflora biflora Lamarck , Passiflora vitifolia Kunth , Passiflora coriacea Juss and Passiflora auriculata Kunth.

Distribution

Panama.

Material examined

Holotype female, Panama, Gamboa, 9°10′ N, 79°43′ W, ex egg Heliconiini (misspelled “Heliconini” on the labels of all material collected) on Passiflora vitifolia # 23, 13 February 2008 (J.B. Woelke and M. de Rijk). Holotype in Natural History Museum, London ( UK).

Paratypes. One female, Panama, Gamboa, 9°07′ N, 79°42′ W, ex egg Heliconiini on Passiflora vitifolia # 21, 11 February 2008 (J.B. Woelke and M. de Rijk); one female, Panama, Gamboa, 9°07′ N, 79°42′ W, ex egg Heliconiini on Passiflora vitifolia # 10, 8 February 2008 (J.B. Woelke and M. de Rijk); one female, Panama, Gamboa, 9°07′ N, 79°42′ W, ex egg Heliconiini on Passiflora vitifolia # 20, 11 February 2008 (J.B. Woelke and M. de Rijk); one male, Panama, Gamboa, 9°07′ N, 79°42′ W, ex egg Heliconiini on Passiflora vitifolia # 16, 11 February 2008 (J.B. Woelke and M. de Rijk); one female, Panama, Gamboa, 9°07′ N, 79°42′ W, ex egg Heliconiini on Passiflora vitifolia # 27, 19 February 2008 (J.B. Woelke and M. de Rijk); one female, Panama, Gamboa, 9°07′ N, 79°42′ W, ex egg Heliconiini on Passiflora biflora # 115, 26 March 2008 (J.B. Woelke and M. de Rijk); one female, Panama, Gamboa, 9°07′ N, 79°42′ W, ex egg Heliconiini on Passiflora biflora # 116, 26 March 2008 (J.B. Woelke and M. de Rijk); one female, Panama, Gamboa, 9°09′ N, 79°44′ W, ex egg Heliconiini on Passiflora vitifolia # 60, 3 March 2008 (J.B. Woelke and M. de Rijk); one male, Panama, Gamboa, 9°09′ N, 79°44′ W, ex egg Heliconiini on Passiflora vitifolia # 58, 3 March 2008 (J.B. Woelke and M. de Rijk); one female, Panama, Gamboa, 9°09′ N, 79°44′ W, ex egg Heliconiini on Passiflora vitifolia # 104, 18 March 2008 (J.B. Woelke and M. de Rijk); one female, Panama, Gamboa, 9°09′ N, 79°44′ W, ex egg Heliconiini on Passiflora vitifolia # 61, 8 February 2008 (J.B. Woelke and M. de Rijk); one female, Panama, Gamboa, 9°09′ N, 79°44′ W, ex egg Heliconiini on Passiflora vitifolia # 65, 3 March 2008 (J.B. Woelke and M. de Rijk); one female, Panama, Gamboa, 9°08′ N, 79°42′ W, ex egg Heliconiini on Passiflora vitifolia # 80, 6 March 2008 (J.B. Woelke and M. de Rijk); one female, Panama, Gamboa, 9°05′ N, 79°40′ W, ex egg Heliconiini on Passiflora vitifolia # 105, 16 March 2008 (J.B. Woelke and M. de Rijk); one female, Panama, Gamboa, 9°09′ N, 79°44′ W, ex egg Heliconiini on Passiflora vitifolia # 121, 24 March 2008 (J.B. Woelke and M. de Rijk); one female, Panama, Gamboa, 9°07′ N, 79°42′ W, ex egg Heliconiini on Passiflora biflora # 123, 9 April 2008 (J.B. Woelke and M. de Rijk); one female, Panama, Gamboa, 9°09′ N, 79°44′ W, ex egg Heliconiini on Passiflora vitifolia # 119, 1 April 2008 (J.B. Woelke and M. de Rijk); one female, Panama, Gamboa, 9°08′ N, 79°43′ W, ex egg Heliconiini on Passiflora vitifolia # 118, 1 April 2008 (J.B. Woelke and M. de Rijk); one female, Panama, Gamboa, 9°08′ N, 79°43′ W, ex egg Heliconiini on Passiflora coriacea # 85, 12 March 2008 (J.B. Woelke and M. de Rijk); one female, Panama, Gamboa, 9°07′ N, 79°43′ W, ex egg Heliconiini on Passiflora biflora # 120, 3 April 2008 (J.B. Woelke and M. de Rijk); one male, Panama, Gamboa, 9°09′ N, 79°44′ W, ex egg Heliconiini on Passiflora vitifolia # 95, 11 March 2008 (J.B. Woelke and M. de Rijk); one male, Panama, Gamboa, 9°07′ N, 79°42′ W, ex egg Heliconiini on Passiflora vitifolia # 16, 11 February 2008 (J.B. Woelke and M. de Rijk); one male, Panama, Gamboa, 9°07′ N, 79°42′ W, ex egg Heliconiini on Passiflora vitifolia # 34, 21 February 2008 (J.B. Woelke and M. de Rijk); one male, Panama, Gamboa, 9°10′ N, 79°45′ W, ex egg Heliconiini on Passiflora auriculata # 122, 5 April 2008 (J.B. Woelke and M. de Rijk); one male, Panama, Gamboa, 9°07′ N, 79°42′ W, ex egg Heliconiini on Passiflora vitifolia # 106, 19 March 2008 (J.B. Woelke and M. de Rijk). Paratypes in the Natural History Museum, London and Dipartimento di Entomologia e Zoologia Agraria “Filippo Silvestri”, Università degli Studi di Napoli “Federico II” Portici ( Italy).

Comments

Of the New World species described so far, O. marcelloi is most similar to O. caligo Noyes , described from Honduras and Colombia and also parasitic on eggs of Nymphalidae , namely Caligo iloneus (Cramer) and Caligo sp. ( Noyes, 1985). Both species are similar in general body colour (dull dark brown with faint metallic lustre; legs mainly yellow and gaster entirely brown) and forewing venation (see Figure 1C ) with the postmarginal vein well developed, about as long as the stigmal.

Females of the two species can be distinguished by the shape of the mandibles and by antennal structure. In O. caligo the mandible has one tooth and a broad truncation, and the antenna has the clava distinctly wider than the funicle (about 1.5 times as wide as the last funicular segment), with the outer suture oblique and converging with the inner, and the sensory area extending for nearly half the length of the clava. In O. marcelloi the mandible has two teeth and a short truncation, appearing almost tridentate, the clava is about as wide as the last segment of the funicle (1.1 times) (e.g. in O. caligo the antenna appears more “clavate”) with the outer suture parallel to the inner, and the sensory area extending only along the ventral margin of the apical segment.

Using the available keys to the females of the species of Ooencyrtus from other parts of the world (see Introduction for references), O. marcelloi runs to Palaearctic O. neustriae Mercet (1925) , Oriental O. flavipes ( Timberlake, 1920) , Afrotropical O. epulus Annecke (1965) , Chinese O. endymion Huang and Noyes (1994) and Indian sp. undet. C. ( Hayat, 2006). These species can be separated from O. marcelloi as follows: both O. neustriae and O. flavipes have the postmarginal vein not more than half as long as the stigmal (about as long in O. marcelloi ), O. flavipes also has the fore-coxa and gaster yellow (fore coxa and gaster brown in O. marcelloi ); O. camerounensis has the mandible distinctly tridentate (mandible with two teeth and a short truncation in O. marcelloi ), O. endymion has the head not less than four times the width of the frontovertex (not more than 1.6 times in O. marcelloi ) and sp. indet. C has the outer suture of the clava oblique (subparallel in O. marcelloi ) and the fore-coxa and femur and mid-femur brown (yellow in O. marcelloi ). Other than O. marcelloi , the only species of Ooencyrtus that has been recorded as a parasitoid of Heliconiini is O. papilionis Ashmead reared from eggs of Heliconius charitonia (L.) in Thailand ( Huang and Noyes, 1994). Females of O. papilionis differ from those of O. marcelloi in having the mandibles with one tooth and a broad truncation and the postmarginal vein less than half as long as the stigmal vein, while in O. marcelloi the mandible has two teeth and a short truncation and the postmarginal vein is about as long as the stigmal vein.

The species is named after the first author’s nephew Marcello Mellini.

Figures

Figure 1. Ooencyrtus marcelloi sp. nov. Guerrieri and Noyes. Female: (A) antenna; (B) mandible; (C) base of forewing; (D) hypopygium; (E) ovipositor. Male (F) antenna; (G) genitalia.