Cheiloneurus flaccus (Walker, 1847)

Thorpe, Stephen E., 2013, Cheiloneurusflaccus (Walker, 1847) (Hymenoptera: Encyrtidae), new to New Zealand, Biodiversity Data Journal 1, pp. 958-958 : 958

Rank: SpeciesType of treatment: Redescription or species observationextantHabitat: terrestrialRoot classification: 8

Cheiloneurus flaccus (Walker, 1847)

Materials

Type status: Other material

Occurrence: recordedBy: Stephen Thorpe; individualCount: 2; sex: female; Location: country: New Zealand; verbatimLocality: Tamaki Campus of University of Auckland; verbatimLatitude: 36.88661S; verbatimLongitude: 174.85253E; Event: eventDate: 20 April 2013; Record Level: institutionCode: Auckland Museum

Description

On 20 April 2013, while looking for insects in swards of long grass on the Tamaki Campus of the University of Auckland, I noticed two specimens of an unusual looking encyrtid. I collected one of the two specimens (see Figs 1, 2), and identified it as Cheiloneurus flaccus , using the redescription by Guerrieri and Viggiani (2005). Cheiloneurus flaccus is a distinctive species, quite different to the two congeneric species already known from N.Z. The antenna, in particular, is distinctive, with the first segment of the funicle much longer than the pedicel (see Fig. 2). The species is known to be a parasitoid of dryinids. The site where I found Cheiloneurus flaccus also abounds with dryinids belonging to two species of Gonatopus . Two other species of dryinid ( Bocchus thorpei , and Dryinius koebelei ) also occur on the campus. I recommend that Cheiloneurus flaccus be added to the New Zealand Organisms Register (NZOR) as exotic, present in the wild.