Psyttalia fletcheri (Silvestri, 1916)

Wu, Qiong, Achterberg, Cornelis van, Tan, Jiang-Li & Chen, Xue-Xin, 2016, Review of the East Palaearctic and North Oriental Psyttalia Walker, with the description of three new species (Hymenoptera, Braconidae, Opiinae), ZooKeys 629, pp. 103-151 : 117-118

Taxon classification Animalia Hymenoptera Braconidae

Psyttalia fletcheri (Silvestri, 1916)

Opius fletcheri Silvestri, 1916: 163-164; Wharton and Gilstrap 1983: 738.

Psyttalia (Psyttalia) fletcheri : Quicke et al. 1997: 25.

Psyttalia fletcheri : Wharton 1997: 23, 2009: 353; Fischer and Madl 2008: 1479-1480. Not Yao et al. (2008).

Comparative diagnosis.

Psyttalia fletcheri shares with the very similar Psyttalia makii and Psyttalia incisi the long vein r of fore wing (Fig. 28), the short temple (Fig. 32), vein 2-SR+M of fore wing distinctly widened (Fig. 28) and the antenna largely brownish yellow. Differs from Psyttalia incisi by the short vein 2-SR+M of fore wing (about twice as long as wide vs 3.5-4.0 times in Psyttalia incisi ) and the strongly curved vein m-cu of fore wing (vs weakly curved or straight in Psyttalia incisi ). Very similar to Psyttalia makii , but Psyttalia fletcheri has vein r of fore wing about as long as vein 2-SR (vs about 0.8 times vein 2-SR in Psyttalia makii ) and vein 1-CU1 of fore wing at most 0.7 times as long as vein cu-a (vs about of equal length in Psyttalia makii ).

Distribution.

Australia (Queensland), India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Réunion, Sri Lanka and Thailand. Introduced in Brazil, China (Taiwan), Fiji, Guam, Japan (Ryukyu Isl.), Philippines, Puerto Rico and U.S.A. (Hawaii, Florida).

Biology.

Parasitoid of Tephritidae : probably only of Dacus spp.; other reported hosts may be based on incorrect identification of the parasitoid (confusion with Psyttalia incisi ) and/or host-relationship ( Wharton and Gilstrap 1983). The male of Psyttalia fletcheri reported from mainland China (Guangdong) by Yao et al. (2008) reared from Bactrocera dorsalis (Hendel) is obviously misidentified. It is a species near Psyttalia majocellata sp. n., but differs by the short and widened vein 1-SR of the fore wing, the wider first subdiscal cell of fore wing, the dark brown pterostigma and the less sculptured frons.