Apanteles diatraeae Muesebeck, 1921

Fernandez-Triana, Jose L., Whitfield, James B., Rodriguez, Josephine J., Smith, M. Alex, Janzen, Daniel H., Hallwachs, Winnie D., Hajibabaei, Mehrdad, Burns, John M., Solis, M. Alma, Brown, John, Cardinal, Sophie, Goulet, Henri & Hebert, Paul D. N., 2014, Review of Apantelessensu stricto (Hymenoptera, Braconidae, Microgastrinae) from Area de Conservacion Guanacaste, northwestern Costa Rica, with keys to all described species from Mesoamerica, ZooKeys 383, pp. 1-565 : 111-112

Apanteles diatraeae Muesebeck, 1921 Fig. 204

Apanteles diatraeae Muesebeck, 1921: 520.

Type locality.

CUBA, Central Mercedes.

Holotype.

♀, NMNH (examined).

Material Examined.

1 ♀, paratype (CNC), CUBA: Central Mercedes, ix.1918, T.E. Holloway, ex Diatraea sp.; 2 ♀ (CNC), UNITED STATES: AZ, Tucson, 23.vi.1923, E.V. Walter.

Description.

Female. Body color: body mostly dark except for some sternites which may be pale. Antenna color: scape and/or pedicel dark, flagellum pale. Coxae color (pro-, meso-, metacoxa): pale, dark, dark. Femora color (pro-, meso-, metafemur): anteriorly dark/posteriorly pale, dark, dark. Tibiae color (pro-, meso-, metatibia): pale, pale, dark. Tegula and humeral complex color: both dark or both pale (?). Pterostigma color: entirely pale or transparent, translucent. Fore wing veins color: mostly white or entirely transparent. Antenna length/body length: antenna very short, barely or not extending beyond mesosoma length. Body in lateral view: distinctly flattened dorso–ventrally. Body length (head to apex of metasoma): 2.1-2.2 mm. Fore wing length: 2.1-2.2 mm. Ocular–ocellar line/posterior ocellus diameter: 2.6 or more. Interocellar distance/posterior ocellus diameter: 2.3-2.5. Antennal flagellomerus 2 length/width: 2.0-2.2. Antennal flagellomerus 14 length/width: 1.1-1.3. Length of flagellomerus 2/length of flagellomerus 14: 1.7-1.9. Tarsal claws: with single basal spine–like seta. Metafemur length/width: 2.8-2.9. Metatibia inner spur length/metabasitarsus length: 0.4-0.5. Anteromesoscutum: mostly smooth or with shallow sparse punctures, except for anterior 0.3 where it has deeper and/or denser punctures. Mesoscutellar disc: mostly smooth. Number of pits in scutoscutellar sulcus: 7 or 8. Maximum height of mesoscutellum lunules/maximum height of lateral face of mesoscutellum: 0.6-0.7. Propodeum areola: completely defined by carinae, but only partial or absent transverse carina. Propodeum background sculpture: partly sculptured, especially on posterior 0.5. Mediotergite 1 length/width at posterior margin: 2.0-2.2. Mediotergite 1 shape: more or less parallel–sided. Mediotergite 1 sculpture: mostly sculptured, excavated area centrally with transverse striation inside and/or a polished knob centrally on posterior margin of mediotergite. Mediotergite 2 width at posterior margin/length: 1.6-1.9. Mediotergite 2 sculpture: mostly smooth. Outer margin of hypopygium: with a wide, medially folded, transparent, semi–desclerotized area; usually with 4 or more pleats. Ovipositor thickness: anterior width at most 2.0 × posterior width (beyond ovipositor constriction). Ovipositor sheaths length/metatibial length: 0.8-0.9. Length of fore wing veins r/2RS: 1.4-1.6. Length of fore wing veins 2RS/2M: 1.1-1.3. Length of fore wing veins 2M/(RS+M)b: 0.7-0.8. Pterostigma length/width: 2.6-3.0. Point of insertion of vein r in pterostigma: about half way point length of pterostigma. Angle of vein r with fore wing anterior margin: more or less perpendicular to fore wing margin. Shape of junction of veins r and 2RS in fore wing: strongly angulated, sometimes with a knob.

Molecular data.

No molecular data available for this species.

Biology/ecology.

Gregarious, dirty whitish cocoons, cemented together in a long slender row but not surrounded by loose silk ( Muesebeck 1921). Hosts: Crambidae (commonly called Pyralidae in older literature), Diatraea grandiosella , Diatraea impersonatella , Diatraea lineolata , Diatraea magnificata , Diatraea muellerella , Diatraea saccharalis , Diatraea sp. In the past, the Pyralidae species Galleria mellonella has also been recorded as a host ( Paddock 1933), a record that might best be questioned.

Distribution.

Widely distributed in southern US, Mesoamerica and the northern part of South America; introduced in France and India ( Yu et al. 2012). We have no reason to suspect that this species occurs in ACG.

Comments.

This is the commonest braconid parasitoid of Diatraea spp., along with Cotesia flavipes , but it does not appear to extend much into South America ( Austin and Dangerfield 1989).