Charops plautus Gupta & Maheshwary

Gupta, Ankita, Lokhande, Swapnil A. & Soman, Abhay, 2013, Parasitoids of Hesperiidae from peninsular India with description of a new species of Dolichogenidea (Hymenoptera: Braconidae) parasitic on caterpillar of Borbo cinnara (Wallace) (Lepidoptera: Hesperiidae), Zootaxa 3701 (2), pp. 277-290 : 283

Charops plautus Gupta & Maheshwary from host Udaspes folus (Cramer)

( Figs. 17, 18 & 19 )

The solitary pupal parasitoid Charops plautus Gupta & Maheshwary was reared from the host Udaspes folus Gupta & Maheshwary (1970) . No male specimens were bred and the species was identified based on females. Udaspes folus is the first host record of the parasitic wasp genus Charops .

Brief diagnosis: This species has following characters: scape and pedicel ventrally yellow; tegula pale yellow. Mesopleuron reticulate rugose; malar space 0.7× basal width of mandible; inter-ocellar distance 3× ocello-ocellar distance; fore coxa with a mix of black and yellow patches; trochanter pale yellow and femur yellow brown medially; tarsus pale yellow. Mid leg with coxa black; trachanter pale yellow; femur yellow brown with very faint black infuscation on dorso-apical region. Hind leg with coxa black; femur yellow brown with a black patch ventrally in basal half; hind tibia yellow brown with apical 1/4th black; tarsi brown with basitarsus darker; tibial spurs pale yellow. Metasoma with petiole black except at extreme apical region. Second tergite yellow brown with apical margin black; rest metasoma yellowish brown.

Specimens examined: Two females, Powai, IIT-Bombay, Mumbai, Maharashtra, India; 19.12°N 72.91°E, elevation 50 m (160 ft), 22.ix.2012, bred from pupa of U. folus (Grass Demon) ( Lepidoptera : Hesperiidae ), coll. Swapnil Lokhande & Abhay Soman; NBAII/Brac/Micro/ Charops /plau/0912. All specimens deposited in NBAII.

Figures

FIGURES 17 – 19. 17. Cocoon of Charops plautus Gupta & Maheshwary along with carcass of U. folus caterpillar. 18. Frontal view of head of C. plautus. 19. Profile view of female of C. plautus.