Platygastroidea

JENNINGS, JOHN T., KROGMANN, LARS & BURWELL, CHRIS, 2013, Review of the hymenopteran fauna of New Caledonia with a checklist of species, Zootaxa 3736 (1), pp. 1-53 : 36

Platygastroidea

Platygastridae . Sharkey (2007) combined the families Scelionidae and Platygastridae under the single name Platygastridae . About 666 species are described from Australia and 27 from New Zealand ( ABRS 2013; Table 1) but there are probably around 4,000 platygastrid species in Australasia (Stevens et al. 2007).

Within Telenominae, three described species of Trissolcus occur in New Caledonia: T. basalis (Wollaston) , introduced to control green vegetable bug, Nezara viridula (L.), T. flaviscapus Dodd (also found in Australia), and T. personatus (also New Guinea, Fiji & Tahiti) ( Johnson 1992). Telenomus lucellus (Nixon) has been introduced to New Caledonia ( Sands & Liebregts 2005; Pintureau et al. 2010) and at least one additional species is known (QM; HOD). One species of Psix Kozlov & Lê has been collected from the Riviere Bleue Territorial Park (HOD; see Table 1).

Several species of Teleas Latreille , Trimorus Foerster and Xenomerus Walker from the Teleasinae are known from New Caledonia (HOD; see Table 1), each represented by only a few specimens.

Over 30 genera of Scelioninae are known to occur in New Caledonia (QM; HOD; see Table 1), many of which are known from fewer than 10 specimens, and in most instances probably represent undescribed species. Described taxa include the endemic spider egg parasitoids Ceratobaeus umari Iqbal & Austin and C. wattora Iqbal & Austin ( Iqbal & Austin 2000) and the more widely distributed Baeus maryae Stevens (also Norfolk Island and throughout northeastern Queensland – Stevens & Austin 2007). In New Caledonia, three grasshopper egg parasitoids occur: Scelio bipartitus Kieffer (also Australia, New Guinea and Sarawak), S. javanicus Roepke (widespread – including Vietnam, Indonesia, New Guinea and Solomon Islands), and S. planithorax Dodd (also from Australia).

Platygastrid wasps have a very diverse host range, however, they exhibit “little overlap in host groups used by different taxa within the family” ( Galloway & Austin 1984). They parasitise the eggs of Coleoptera , Orthoptera and Hemiptera , larvae of Cecidomyiidae (Diptera) in their galls (see Austin et al. 2005), as well as spider eggs ( Iqbal & Austin 2000).