Cotesia deliadis

Cotesia deliadis (Bingham, 1906)

Figs 2C, 15

Apanteles deliadis Bingham, 1906: 125 (lectotype, ♀, OUMNH).

Apanteles deliadis – Wilkinson 1928: 99 (redescription).

Cotesia deliadis – Austin & Dangerfield 1992: 21 (lectotype designation and transfer from Apanteles s.l.).

Diagnosis

Cotesia deliadis can be separated from all other species of Cotesia currently described from Australia and Papua New Guinea by the following combination of characters: anteromesoscutum punctate; scutellar disk smooth with some shallow punctures associated with setae; centre of medial posterior band of the scutellum smooth; T1 mostly parallel sided; T3 dark with sparse setae only in posterior half; fore wing 2RS not creating a ‘stub’ at junction with r.

Material examined

Paralectotype

AUSTRALIA • 1 ♀; Queensland, Townsville; “bred Jan.2.03 [2 Jan 1903] fr. larva Delias argenthona, F. & pres 1906 by F.P. Dodd ”; NHMUK.

Other material

AUSTRALIA • 4 ♀♀, 1 ♂; “Q” [Queensland], Townsville; 20 Aug. 1993; M.F. Braby leg.; reared from larva Delias argenthona on Dendrophthoe Mart. 1830; BOLD: AUMIC544 -19; ANIC 32 130300 • 2 ♀♀; Victoria; St Arnaud; 2013; E. and J. Reid leg.; reared from larva of Delias aganippe; BOLD: AUMIC033-18, AUMIC039-18; WINC.

Redescription

Female (from paralectotype)

COLOUR. Head, antenna and mesosoma dark, T1–2 dark, rest of metasoma pale on non-sclerotised areas with dark sclerotised areas on dorsal surface, pale laterally, (fore-, mid-, hind coxa) dark, dark, dark; femora (fore-, mid-, hind femur) pale, pale, pale; tibiae (fore-, mid-, hind tibia) pale, pale, pale; tegula and humeral complex pale to light brown; pterostigma light brown; fore wing veins light brown.

BODY LENGTH. Head to apex of metasoma: 2.3 mm.

HEAD. Antenna slightly longer than body length; OOL/posterior ocellus diameter 1.9; POL/posterior ocellus diameter 2.4; antennal flagellomere 2 length/width 3.0; antennal flagellomere 14 length/width 2.9.

MESOSOMA. Anteromesoscutum punctate, punctures reasonably regular but denser along notauli lines compared to lateral areas and very centre; number of pits in scutoscutellar sulcus 9 or 10; scutellar disc mostly smooth with some shallow punctures associated with setae; maximum height of mesoscutellum lunules/maximum height of lateral face of mesoscutellum 0.5.

WINGS. Fore wing length 2.7 mm; length of veins r/2RS 1.3; length of veins 2RS/2M 1.3; length of veins 2M/(RS+M)b 0.9; pterostigma length/width 2.6.

LEGS. Hind tibia inner spur length/metabasitarsus length [couldn’t measure due to leg placement]> 0.5 (Wilkinson 1928a).

PROPODEUM. Medial carina present, irregularly rugose and punctate, posterior third smooth and shiny with sparse carinae.

METASOMA. T1 length /T1 width at posterior margin 1.8; T1 generally parallel sided, very slightly narrowing at posterior corners, very smooth, some very shallow punctures in posterior half; T2 width at posterior margin / T2 length 2.6, the sclerotised area of T2 not well distinguished at lateral edges, curved at anterior margin, T2 mostly smooth, some irregular pits by anterior and lateral edges; T2 length / T3 length 0.7; T3 sculpture smooth and shiny; ovipositor sheaths length/hind tibial length 0.18.

Male (from M.F. Braby specimens)

As female, but with denser (still shallow) punctures on scutellar disc, T2 slightly longer in relation to posterior width, sclerotised area of T2 more sharply defined, closer in shape to subtriangular or hemispherical.

Distribution

Qld (type specimens, recorded material), Vic (material examined).

Host

Delias argenthona (Pieridae Swainson, 1820) (record from type specimens and examined material), Delias aganippe (Donovan) (record from examined material – new host record for this species) gregarious.

Remarks

We examined and sequenced specimens reared from Delias aganippe in Victoria by E. and J. Reid, which are morphologically very similar to C. deliadis, but much darker in colouration. With a 145 bp COI barcode available for a specimen identified as C. deliadis and reared from D. argenthona from the type locality in Qld (BOLD: AUMIC544-19), which differs by only 1 bp from the sequences of the Victorian specimens (BIN BOLD:ADL3255, Fig. 1), we assign the Victorian specimens to C. deliadis. Darker colouration in conspecific specimens further south in Australia is common, and this therefore expands the distribution of C. deliadis. Correspondingly, we assign the full-length COI barcode from the Victorian specimens to C. deliadis.

We also note that the species C. deliadis strongly resembles Glyptapanteles deliasa Austin & Dangerfield (1992) which parasitises D. aganippe in South Australia, but we were unsuccessful in obtaining DNA from paratypes of this species for comparison and therefore do not treat G. deliasa here.