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ARS Home » Northeast Area » Beltsville, Maryland (BARC) » Beltsville Agricultural Research Center » Systematic Entomology Laboratory » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #295626
Title: New species and host records of New World, mostly Neotropical, opiine Braconidae (Hymenoptera) reared from flower-infesting and stem-galling and mining Tephritidae (Diptera)

Author
item WHARTON, R. - Texas A&M University
item Norrbom, Allen

Submitted to: ZooKeys
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 10/29/2013
Publication Date: 11/13/2013
Publication URL: https://handle.nal.usda.gov/10113/61117
Citation: Wharton, R.A., Norrbom, A.L. 2013. New species and host records of New World, mostly Neotropical, opiine Braconidae (Hymenoptera) reared from flower-infesting and stem-galling and mining Tephritidae (Diptera). ZooKeys. 349:11-72.

Interpretive Summary: Fruit flies include some of the most important pests of fruits and vegetables, annually causing billions of dollars in losses worldwide. Other species are beneficial as biological control agents of weedy plants. A variety of parasitoid wasps attack and kill different fruit fly species, and they are important control agents for these flies. To be able to use this information to manage fruit fly pests, a full understanding of which wasps attack which flies and in which host plants is needed. This publication provides such information for 16 species of wasps, of which 14 are recognized and described for the first time. Descriptions, illustrations and a key are provided to allow the identification of these wasps. This information will be useful to APHIS-PPQ and other regulatory agencies responsible for quarantine and control of pest fruit flies.

Technical Abstract: New host records (all members of the family Tephritidae) are presented for 14 newly described species of opiine Braconidae from the neotropics and two previously described species, one from the neotropics and one from the Nearctic Region. Doryctobracon anneae Wharton; Opius baderae Wharton, O. baeblus Wharton, O. cablus Wharton, O. dablus Wharton, O. danielsae Wharton, O. gabriellae Wharton, O. godfrayi Wharton, O. marshi Wharton, O. nablus Wharton, O. pipitae Wharton, O. stecki Wharton, O. taramegillae Wharton, and O. yoderi Wharton are newly described. Hosts are newly recorded for the previously described species Opius nympha Fischer and O. peleus Fischer. A key is presented to Opiinae that have been reared from flower, stem, and leaf feeding tephritids in the New World. Host and host plant associations are discussed; a few of the tephritid host plant records are also new. Opius cosa (Fischer), is a new combination.