Reclassification of Bracon mendocinus,a gall‐associated doryctine wasp,and description of a new closely related species of Allorhogas (Hymenoptera: Braconidae)

One of the first reported gall‐associated braconids, from 1910, Bracon mendocinus Kieffer and Jörgensen, is removed from the subfamily Braconinae and transferred to the doryctine genus Allorhogas, A. mendocinus (Kieffer and Jörgensen) comb. nov. A new species morphologically similar to A. mendocinus, A. joergenseni Martinez and Zaldivar‐Riverón sp. nov., is also described. Additionally a neotype is designated for B. mendocinus Kieffer and Jörgensen. We base our conclusions on the morphological examination of recently collected specimens from central Argentina associated with galls on Lycium chilense (Solanaceae), as well as on the DNA variation at 28S ribosomal RNA and cytochrome oxidase subunit I (COI) mitochondrial DNA genes.     

New diagnostic ovipositor characters for doryctine wasps (Hymenoptera,Braconidae)

Characters previously used to distinguish the braconid wasp subfamily Doryctinae show considerable variation. Here we illustrate three new female external adult characters that will facilitate recognition of doryctines and allow precise definition of the subfamily. The new characters are a distinctively shaped apex to the dorsal ovipositor valve, a modified serration structure of the lower ovipositor valve, and a particularly heavily sclerotized ovipositor apex. As a result of finding additional synapomorphies linking the Ypsistocerinae with the Doryctinae, the former group is reduced in rank to a tribe within the latter.     

A phytophagous braconid,Allorhogas conostegia sp. nov. (Hymenoptera: Braconidae), in the fruits of Conostegia xalapensis (Bonpl.) D. Don (Melastomataceae)

Before 1989 all braconid wasps were thought to be parasitoids, but in that year the first phytophagous species was reported. Subsequently, a few other examples of phytophagy have been discovered, most of which are species of Allorhogas in the subfamily Doryctinae. Until now, all demonstrated examples of phytophagy in this genus have been as gall inducers in the fruits of Fabaceae. Here we describe a new species from Costa Rica, Allorhogas conostegia Marsh and Shaw, and provide evidence that it forms galls in the fruits of Conostegia xalapensis (Melastomataceae). We also provide information on the phenology of the plant and of the galls and the effects of the galls on the host plant, and we discuss the potential species richness of Allorhogas in the Neotropics.     

Batesian and Müllerian mimicry between species with connected life histories,with a new example involving braconid wasp parasites of Phoracantha beetles

Members of two endemic Australian genera of Braconidae, the helconine Trichiohelcon and the doryctine Acanthodoryctes, possess remarkable dense setosity around the propodeum and anterior metasomal segments which gives these regions a brilliant silvery-white appearance that contributes greatly to their overall colour patterns. Scanning electron micrographs are presented showing that two very different modified hair structures are involved, flattened ones in Acanthodoryctes and fused ones in Trichiohelcon. Diagnostic features of Trichiohelcon, Acanthodoryctes and two other genera of Braconidae parasitic on Phoracantha with similarly coloured species, Callibracon and Syngaster, are described and illustrated. Gymnoscelus rufoniger Turner is transferred to Trichiohelcon and features enabling its separation from T. phoracanthae are illustrated. Possible reasons for the evolution of the specialized reflective setae and their consequent effects on overall colour pattern are discussed in the general context of the development of homeochromy between species with linked life histories such as parasitoids and their hosts or predators and their prey, and the occurrence of this type of mimicry is surveyed.     

Two new Oriental genera of Doryctinae (Hymenoptera,Braconidae) from termite nests

Two new genera of the subfamily Doryctinae collected in termite nests are described and illustrated: Termitospathius gen. n. from Sumatra (type species T. sumatranus sp. n.) and Ceylonspathius gen. n. from Sri Lanka (type species C. nixoni sp. n.). It is the first record of the braconids from termite nests in the Old World. The biological features of the Doryctinae species and phylogenetic positions of the new genera are discussed.