Journal of Threatened
Taxa | www.threatenedtaxa.org | 26 February 2022 | 14(2): 20683–20685
ISSN 0974-7907
(Online) | ISSN 0974-7893 (Print)
https://doi.org/10.11609/jott.7564.14.2.20683-20685
#7564 | Received 10
July 2021 | Final received 08 February 2022 | Finally accepted 16 February 2022
Cotesia anthelae (Wilkinson, 1928) (Hymenoptera: Braconidae) a natural parasitoid
of Cirrochroa thais
(Fabricius, 1787) (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae),
first report from the Oriental region
Ankita Gupta 1 &
P. Manoj 2
1 ICAR-National Bureau of
Agricultural Insect Resources, H.A. Farm Post, Bellary Road, Hebbal, Bengaluru,
Karnataka 560024, India.
2 SciGenom Research Foundation, Nedumpura, Cheruthuruthy,
Thrissur District, Kerala 679531, India.
1 ankitagupta.nbaii@gmail.com (corresponding
author), 2 manojpiv@gmail.com
Editor: P.M. Sureshan,
Zoological Survey of India, Calicut, India. Date
of publication: 26 February 2022 (online & print)
Citation: Gupta, A. & P. Manoj (2022). Cotesia anthelae (Wilkinson, 1928) (Hymenoptera: Braconidae) a natural parasitoid
of Cirrochroa thais
(Fabricius, 1787) (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae),
first report from the Oriental region. Journal of Threatened Taxa 14(2): 20683–20685. https://doi.org/10.11609/jott.7564.14.2.20683-20685
Copyright: © Gupta & Manoj 2022. Creative
Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
JoTT allows unrestricted use, reproduction,
and distribution of this article in any medium by providing adequate credit to
the author(s) and the source of publication.
Funding: Indian Council of Agricultural
Research (ICAR); Science and
Engineering Research Board (SERB) under Department of Science and Technology (DST) and SciGenom Research Foundation (SGRF).
Competing interests: The authors
declare no competing interests.
Acknowledgements: AG is thankful to the Indian
Council of Agricultural Research and Director, ICAR-NBAIR for research
facilities. She gratefully acknowledges support of SERB scheme: CRG/2021/001523
for Braconidae taxonomic studies. PM is grateful to
the SciGenom Research Foundation (SGRF) and Sam
Santhosh, SGRF for all the logistic support and continued encouragement for the
study and fieldwork.
Abbreviations: ICAR—National Bureau
of Agricultural Insect Resources, Bengaluru, India | NHMUK—Natural
History Museum, London, United Kingdom | NIM (ICAR-NBAIR)—National Insect
Museum.
With around 328 species described
worldwide (Yu et al. 2016; Fernández-Triana et al.
2020), the genus Cotesia Cameron (Hymenoptera: Braconidae)
is considered as one of the most hyper diverse and cosmopolitan microgastrine taxa, popular as key players in biological
control from all biogeographical regions of the globe. Fernández-Triana et al. (2020) stated that most of the known hosts of
Cotesia belong to three families: Nymphalidae, Saturniidae, and Sphingidae in Costa Rica. Gupta & Fernández-Triana (2014) while documenting the diversity, hosts and
cocoons of Indian Microgastrinae, have reported host
species of some 20 morphospecies of Cotesia. Based on Gupta et al. (2016) review
of the world fauna of Cotesia, two
species with unusual shape of first tergite (narrowing at midlength),
deviating from the original set of generic characters, were compared from India
and Africa with their respective hosts belonging to Lasiocampidae
and Pieridae, respectively. Cotesia
anthelae (Wilkinson, 1928) is known to be
distributed in Australia from the sole confirmed host Anthela
ocellata (Walker) (Lepidoptera: Anthelidae) (record from type specimens) with white
coloured cocoons (Wilkinson 1928; Fagan-Jeffries & Austin 2020). The
present study reports the first confirmed butterfly host species of C. anthelae along with its hyperparasitoid Mesochorus sp. (Hymenoptera: Ichneumonidae) and the first record of C. anthelae from the Oriental region.
Material and Methods
Caterpillars of Cirrochroa
thais (Fabricius)
(Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae) were collected feeding on
the host plant Hydnocarpus wightianus Blume from Nedumpura,
Cheruthuruthy, Thrissur district of Kerala in 2020
and during June, 2021 from the same locality. The field collected caterpillars
were reared on the natural host plant H. wightianus.
Parasitoids were collected from the infested
caterpillars and were preserved in 70% ethanol for further studies. The voucher
specimens of the present study are deposited in the National Insect Museum of
ICAR- National Bureau of Agricultural Insect Resources, Bengaluru,
India.
Results
Detailed morphological analysis of the gregarious
larval parasitoid revealed the primary parasitoid as C. anthelae
(Image 1) and Mesochorus sp. (Image 2) as
its hyperparasitoid. The specimens of C. anthelae
were compared with the images of the holotype (NHMUK 3.c.002) and paratype
(NHMUK 3.c.002) illustrated by Fagan-Jeffries & Austin (2020).
Cotesia anthelae (Wilkinson, 1928)
Apanteles anthelae Wilkinson, 1928: 102 (holotype, female, NHMUK).
Cotesia anthelae – Austin & Dangerfield 1992: 21 (transfer from Apanteles s.l.).
Diagnosis of C. anthelae (Image
1)
Female: Body length 2.5−2.6 mm;
general body colour black; legs except coxae, tegulae (light brown), basal ventrites yellowish-brown; apices of hind femora and apical
one third of hind tibiae dark brown to black. Hind tibial spurs, palpi and
lateral margins of first tergite pale yellow. Pterostigma and wing veins brown.
First and second tergites black, rest of metasoma pale at anterior end,
darkening towards hypopygium.
Mesosoma: Mesonotum
strongly and coarsely punctate, reticulate-rugose punctate near the middle in
the apical half; scutellum smooth, sparsely and shallowly punctate, punctures
not clearly defined and well separated from each other. Scutoscutellar sulcus
with 6–8 pits. Propodeum with well-marked median longitudinal carina and
transverse basal carinae, irregular rugose, interspaces shiny. Forewing with
first abscissa of radial vein (2.9) subequal to transverse cubital vein (2.9)
and shorter than pterostigma width (3−3.1) (relative measurements). Pterostigma
almost subequal to metacarp. Hind coxae shallowly
punctate. Longer hind tibial spur less than two third length of hind
basitarsus.
Metasoma: Metasoma with first
tergite strongly and coarsely punctate in apical third, mostly parallel sided,
curving inwards at apical corners; sclerotized portion of second tergite rough
and ovoid shaped, strongly and distinctly crenulate at posterior margin and
lateral edges. Ovipositor sheaths exserted, subequal
to length of longer hind tibial spur. Third tergite onwards smooth.
Cocoons: Gregarious in
nature; all the cocoons observed were white in colour and mostly arranged
vertically on the host dorsal surface (Image 3).
Host: The butterfly Cirrochroa thais (Fabricius) (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae),
commonly known as Tamil Yeoman, is known to be distributed in India and Sri
Lanka.
Material examined: 10 females (C.
anthelae), India: Kerala, 10.729N, 76.263E,
11.viii.2020, ex Cirrochroa thais (Fabricius), coll. P.
Manoj, specimen code: ICAR/ NBAIR/Brac/Microg/Cot/11820.
5 females (Mesochorus sp.), with same
data as above, ICAR/NBAIR/Ich/Meso/11820. Deposited
in NIM (ICAR- NBAIR).
Distribution: Australia
(Victoria (type) and New South Wales) and Oriental region – Kerala, India
(present study).
Discussion
Wilkinson (1928) included C. anthelae
in the ‘Indo-Australian species of genus Apanteles’
hence likelihood of its presence in India is not surprising. However,
the more interesting aspect is the discovery of its new butterfly host − C. thais as the earlier and the only valid host record was
from a species of moth – A. ocellata (Anthelidae). According to Fagan-Jeffries &
Austin (2020), the other host - Opodiphthera
eucalypti (Scott) (Lepidoptera: Saturniidae)
remains ‘doubtful’ owing to absence of corresponding specimens. Wilkinson
(1928) also mentioned that the cocoons were ‘apparently’ solitary however as
per our observations based on multiple rearings it is
confirmed that C. anthelae is indeed
gregarious in nature.
Conclusion
Our studies substantiate the fact that C. anthelae is not a host specific parasitoid
species as it is capable to parasitize a butterfly species in addition to moth
and with its new distribution record in India the species is no more considered
to be endemic to Australia.
References
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