Apanteles

General description: 

The limits of Apanteles and other genera of Microgastrinae have lately been the subject of debate (e.g., van Achterberg 2003), and some recent references use a rather broad generic concept, e.g., Fauna Europaea (van Achterberg 2012), and Taxapad (Yu et al. 2012). Here we follow here the generic concepts proposed by Mason (1981), which have been widely adopted in parts of Europe (Papp 1988, Broad et al. 2012), Australia (Austin and Dangerfield 1992), China (Chen and Song 2004), and the New World (Whitfield 1995 and 1997, Fernández-Triana 2010, Fernández-Triana et al. 2013, 2014). We consider the genera Choeras, Dolichogenidea, Exoryza, Iconella, and Illidops to be valid and not synonyms or subgenera of Apanteles sensu stricto.

Our definition of Apanteles sensu stricto follows Fernández-Triana et al. (2014), and is based on the following characters: a) propodeum never with a median longitudinal carina; either with carinae defining a partial or complete areola (sometimes areola obscured by propodeum sculpture, but still evident as an impression) or, very rarely, without any definition of an areola; b) Vannal lobe margin strongly concave to almost straight, and lacking setae at midlength (if some setae are present, they are small and sparsely distributed); c) posterior edge of the scutellar disc smooth; d) vein cu-a in the hind wing not sinuate. There are other useful characters to distinguish the genus (e.g. see Mason 1981, Whitfield 1997); but the four detailed above serve well to separate the Apanteles sensu stricto described here from Choeras (character a), from Dolichogenidea (character b), from Exoryza (character b), from Iconella (character d), and from Illidops (character c).

The limits of Apanteles and other genera of Microgastrinae have lately been the subject of debate (e.g., van Achterberg 2003), and some recent references use a rather broad generic concept, e.g., Fauna Europaea (van Achterberg 2012), and Taxapad (Yu et al. 2012). Here we follow here the generic concepts proposed by Mason (1981), which have been widely adopted in parts of Europe (Papp 1988, Broad et al. 2012), Australia (Austin and Dangerfield 1992), China (Chen and Song 2004), and the New World (Whitfield 1995 and 1997, Fernández-Triana 2010, Fernández-Triana et al. 2013, 2014). We consider the genera Choeras, Dolichogenidea, Exoryza, Iconella, and Illidops to be valid and not synonyms or subgenera of Apanteles sensu stricto.

Our definition of Apanteles sensu stricto follows Fernández-Triana et al. (2014), and is based on the following characters: a) propodeum never with a median longitudinal carina; either with carinae defining a partial or complete areola (sometimes areola obscured by propodeum sculpture, but still evident as an impression) or, very rarely, without any definition of an areola; b) Vannal lobe margin strongly concave to almost straight, and lacking setae at midlength (if some setae are present, they are small and sparsely distributed); c) posterior edge of the scutellar disc smooth; d) vein cu-a in the hind wing not sinuate. There are other useful characters to distinguish the genus (e.g. see Mason 1981, Whitfield 1997); but the four detailed above serve well to separate the Apanteles sensu stricto described here from Choeras (character a), from Dolichogenidea (character b), from Exoryza (character b), from Iconella (character d), and from Illidops (character c).

Scratchpads developed and conceived by (alphabetical): Ed Baker, Katherine Bouton Alice Heaton Dimitris Koureas, Laurence Livermore, Dave Roberts, Simon Rycroft, Ben Scott, Vince Smith