Cotesia acuminata

General description: 

The following are unpublished notes taken in  2010 by Jose Fernandez-Triana while studying 15 female specimens from undetermined localities and 2 males from Turkey deposited in the Naturhistorisches Museum of Vienna, Austria.

Very characteristic species based on: all legs fully yellow (including all coxae); antenna light brown; tegula and wing base light brown to yellow; metasoma mostly yellow, especially the sternites (tergites usually are light brown, but some specimens have dark brown to almost black tergites). Mesoscutum coarsely punctuated (punctures deep and separate by less than its own diameter). Scutellum punctured (sparser than in mesoscutum, especially centrally), scutellar sulcus wide (0.15 x scutellum length) and with 12-13 well defined carinae. Lunules as a small semicircle, 0.4 x the height of the lateral face. Propodeum irregularly sculptured with carinae, carinae mostly running transversal, but also a series rising from nucha and ending all in a transverse carina that looks like an arch (like one of the Venanus species described by Whitfield et al.). Metasoma compressed (like Apanteles parachtistidis in the Nearctic). Ovipositor relatively large (for Cotesia standards), protruding beyond an hypopygium that is acute and long (its tip well beyond last tergites). Fore wing with veins r and 2R junction in an acute angle that most of the times have a knob. Veins and stigma mostly brown. Tergite 1 and 2 with some sculpture, especially apically, T3+ mostly smooth. The two males identified by J. Papp are much darker than the rest, with metasoma mostly black (don’t know if all males are that way, they were the only available for study here).


The following are unpublished notes taken in  2010 by Jose Fernandez-Triana while studying 15 female specimens from undetermined localities and 2 males from Turkey deposited in the Naturhistorisches Museum of Vienna, Austria.

Very characteristic species based on: all legs fully yellow (including all coxae); antenna light brown; tegula and wing base light brown to yellow; metasoma mostly yellow, especially the sternites (tergites usually are light brown, but some specimens have dark brown to almost black tergites). Mesoscutum coarsely punctuated (punctures deep and separate by less than its own diameter). Scutellum punctured (sparser than in mesoscutum, especially centrally), scutellar sulcus wide (0.15 x scutellum length) and with 12-13 well defined carinae. Lunules as a small semicircle, 0.4 x the height of the lateral face. Propodeum irregularly sculptured with carinae, carinae mostly running transversal, but also a series rising from nucha and ending all in a transverse carina that looks like an arch (like one of the Venanus species described by Whitfield et al.). Metasoma compressed (like Apanteles parachtistidis in the Nearctic). Ovipositor relatively large (for Cotesia standards), protruding beyond an hypopygium that is acute and long (its tip well beyond last tergites). Fore wing with veins r and 2R junction in an acute angle that most of the times have a knob. Veins and stigma mostly brown. Tergite 1 and 2 with some sculpture, especially apically, T3+ mostly smooth. The two males identified by J. Papp are much darker than the rest, with metasoma mostly black (don’t know if all males are that way, they were the only available for study here).


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