Dolichogenidea

General description: 

Dolichogenidea, described by Viereck (1911), is perhaps the closest genus to Apanteles sensu stricto, and also the most controversial and difficult to separate from Apanteles. Mason (1981: 53–54) devoted several pages to discussing the main defining characters and the difficulties in separating both genera; he concluded, rather hopelessly, that in practice the decision was still somewhat arbitrary (because of the apparent continuum of variation in character). Fernández-Triana et al. (2014) reported that, after examining thousands of specimens from the world fauna of Microgastrinae, they found that the only reliable character is the number and density of setae fringing on the median portion of the vannal lobe. Dolichogenidea has a convex to almost straight vannal lobe, which is uniformly fringed by setae. In Apanteles the vannal lobe is strongly concave to almost straight, and is lacking setae at midlength; the lack of setae may be partial (i.e. there may be some small and sparse setae on the lobe) or total (i.e. no setae at all). The differences between vannal lobes of those two genera were illustrated by Whitfield (1997: 364, figures 92–94). Both Mason (1981) and Whitfield (1997) discussed other characters that work in some (but not all) cases. Apart from morphology, DNA barcoding tends to clearly cluster the species of both genera separately (e.g. Fernández-Triana 2010; Smith et al. 2013). Some differences in host ranges and geographical distribution have also been observed, but no comprehensive revision of the data is available yet.

Dolichogenidea, described by Viereck (1911), is perhaps the closest genus to Apanteles sensu stricto, and also the most controversial and difficult to separate from Apanteles. Mason (1981: 53–54) devoted several pages to discussing the main defining characters and the difficulties in separating both genera; he concluded, rather hopelessly, that in practice the decision was still somewhat arbitrary (because of the apparent continuum of variation in character). Fernández-Triana et al. (2014) reported that, after examining thousands of specimens from the world fauna of Microgastrinae, they found that the only reliable character is the number and density of setae fringing on the median portion of the vannal lobe. Dolichogenidea has a convex to almost straight vannal lobe, which is uniformly fringed by setae. In Apanteles the vannal lobe is strongly concave to almost straight, and is lacking setae at midlength; the lack of setae may be partial (i.e. there may be some small and sparse setae on the lobe) or total (i.e. no setae at all). The differences between vannal lobes of those two genera were illustrated by Whitfield (1997: 364, figures 92–94). Both Mason (1981) and Whitfield (1997) discussed other characters that work in some (but not all) cases. Apart from morphology, DNA barcoding tends to clearly cluster the species of both genera separately (e.g. Fernández-Triana 2010; Smith et al. 2013). Some differences in host ranges and geographical distribution have also been observed, but no comprehensive revision of the data is available yet.

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