Buntika A. Butcher

Entomophytophagy ('Sequential Predatory, then Phytophagous Behaviour') in an Indian Braconid 'Parasitoid' Wasp (Hymenoptera): Specialized Larval Morphology, Biology and Description of a New Species.

The vast majority of braconid wasps are parasitoids of other insects. Although a few cases of pure phytophagy (primary gall production and seed predation) are known, no previous entomophytophagous species (i.e. ones that display entomophagy and phytophagy sequentially), has been discovered among braconids. We describe the detailed biology and specialized larval morphology for the first confirmed entomophytophagous braconid species. Leaf galls on Garuga pinnata Roxb. (Burseraceae) in India, induced by the psyllid, Phacopteron lentiginosum Buckton (Hemiptera: Psylloidea, Phacopteronidae) were sampled throughout a period of several months and found to suffer a high level of attack by a new species Bracon garugaphagae Ranjith & Quicke which is here described and illustrated. The wasps oviposit singly into the galls without paralysing the psyllids. The larvae first attack psyllid nymphs which they seek out within the gall, kill them with a single bite and consume them. Unique dorsal abdominal tubercles, with eversible tips present on the abdominal segments of the larvae that are used to help maintain larval position while feeding, are illustrated. After consuming all available prey, the larvae continue feeding on gall tissue until mature enough to spin cocoons and pupate. The new species illustrates, for the first time, a possible intermediate stage in the evolution of pure phytophagy within the Braconidae. Interestingly, the two unrelated seed predator Bracon species are also associated with Burseraceae, perhaps indicating that this plant family is particularly suited as a food for braconine wasps.

A New Genus of Rhysipoline Wasp (Hymenoptera Braconidae) with Modified Wing Venation from Africa and Papua New Guinea, Parasitoid on Choreutidae (Lepidoptera)

Abstract Troporhysipolis gen. nov. with four included species is described and illustrated. The type species, Clinocentrus antefurcalis Granger, 1949, is Afrotropical with unknown biology. We additionally recognise three new species from eastern lowland of Papua New Guinea, T. brenthiaphagus sp. nov., T. markshawi sp. nov. and T. molecularis sp. nov., all three of which were reared from leaf-rolling larvae of the family Choreutidae (Lepidoptera). The genus can be distinguished by the combination of fore wing vein cu-a (nervulus) being antefurcal and the second subdiscal (brachial) cell subparallel-sided, widened and formed of mainly thickened veins. The new genus is tentatively placed in the Rhysipolinae based on the arrangement of the occipital and hypostomal carinae, and partly on molecular phylogenetic analysis using the barcoding cytochrome oxidase 1 gene fragment and the D2 variable region of nuclear 28S rDNA. T. molecularis sp. nov. hardly differs from T. brenthiaphagus sp. nov. morphologically and is distinguished primarily based on its barcoding sequence data.

Description of a new Betylobraconini-like parasitoid wasp genus and species (Hymenoptera: Braconidae: Rogadinae) from Chile

Gondwanocentrus gen. nov. (type species Gondwanocentrus humphriesi sp. nov.) from Chile is described and illustrated. Morphological and weak molecular evidence indicate that the new genus may be a basal member of the Betylobraconini. The molecular data analysed to assess its placement additionally draw into question the relationship between Betylobraconini and Clinocentrini. Previously, the Betylobraconini were known only from the Australasian region, Oceania and Eocene Europe (Baltic amber), thus if Gondwanocentrus gen. nov. does belong to this group it confirms the groups present day Gondwanan distribution.

A remarkable new genus and species of Rogadinae (Hymenoptera: Braconidae) of uncertain tribal placement, from Papua New Guinea, resembling Betylobraconini stat. nov.

Cyranorogas gen. nov. (type species C. depardeui sp. nov.) from Papua New Guinea is described and illustrated. The new taxon has a uniquely produced mid-longitudinal facial ridge, which differentiates it from all other genera of Braconidae. The difficulty of distinguishing the Betylobraconinae from the Rogadinae, especially from various members of the Yeliconini, is discussed, and they are formally synonymised here with the Betylobraconini recognised as a tribe of Rogadinae. No clear synapomorphy with either Yeliconini or Betylobraconini could be found for Cyranorogas leaving its tribal placement uncertain, attempts to obtain molecular sequence data having been unsuccessful. http://zoobank.org/urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:62F13CF8-7821-451C-9F14-C40B2D1CC4B5

Three new species of Kerevata (Braconidae: Rogadinae: Clinocentrini) from mainland Papua New Guinea

Three new species of the distinctive, cyclostome, braconid wasp genus Kerevata (viz. Kerevata jamesmayi sp. nov., K. clarksoni sp. nov. and K. hammondi sp. nov.) from Mt Wilhelm, Madang Province, Papua New Guinea are described and illustrated, and a key provided to enable their identification and separation from the only other species described to date, K. pacifica, from New Britain in the Bismark Archipelago off the S. E. coast of New Guinea. Characters used to differentiate Kerevata from the related Confusocentrus are modified.

A new Australian genus and five new species of Rogadinae (Hymenoptera: Braconidae), one reared as a gregarious endoparasitoid of an unidentified limacodid (Lepidoptera)

Teresirogas Quicke & Shaw gen. nov. (type species T. australicolorus Quicke & Shaw sp. nov.) is described and illustrated, based on a series recently reared gregariously from a cocooned mummy of an unidentified species of Limacodidae collected under loose Eucalyptus bark in New South Wales, Australia. Older reared and unreared congeneric specimens represent four additional species, T. billbrysoni Quicke & van Achterberg sp. nov., T. nolandi Quicke & Butcher sp. nov., T. prestonae Quicke & van Achterberg sp. nov., and T. williamsi Quicke & van Achterberg sp. nov., which are also described and illustrated. Three of these additional species have also been reared from Limacodidae cocoons on Eucalyptus, with one, perhaps erroneous, record suggesting a saturniid host. Molecular analysis confirms the placement of the new type species of Teresirogas in the tribe Rogadini, as inferred initially from the claws with pointed basal lobe and host relationships of some of the species, but one species has the claw character poorly developed which had made its affinities uncertain before the more recently reared and sequenceable material became available.

Revision of the non-Afrotropical species of Trigastrotheca Cameron (Hymenoptera: Braconidae: Braconinae) with descriptions of four new species

The Asian species of Trigastrotheca are revised. Four species are described as new: T. pariyanonthae sp. nov. from Thailand, T. sureeratae sp. nov. from Thailand, T. luzonensis sp. nov. from the Philippines, and T. maetoi sp. nov. from Indonesia (Kalimantan). Trigastrotheca tridentata (Enderlein) is redescribed and recorded from India for the first time. A key is provided to differentiate all non-Afrotropical species of the genus.

An enigmatic new genus of Hormiinae (Hymenoptera: Braconidae) from South India

A new Hormiinae genus Indohormius gen. nov. with type species I. keralensis sp. nov. is described and illustrated. Comparison of this genus with some Hormiinae and Rhyssalinae genera are provided. The composition of the subfamily Hormiinae and the position of the new genus on a molecular phylogenetic tree are discussed.

Decaying Wood Preference of Stag Beetles (Coleoptera: Lucanidae) in a Tropical Dry-Evergreen Forest

Abstract Larvae of many insect species, including stag beetles, have a limited mobility from their initial oviposition site. The fate of immature stages, therefore, depends on the maternal choice of oviposition site. Decaying wood preference by stag beetles was studied in a dry-evergreen forest in Chanthaburi province, Thailand. From a total of 270 examined logs, 52 contained stag beetles (255 total), which were identified to eight species from five genera. Aegus chelifer chelifer MacLeay, 1819 (Coleoptera: Lucanidae) was the dominant species both by occurrence and by number of individuals.The occurrence and numbers of stag beetle larvae found in logs was more frequent in those of a moderate decay class, which had moderate hardness and water content. Principal component analysis (PCA) revealed that logs with stag beetles had relatively high nitrogen content and fungal biomass. Thus, selection of oviposition sites by stag beetles was likely to depend on both the log decay stage (or hardness) to protect immature stages from natural enemies and its nutritional properties to enhance the larval performance.

Major range extensions for two genera of the parasitoid subtribe Facitorina, with a new generic synonymy (Braconidae, Rogadinae, Yeliconini)

Abstract The genera Conobregma van Achterberg and Facitorus van Achterberg are recorded from the Afrotropical region and the Indian subcontinent, respectively, for the first time, and two new species are described and illustrated: Conobregma bradpitti Quicke & Butcher, sp. n. from South Africa and Facitorus nasseri Ranjith & Quicke, sp. n. from India. Conobregma bradpitti sp. n. is intermediate between Conobregma which was described originally from the New World, and Asiabregma Belokobylskij, Zaldivar-Riverón & Maetô, which was coined for the S. E. Asian and East Palaearctic (Japanese) species described under the name Conobregma, plus more recently discovered taxa, but the differences between these genera are few and slight. Of the four previously proposed diagnostic characters for separating Asiabregma from Conobregma, the new species shares two with each, and therefore, the two genera are formally synonymised. Facitorus was previously known only from the East Palaearctic region and from S. E. Asia (Japan, Nepal, Taiwan and Vietnam).