Brachymeria indica (Krausse)

Gupta, Ankita & Pereira, Blaise, 2012, A new species of Glyptapanteles (Hymenoptera: Braconidae: Microgastrinae), a larval parasitoid of Elymnias hypermnestra (Linnaeus) (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae), along with some new host records of parasitoids from Peninsular India, Zootaxa 3227, pp. 54-63 : 61-63

Brachymeria indica (Krausse)

Plate V.

Meyeriella indica Krausse 1916:93 -95. F. INDIA. Trichinopoly (? ZMHU). Narendran, 1986: 11 -41, 307-310; Narendran, 1989:286.

The description fits with the one given in Narendran (1989) with some minor variation hence a brief diagnosis is provided. Female: 6.5 mm. Black. Scape blackish brown with yellowish brown patch at apex and at base, pedicel brown; tegulae brownish. Fore and hind femur black with yellowish brown patch at apex. Fore and mid tibia yellowish brown with a black spot dorsally leaving apex and base. Hind femur black with a brownish patch at apex gradually fading to yellowish tinge towards the apices; hind tibia brownish yellow with a narrow black ventral margin. All tarsi yellowish brown. Pubescence white. Antennae with scape hardly reaching front ocellus. Apex of scutellum weakly emarginated. Fore wing with relative measurements of veins: submarginal: 42, marginal: 21, post marginal: 8, stigma: 5. Metasoma with first tergite distinctly less than half of its length.

Distribution. India: Maharashtra (new distribution record) and Tamil Nadu.

Material examined. One female; INDIA, Maharashtra, Mumbai, Asawa Fort 1587ft above MSL and 75km north of Borivli), (base village: Varangade), Thane District, 30.x.2011, ex. Pupa of Pareronia valeria (Cramer) , leg. Blaise Pereira, deposited in National Bureau of Agriculturally Important Insects ( NBAII), Bangalore, India. Code 301011.

Host record. Pupa of Pareronia valeria on Vitex negundo .

Remarks: The natural larval food plant of Pareronia butterflies is Capparis (Capparidaceae) Kunte (2000), but the pupa was found hanging on a V. negundo plant. There is a possibility that larva, in search of food has travelled some distance and pupated on a different species of plant.

PLATE V. 24–30. (24) Pupa of Pareronia valeria . (25) Adult of Brachymeria indicia , lateral view. (26) B. indicia , dorsal view. (27) Adult of Pareronia valeria , male UP. (28) Adult of Pareronia valeria , male UN. (29) Adult of Pareronia valeria , female UP. (30) Adult of Pareronia valeria , female UN.

Discussion. Thus the only two host records of Brachymeria indica (Krausse) are pupae of Pareronia valeria (Cramer) and pupae of common jezebel, Delias eucharis (Drury) .