Heterospilus Haliday

Marsh, Paul M., Wild, Alexander L. & Whitfield, James B., 2013, The Doryctinae (Braconidae) of Costa Rica: genera and species of the tribe Heterospilini, ZooKeys 347, pp. 1-474 : 19

Genus Heterospilus Haliday

Heterospilus Haliday, 1836: 40.

Telebolus Marshall, 1888: 202. Synonymized by Muesebeck and Walkley 1951.

Kareba Cameron, 1904: 50. Synonymized by Marsh 1973.

Anacatostigma Enderlein, 1920(1918): 131. Synonymized by Marsh 1973.

Harpagolaccus Enderlein, 1920(1918): 138. Synonymized by Belokobylskij 1992.

Type species.

Rogas (Heterospilus) quaestor Haliday.

Diagnosis

(taken from Marsh 2002). Small to median size, 2.0-5.0 mm; head usually cubical, malar space varying from 1/6 to 1/3 eye height; occipital carina meeting hypostomal carina; mesoscutum usually declivous anteriorly; propodeum usually with distinct basal median areas and areola; first metasomal tergum varying from wider at apex than length to length twice apical width, basal sternal plate of first tergum 1/4 length of tergum; ovipositor varying from barely visible to longer than body; fore tibia with single row of short stout spines along anterior edge; hind coxa with small but distinct basal tubercle or tooth; fore wing vein r-m present, vein 2RS usually absent, sometimes represented by infuscate line (nebulous vein) but not a distinct tubular vein, first subdiscal cell open at apex; hind wing vein M+CU varying from shorter to longer than vein 1M; hind wing of male always with a stigma.

Distribution.

The genus occurs worldwide but the preponderance of species are found in the Western Hemisphere.

Biology.

There is very little biological information about species of Heterospilus , but where records exist, species are recorded as parasitoids of wood-boring beetle larvae, particularly Scolytidae , but a few species have been reared from Bruchidae and Curculionidae as well as from stem-boring sawflies and moths. Several species have been reared from nests of Microstigmus ( Sphecidae ) in Costa Rica ( Marsh and Melo 1999).

Comments.

The identification of the genus Heterospilus has been firm for many years but the exact location and recognition of the type specimen has long been in question. However, van Achterberg (1997) made an extensive review of the Haliday collection of Braconidae at the Irish National Museum in Dublin, Ireland in which he attempted to "...recognize types, to label them and to re-identify the taxa described by Haliday according to modern insights." Thus, the type specimen of Heterospilus quaestor Haliday was identified and re-labeled in the collection. Although van Achterberg presented a re-description of the type specimen, I have also presented a description below.