Anagyrus tanystis De Santis, 1964

Triapitsyn, Serguei V., Aguirre, María B., Logarzo, Guillermo A., Hight, Stephen D., Ciomperlik, Matthew A., Rugman-Jones, Paul F. & Verle Rodrigues, Jose C., 2018, Complex of primary and secondary parasitoids (Hymenoptera: Encyrtidae and Signiphoridae) of Hypogeococcus spp. mealybugs (Hemiptera: Pseudococcidae) in the New World, Florida Entomologist 101 (3), pp. 411-434 : 429-430

Anagyrus tanystis De Santis, 1964

( Figs. 37–41 )

Anagyrus tanystis De Santis 1964: 61−63 . Type locality: Autonomous City of Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Anagyrus tanystis De Santis : Triapitsyn et al. 2014b: 221 (key).

Type Material Examined. Holotype female [ MACN] on slide ( Fig. 37 ) labeled: 1. “CAPITAL FEDERAL Col: A. Zotta I-II/1913”; 2. [partially printed in red] “ Anagyrus tanystis Det. De Santis HOLOTIPO MUSEO DE LA PLATA ”; 3. [ MACN type number] “A 89”.

Distribution. Autonomous City of Buenos Aires, Argentina ( De Santis 1964).

Hosts. Unknown.

Comments. The holotype female of A. tanystis is dissected under 1 large square coverslip ( Fig. 37 ); it lacks almost the entire flagellum of 1 of the antennae except for about a half of F1. Illustrated here, to facilitate its recognition, are its features ( Figs. 38–41 ). This species is known only from a single specimen, which was not examined by Triapitsyn et al. (2014b) during preparation of the key to the described species of Anagyrus in Argentina.

GENETIC ANALYSIS

DNA sequences of all 3 loci (28S, ITS2 and COI) were successfully obtained for 29 of 30 specimens. The only “shortfall” was the COI of a single specimen ( PR17-254 ) from Argentina,which failed to amplify de- spite multiple attempts. Direct-sequencing of the COI locus also failed for a second specimen from Argentina (PR 17-256) and 3 from Brazil (PR 17-247 through 249) due to co-amplification of a NUMT (GenBank accessions MG748829-832 ). However, a valid COI sequence was obtained for each of these specimens by amplicon cloning .

ML analyses of the concatenated 28S (MG731466-495) and COI (MG731496-524) sequences recovered 3 distinct clades ( Fig. 42 ).These 3 clades corresponded to the species Leptomastidea hypogeococci , Anagyrus cachamai , and Anagyrus quilmes . Although discarded for the purpose of phylogenetic inference, sequences of ITS2 (MG731525- 554) identified the same 3 clades.

Leptomastidea hypogeococci – DNA sequences of the rRNA loci 28S and ITS2 were identical across specimens from Puerto Rico, Argentina, and Brazil, with the slight exception that the 28S sequence of 3 specimens (PR 17-253 and PR 17-257 from Puerto Rico, and PR17-254 from Argentina) harbored a heterozygous peak at position 140 (G or A, rather than just a G). The Puerto Rican specimens shared an identical COI haplotype, but on average this differed from the COI of Brazilian and Argentinian specimens (obtained from cloned amplicons) by 3.7% (average pairwise p-distance = 0.037). Variation in COI among Brazilian and Argentinian specimens was 10-fold lower (average p-distance = 0.003) .

Anagyrus cachamai – DNA sequences of 28S were more or less identical across specimens from Argentina and Paraguay, with just a separate single base insertion at positon 447 and 451 in specimens PR17-246 ( Paraguay) and PR17-252 ( Argentina), respectively. ITS2 was more variable, with 26 single nucleotide substitutions, insertions or deletions across 5 specimens and 695 aligned bases. In addition, 2 specimens (PR14-212 and PR14-213; MG731548-548 ) differed from the other 3 ( MG731534-536 ) with a 29bp deletion (positions 148-176). These 2 specimens also shared a COI haplotype ( MG731518-519 ) that differed from that of the other 3 specimens ( MG731504-506 ) by over 5% (average pairwise p-distance = 0.054). Variation among the latter 3 specimens was 4-fold lower (average p-distance = 0.013) .

Anagyrus quilmes – DNA sequences of 28S and ITS2 were identical across all specimens from Puerto Rico, Argentina, Brazil, and Paraguay. Eight COI haplotypes were detected, and there was a strong phylogeographic signal in the distribution of these haplotypes ( Fig. 43 ). Pairwise divergence between 7 of these haplotypes was typically low (average pairwise p-distance = 0.005), but the remaining haplotype, harbored by PR14-214, differed from all others by over 5% (average pairwise p-distance = 0.054).

BIOLOGICAL CONTROL OF THE HARRISIA CACTUS MEALYBUG IN PUERTO RICO

The biological control program for Harrisia cactus mealybug in Puerto Rico was advanced with 2 shipments of 2 parasitoid species from South America to the quarantine facility at the University of Puerto Rico Center for Excellence in Quarantine & Invasive Species. The species transported to the quarantine facility were A. cachamai and A. lapachosus . Both parasitoid species accepted the Puerto Rico Harrisia cactus mealybug,and host range tests were initiated. Quarantine host range tests are expected to be completed by spring 2018, and a request for field release should be submitted before summer 2018. In addition, studies on natural enemy population dynamics and parasitoid biological parameters are planned for the 2 quarantined parasitoid colonies from South America, and a newly described parasitoid species already established and attacking the Harrisia cactus mealybug in Puerto Rico. This project is poised to successfully de- velop the only method that challenges the Harrisia cactus mealybug pest before we experience the devastation of cactus biodiversity in Puerto Rico.

Figures

Figs. 37–41. Anagyrus tanystis female (holotype): 37, slide; 38, head (frontal view); 39, antennae; 40, mesosoma and metasoma; 41, fore wing.

Fig. 42. Phylogenetic placement of Tetracneminae specimens inferred from ML analysis of concatenated sequences of 28S and COI. The analysis was conducted in RAxML and branch support, expressed as a percentage, was assessed with 1,000 rapid bootstrap replicates. Clade 1 = Leptomastidea hypogeococci; clade 2 = Anagyrus cachamai; clade 3 = Anagyrus quilmes. Encyrtus spp. (the outgroup) belong to the subfamily Encyrtinae.

Fig. 43. Genetic variation in mitochondrial COI among specimens of 3 Tetracneminae (Encyrtidae) species inferred using the UPGMA method in MEGA6. The tree is drawn to scale, and branch lengths represent uncorrected p-distance. Branch support was assessed with 1,000 bootstrap replicates.