The remarkable biology of a new species of Gelis Thunberg, 1827 (Ichneumonidae, Phygadeuontinae), a solitary endoparasitoid of fresh eggs of Timarcha (Coleoptera, Chrysomelidae)
-
Published:2021-04-29
Issue:
Volume:82
Page:161-186
-
ISSN:1314-2607
-
Container-title:Journal of Hymenoptera Research
-
language:
-
Short-container-title:JHR
Author:
Shaw Mark R.ORCID,
Kan Pieter,
Kan-van Limburg Stirum Brigitte,
Schwarz Martin
Abstract
A new species, Gelis timarchae Schwarz, Shaw & Kan, is figured and described from specimens reared as a solitary endoparasitoid of fresh eggs of Timarcha nicaeensis in the south of France. Oviposition behaviour of the adult parasitoid, directly into the host cytoplasm, is described and links to videos are given. This appears to be the first record of any ichneumonid developing as an endoparasitoid of an insect egg, and it is a major departure from hitherto known ectoparasitoid (or spiders’ egg-predation) behaviour in the genus Gelis. Fluid from the host egg issuing from the base of the parasitoid’s ovipositor early in the oviposition process is interpreted as a necessary reduction of hydrostatic pressure before the parasitoid egg can be forced down the ovipositor. The egg and first instar larva are figured; the latter is caudate, with the caudal appendage very unusual in being bifurcate. The complex phenology and diapause of the parasitoid were investigated partly experimentally; it is broadly bivoltine with a prepupal diapause in summer, but extra generations and prolonged diapause were both also seen.
Publisher
Pensoft Publishers
Subject
Insect Science,Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics
Reference31 articles.
1. Observations on the biology of Baryscapus (Hymenoptera: Eulophidae: Tetrastichinae) with description of a new koinobiont hyperparasitoid with delayed development.;Askew;Acta Societas Zoologicae Bohemicae,2005
2. Food selection and life-cycle of the Old World Timarcha Latreille, 1829 (Col. Chrysomelinae)
3. The insect parasitoids of the Chrysopidae (Neuroptera).;Clancy;University of California Publications in Entomology,1946