Nota científica

 

First record of Sathropterus pumilus (Holmgren) (Hymenoptera: Ichneumonidae: Tersilochinae) from Mexico

 

Primer registro de Sathropterus pumilus (Holmgren) (Hymenoptera: Ichneumonidae: Tersilochinae) para México

 

Andrey I. Khalaim^1,2, Enrique Ruiz-Cancino¹* & Juana María Coronado-Blanco¹

 

¹ Facultad de Ingeniería y Ciencias, Universidad Autónoma de Tamaulipas, Cd. Victoria 87149, México.

² Zoological Institute, Russian Academy of Sciences, Universitetskaya nab. 1, St. Petersburg 199034, Russia. *<eruiz@uat.edu.mx>

 

Recibido: 02/06/2014;
Aceptado: 25/09/2014.

 

RESUMEN

Los tersilochinos son avispas parasitoides poco communes en las colecciones mexicanas de la familia Ichneumonidae. Solo tres géneros y ocho especies han sido encontradas previamente en México. Se registra por primera vez a Sathropterus pumilus (Holmgren) en México de los estados de Nuevo León, San Luis Potosí y Morelos.

 

The subfamily Tersilochinae is worldwide and comprises about 450 species distributed in 24 genera. In Mexico only three genera have been registered hitherto: Allophrys Förster with one species, A. divaricata Horstmann (Horstmann 2010, González-Moreno & Bordera 2012); Barycnemis Förster with two species, B. tamaulipeca Khalaim and B. tlaxcala Khalaim (Khalaim 2002), and Stethantyx Townes with five species, S. alajuela Khalaim & Broad, S. heredia Khalaim & Broad, S. mexicana Khalaim & Ruiz-Cancino, S. osa Khalaim & Broad, and S. sanjosea Khalaim & Broad (Khalaim & Ruiz-Cancino 2013). Allophrys divaricata is the only tersilochine species that was relatively frequently collected in Mexican forests, while members of other tersilochine genera are rather rarely collected in Mexico. In this paper, we report Sathropterus pumilus (Holmgren) from the Mexican states of Nuevo Leon, San Luis Potosi and Morelos in Northeastern and Central Mexico. This is the first record of the genus and species from Mexico.

Two females of S. pumilus have been found in the collection of the Universidad Autónoma de Tamaulipas, Cd. Victoria, Mexico (UAT), and two females from the Essig Museum of Entomology, University of California, Berkeley, U.S.A. (EMEC). The examined specimens have the following label data: México: Nuevo León, 14 mi. N of San Juanito, 7200 ft., 22.ix.1976, coll. J.A. Chemsak, J. Powell & M. Michelbacher, 1 female (EMEC); Morelos, Cuautla, Trinchera, 30.viii.1992, coll. J. Flores, 1 female (UAT); Morelos, Tepalcingo, El Limón, 1250 m, 7.xi.1991, coll. G. Peña, 1 female (UAT); San Luis Potosí, 40-50 mi. NW of Ciudad del Maíz, 20.xi.1948, coll. H.B. Leach, 1 female (EMEC).

The genus Sathropterus comprises two species: the widely distributed through the world S. pumilus, and the recently described from Vietnam S. secundus Khalaim (Khalaim 2011). The former species is known from Europe, Caucasus, Middle Asia, Russian Siberia and Far East, Mongolia, Nepal, India, South Africa, U.S.A. (Arizona, North Carolina, and Texas), Mexico, Brazil and Australia (Horstmann 2010, Khalaim 2011). According to Gauld (1984), S. pumilus probably was transported around the world by man and hosts for this species are unknown.

Sathropterus pumilus may easily be recognized in Mexican ichneumonid fauna by its small body size (length without ovipositor about 3.0 mm), fore wing with second recurrent vein completely absent (Fig. 1A) and distal corner of brachial cell widely open (Fig. 1B), and long and slender ovipositor with a strongly sinuate apex (Fig. 4). It is also characterized because female antenna flagellum has 18-19 segments (male flagellum with about 24 segments), propodeum mediodorsally with basal keel (Fig. 3), and first metasomal segment with small isolated glymma. The head is showed in Fig. 2.

Fore wing venation of S. pumilus is very unusual for the Ichneumonidae, because virtually all members of this family possesses fore wing with distinct second recurrent vein, while in S. pumilus this vein is completely absent. Venation of S. pumilus resembles that of the family Braconidae in which the second recurrent vein always is absent, for this reason occasionally S. pumilus may be confused with species of Braconidae. Besides the Sathropterus, in the family Ichneumonidae the "braconid" type of fore wing venation is also present in the small Holarctic and Neotropical subfamily Neorhacodinae, small Holarctic subfamily Hybrizontinae (= Paxylommatinae), some genera of the Cryptinae (e.g. Holarctic genus Polyaulon Förster), and the small Palaearctic genus Gnypetomorpha Förster (= Victorovia Tobias) (Tobias 1963). The genus Ophionellus Westwood, in the subfamily Anomaloninae, occurs in the Nearctic and Neotropical regions including Mexico, and also has wing venation strongly reduced, with second recurrent vein and some other distal veins lacking or vestigial (Fig. 5).

 

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

To Essig Museum of the University of California-Berkeley for the loan of material, and to Universidad Autonoma de Tamaulipas and PROMEP for their support.

 

LITERATURE CITED

Gauld, I. D. 1984. An introduction to the Ichneumonidae of Australia. Bulletin of the British Museum (Natural History) (Entomology), 895: 1-413.         [ Links ]

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Horstmann, K. 2010. Revision of Nearctic Tersilochinae II. Genera Allophrys Förster, Barycnemis Förster, Ctenophion gen. nov., Sathropterus Förster, Spinolochus Horstmann and Stethantyx Townes (Hymenoptera, Ichneumonidae). Spixiana, 33: 73-109.         [ Links ]

Khalaim, A. I. 2002. Two new species of the genus Barycnemis Förster from Mexico (Hymenoptera: Ichneumonidae, Tersilochinae). Zoosystematica Rossica, 11: 167-169.         [ Links ]

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Khalaim, A. I. & Ruiz-Cancino, E. 2013. Mexican species of the genus Stethantyx Townes (Hymenoptera, Ichneumonidae, Tersilochinae). Zookeys, 360: 83-94. doi: 10.3897/zookeys.360.6362.         [ Links ]

Ruiz-Cancino, E., Kasparyan, D. R. & Coronado-Blanco, J. M. 2002. Ichneumonidae. pp. 631-646. In: J. Llorente Bousquets & J. J. Morrone (Eds). Biodiversidad, Taxonomía y Biogeografía de Artrópodos de México: Hacia una síntesis de su conocimiento. Conabio-Ecosur-Bayer, México.         [ Links ]

Tobias, V. I. 1963. Ichneumonidae (Hymenoptera) with a venation type in the fore wings which resembles that in Braconidae. Zoologicheskiy zhurnal, 42: 1513-1522.         [ Links ]

Townes, H. K. 1971. The genera of Ichneumonidae, Part 4. Memoirs of the American Entomological Institute, 17: 1-372.         [ Links ]