Cotesia glomerata (Linnaeus, 1758)

Mifsud, David, Farrugia, Lucia & Shaw, Mark R., 2019, Braconid and ichneumonid (Hymenoptera) parasitoid wasps of Lepidoptera from the Maltese Islands, Zootaxa 4567 (1), pp. 47-60 : 56

Cotesia glomerata (Linnaeus, 1758)

Material examined: MALTA, Naxxar, 15. iii.2013, 3 exx., emerged from Pieris rapae , MZ, DMC; Qrendi, 8– 11.x.2016, 290 exx., emerged from Pieris brassicae larvae feeding on Diplotaxis tenuifolia , which were collected on 6.x.2016, LF, DMC; St. Thomas Bay, 30. xi.2013, 1 ♂ & 1♀, reared from larva of Pieris brassicae , DM, DMC; Naxxar, i.2014, 1 ♂ & 2♀♀, reared from larva of Pieris rapae , MZ, DMC [parasitoids determined by Mark Shaw; hosts determined by Michael Zerafa].

Notes: First reported from Malta by Valletta (1972) from larvae of Pieris brassicae . Farrugia (1995) also reared this parasitoid from the same host species. The records of Cotesia abjecta (Marshall, 1885) and Cotesia jucunda (Marshall, 1885) by Papp (2015) from Malta are incorect and should both refer to C. glomerata following re-examination of his cited material. Thus both C. abjecta and C. jucunda are removed from the braconid fauna of Malta. C. glomerata is a gregarious koinobiont endoparasitoid that commonly parasitizes larvae of Pieris brassicae . It also commonly parasitizes larvae of Pieris rapae , however the former is preferred over the latter ( Vos et al., 1998).