Spalangia gemina Bouček, 1963

Shimbori, Eduardo Mitio, Costa, Valmir Antonio & Zucchi, Roberto Antonio, 2020, Annotated checklist and illustrated key to parasitoids (Hymenoptera: Diapriidae Eulophidae and Pteromalidae) of fruit flies (Diptera, Tephritidae) in Brazil, Zootaxa 4858 (1), pp. 53-70 : 64

Spalangia gemina Bouček, 1963

( Figs 10, 13 )

Diagnosis. Head with dense circular setiferous punctures; gena with malar space distinctly shorter than eye height and malar sulcus absent; pronotal collar coarsely reticulate-rugose, except for a nearly triangular area close to the crenulate cross-line posteriorly; mesoscutal median lobe with median longitudinal carina separating two groups of irregular foveae posteriorly ( Bouček 1963; Gibson 2009).

Taxonomy. See S. endius .

Biology. Most of the host records of this parasitoid are from tephritids. There are also reports of this species as hyperparasitoid, using tachinids ( Diptera ) as primary hosts, all in Lepidoptera . Other hosts include Musca domestica L. and species of Drosophila . Spalangia gemina has apparently a narrower host range than S. endius , and experiments showed that some hosts, including Drosophila virillis Sturtevant and A. ludens , are not parasitized by S. gemina ( Sivinski et al. 1998) . Tephritid hosts in Brazil include A. obliqua ( Uchôa et al. 2003) and Ce. capitata ( Silva et al. 2020) .

Biological control. See S. endius .

Distribution. Mainly tropical, but reaching temperate zones of the New and Old World, and Australasia.

Distribution in Brazil (associated with Tephritidae ). MS ( Uchôa et al. 2003) and RN ( Silva et al. 2020).

Figures

FIGURES 9–17. 9–11, Head: 9, Spalangia endius; 10, Spalangia gemina; 11, Spalangia simplex. 12–14, Pro- and mesonotum (arrows at pronotal sculpturing): 12, S. endius; 13, S. gemina; 14, S. simplex (arrow at median pit of mesoscutum). 15–17, Fore wing: 15, S. simplex; 16, Trichopria sp. aff. anastrephae; 17, Coptera haywardi (adapted from Loiácono 1981). (bar = 0.2 mm)