Pholetesor bucculatricis (Muesebeck, 1921)

Whitfield, James B., 2006, Revision of the Nearctic species of the genus Pholetesor Mason (Hymenoptera: Braconidae), Zootaxa 1144 (1), pp. 1-94 : 17

The bucculatricis ­group

This monotypic group can be characterized by the following combination of character states: 1) metanotum weakly retracted from scutellum, barely or not exposing mesothoracic postphragma; 2) propodeum with strong, complete, broad pentagonal areola and transverse carinae; 3) metasomal tergite 1 broad, coarsely aciculorugose; 4) tergite II broad, subquadrate, strongly sculptured and about as long as III down midline; 5) tergite III also heavily sculptured, with rounded posterolateral corners; 6) tergum IV unmodified, overlapped by III, similar in appearance to succeeding terga; 7) sternites 3–6 of female not split anteromedially; 8) hypopygium evenly sclerotized to medial fold, not strongly produced at tip; 9) ovipositor sheaths arising at about midheight of valvifers; 10) volsellae of male genitalia each with 4 setae along medioventral edge; 11) gonobase (basal ring) of male genitalia transverse, about half as long as genital capsule is broad proximally; 12) final instar larva with 1 pair of labial setae, on short tubercles; 13) final instar with 1 seta on each maxilla; 14) cocoon delicate, oblong, whitish, spun within the elongate cigarshaped cocoon of the host; and 15) hosts are Bucculatrix spp. (Lyonetiidae) .

P. bucculatricis shows similarities with both the zelleriae ­group, with which it shares all character states except 2, 9, 10, 14 and 15, and the masoni ­group, with which it shares all states except 2 (and even here there is a resemblance), 3, 5, 9 and 10.