Cotesia nonagriae (Olliff, 1893)

Figs 5A, 6 A–B, 21

Apanteles nonagriae Olliff, 1893: 376 (holotype unknown).

Apanteles nonagriae – Wilkinson 1928b: 136.

Apanteles flavipes – Wilkinson 1928a: 93 (synonymy of A. nonagriae Viereck); 1929: 108 (synonymy of A. nonagriae Olliff).

Cotesia flavipes – Mason (1981): 113 (resurrected the genus with C. flavipes as type). — Austin & Dangerfield (1992): 21.

Cotesia nonagriae – Muirhead et al. 2008: 38 (revised status and confirmed presence within Australia).

Diagnosis

Cotesia nonagriae can be separated from nearly all other species of Cotesia currently described from Australia and Papua New Guinea by the dorsoventrally flattened mesosoma, and can be separated from the closely related C. flavipes (recorded from Papua New Guinea, presence in Australia unconfirmed) most easily by molecular data (see Muirhead et al. 2012) but also by the shape of the face projection between the antennal bases; when viewed under SEM, the projection is flatter (less rounded/prominent) than that of C. flavipes, and has a margin that appears tri-lobed, compared to the smooth margin of the face projection of C. flavipes .

Material examined

Other material

AUSTRALIA • 1 ♀, 1 ♂; Queensland, Bundaberg; reared from Bathytricha truncata (Walker, 1856) on sugarcane; 12–30 Nov. 04 [2004]; K. Muirhead leg.; WINC • 2 ♀♀, 1 ♂; Queensland, Mackay; reared from Bathytricha tuncata on sugarcane; 12–30 Nov. 04 [2004]; K. Muirhead leg.; WINC • 1 ♀; Queensland, Giru; reared from Bathytricha truncata on sugarcane; 5 Oct. 2003; M. Sallam leg.; WINC .

Distribution

NSW (from original type material), Qld (from examined material and Muirhead et al. 2008), possibly Papua New Guinea (Muirhead et al. 2012).

Host

Bathytricha truncata (Noctuidae), gregarious (Muirhead et al. 2008).

Remarks

Cotesia nonagriae was recently removed from synonmy with C. flavipes (Muirhead et al. 2008) based on distinct molecular COI and 16S data and subtle morphological characters. Genbank numbers for verified C. nonagriae specimens are: JQ396711 -13, JQ396704, JQ396747. The C. flavipes complex is a monophyletic group of seven described species (Fujie et al. 2018) that possess a dorsoventrally compressed mesosoma, most likely an adaptation for parasitising their stemboring hosts. Wilkinson synonymised Apanteles flavipes firstly with A. nonagriae Viereck, 1913 from Taiwan, and then later with A. nonagriae Olliff, 1893 from Australia. Muirhead et al. (2008) then raised C. nonagriae Olliff from synonymy with C. flavipes and redescribed the species. As this species is only recently redescribed and the description is relatively complete, we provide only new characters or measurements relevant to the diagnosis, and refer otherwise to the description in Muirhead et al. (2008).