Cotesia sp. nr C. icipe Fernández-Triana & Fiaboe, 2017

Figs 9A, 33

Diagnosis

This species, which is likely C. icipe Fernández-Triana & Fiaboe, 2017, can be separated from all other species of Cotesia currently described from Australia and Papua New Guinea by the sculptured area on the centre of the medial band of the scutellar disk and T1 parallel sided.

Material examined

Other material

AUSTRALIA – Northern Territory • 1 ♀; 76.9 km NNE of Lajamanu; 17°40′30″ S, 130°54′14″ E; 11–17 Jun. 2001; M.E. Irwin, F.D. Parker and C. Lambkin leg.; Malaise trap in deep dry gully below water hold; BOLD: AUMIC050-18; Genbank COI: MH138638; ANIC 32 130196 . – Queensland • 1 ♀; Kuranda; 16.81538° S, 145.6425° E; M.S. Moulds leg.; 16 Mar. 2017; M/T; BOLD: AUMIC341-18; Genbank COI: MH138648; WINC • 1 ♀; Cudmore NP, CM3M; 22.969° S, 146.379° E; 351 m a.s.l.; 28 Oct. 2010 – 2 Aug. 2011; Lambkin, Starick and Bailey leg.; Melaleuca heath nr drying creek; M/T; QM bulk sample 18517; BOLD: AUMIC424-18; Genbank COI: MH138809; QM T208388 . – South Australia • 1 ♀; Cox Scrub Conservation Park; 35.33194° S, 138.74583° E; E. Fagan-Jeffries leg.; 17Apr. 2016; M/T; BOLD:AUMIC194-18; Genbank COI: MH138655; WINC • 1 ♀; Mt Remarkable NP; 32°50′18″ S, 138°2′12″ E, 22 Jan. – 18 Feb. 2017; E. Fagan-Jeffries leg.; M/T; BOLD: AUMIC152-18; Genbank COI: MH138657; WINC .

Distribution

In Australia, known from Queensland, the Northern Territory and South Australia – see remarks.

Host

No host data available for specimens from Australia.

Remarks

This species, although clearly different from any currently described from Australia, is morphologically and genetically (1–1.5% divergent in the COI barcoding region) extremely similar to C. icipe . Cotesia icipe was described from specimens reared in Africa from Spodoptera littoralis (Boisduva, 1833) and Spodoptera exigua (Hübner, 1808) ( Lepidoptera, Noctuidae). Spodoptera exigua is present in Australia as an invasive pest on a wide range of plants (Hill 2014).

The BOLD BIN Cluster IDs for this species are BOLD:ADL3257 (South Australian specimens) and BOLD:ABZ7318 (Queensland and Northern Territory specimens). BIN BOLD:ABZ7318 contains the DNA barcodes for the described C. icipe species as well as other specimens from Australia, Madagascar, Africa, Pakistan, French Polynesia, Bangladesh, Saudi Arabia, Colombia and Malaysia, and is less than 2% divergent from BIN BOLD:ADL3257.

In the original description of C. icipe (Fiaboe et al. 2017), the authors present a COI phylogeny showing the closely related specimens on BOLD from elsewhere in the world, which cluster by geographic location, but take the conservative approach of excluding those sequences from the species. Considering that the host species are widespread pests of agricultural crops, we believe it is likely that C. icipe is also therefore now a widespread species, and that these closely related DNA barcodes from outside Africa, including those from Australia, likely represent specimens of C. icipe .

However, without host data for the Australia specimens, we are reluctant to definitively confirm the presence of C. icipe in Australia until further specimens with host data become available. We do however present here the specimens, images and DNA data in the hope that it can assist applied research on the parasitoids of Spodoptera exigua .