Baeoneurella benefica (Gahan)

Popovici, Ovidiu Alin, Masner, Lubomir & Polaszek, Andrew, 2019, A revision of the European species of Baeoneurella Dodd (Hymenoptera: Scelionidae), Journal of Natural History (J. Nat. Hist.) 52 (43 - 44), pp. 2745-2794 : 2761-2770

Baeoneurella benefica (Gahan)

( Figures 4a – f , 5a – f )

Eumicrosoma benefica Gahan, 1913: 442 . Original description; Eumicrosoma beneficum: Masner and Muesebeck, 1968: 60 . Type information, emendation; Eumicrosoma benefi- cum: Kozlov, 1978: 646. Description; Eumicrosoma beneficum: Kozlov and Kononova, 1983: 314 ; Eumicrosoma beneficum: Fabritius and Andriescu, 1985: 128 . Diagnosis,

keyed; Eumicrosoma beneficum: Johnson, 1992: 561 . Catalogued, type information; Eumicrosoma beneficum: Kononova, 1995: 121 . Keyed.

Female

Colour ( Figure 4a ). Head black; A8 – A11 darker than A6 – A7 ( Figure 4d ); mesosoma black; femora and tibiae of all legs having the same colour as metasoma, tarsi slightly lighter in colour; metasoma light red-brown to orange.

Head. Transverse in dorsal view, almost rectangular in lateral view; clypeus wider than long; distal margin of clypeus: convex ( Figure 5a ); setation of clypeus: 4 or more setae; antennal rim well developed, prominent ventrally laterad of interantennal process ( Figure 5a ); sculpture of antennal scrobe: absent; sculpture of frons medially: absent; ratio OOL/OD: OOL<OD; OOL/POL/LOL: 1:18:10; sculpture of interocellar area: absent; location of postgenal pit: closer to oral foramen than to occipital foramen; shape of postgenal pit: circular ( Figure 5c ); sculpture of temple: imbricate-coriaceous; sculpture of occiput: smooth; sculpture of posterior vertex: imbricate-coriaceous; preoccipital furrow: wide, with sides converging medially and fused to form a tube-like structure ( Figure 5c ); odontoid process: atrophied, barely visible ( Figure 5d ).

Mesosoma (dorsal). Pronotum almost vertical, slightly visible in dorsal view ( Figure 5e,f ); dorsal pronotal area: slightly visible (width of dorsal pronotal area at most 0.7 times width of tegula); mesoscutal suprahumeral sulcus: a simple line, incomplete; mesoscutal humeral sulcus: a simple line; anterior declivity of mesoscutum: prolonged anteriorly over pronotum; mesoscutum (except the anterior declivity of mesoscutum): slightly convex; extent of sculpture on mesoscutum: sculptured on anterior 1/4 along pronoto-mesoscutal suture, remainder smooth and lustrous; parascutal carina: broad, distinct; scutoscutellar sulcus: short, present only on the lateral sides of the transscutal articulation; axillar crescent: present; axillular carina: not pointed; posterior mesoscutellar sulcus distinct, crenulate; mesoscutellum flattened; pilosity of mesoscutellum: few sparse setae; shape of mesoscutellum: strongly transverse; ratio width mesoscutellum/length mesoscutellum: at most 4 times as wide as long; metascutellum: slightly convex; width of mesoscutellum/width of metascutellum: at most 1.4; width of metascutellum/length of metascutellum: 4.5 – 5.5 times as wide as long.

Mesosoma (lateral). Pronotal cervical sulcus: wide, relatively deep and crenulate; sculpture of lateral pronotal area: uniformly coriaceous; pronotal suprahumeral sulcus slightly visible; posterior pronotal sulcus: large, distinct; sculpture of speculum: some transverse striae; sculpture of upper mesepisternum below femoral depression: imbricate-coriaceous; mesepimeral sulcus: incomplete; mesopleural carina: visible as an abrupt change in sculpture; metapleural carina: present; metapleural sulcus: present only posterior to metapleural pit; anteroventral extension of metapleuron: well developed, touching middle of mesocoxa.

Wings ( Figure 4f ). Fore wings: lanceolate; colour of fore wings: infuscated; colour of hind wings: hyaline throughout ( Figure 4f ); fore wing length: at least 7.5 times as long as wide; length of marginal fringes of fore wing: at least 1.6 times as long as fore wing width; fore wing width: at most 2 times as wide as hind wing width; length of marginal fringes of hind wings: 2.9 – 3.2 times as long as hind wing width.

Metasoma. About twice as long as wide; longitudinal striae on T1: present on the anterior ¾. T1 3 times as wide as long; sculpture on T2: present on the anterior ¾; type of T2 sculpture: longitudinally finely vermiculate. T2 at least 7.5 times as long as T1 and 1.7 times as long as wide; each visible tergite with 2 pairs of setae (lateral – placed at the limit between tergite and laterotergites – and paramedian) ( Figure 12a ).

Male ( Figure 4c )

Size – 0.7 mm; similar to female, differing in: (a) structure of antenna – with 12 antennomeres, without clava ( Figure 4e ); (b) length of metasoma – male metasoma is shorter than in female; (c) colour of T2 – not uniformily coloured as in female, but posterior half dark (brown); and (d) length of T2 – 1.7 times as long as wide in female and 1.2 times as long as wide in male.

Material examined

Canada. 1♀ Ontario, Ottawa , city garden, 45.3560°N, – 75.7069°W, 15 – 18 July 2008, leg . L . Masner ( YPT, coated for SEM), 1♂, Ontario, Riceville , 25 July 1979, leg . Kaulbars ( OPPC); 21♀ and ♂, Ontario, Riceville June – August 1979 ( CNC); 5♀, Quebec, Rigaud , 9 August 1979, flood forest, leg . Masner and Goulet ( CNC) .

USA. 5♀, Kansas, Riley Co . Konza Prairie Biological Station , July – August 2001, leg . Zolnerovich and Kula ( CNC); 4♀, Florida, Manatee Bradenton, 11 October 1989, (ex eggs Ischnodemus fulvipes (De Geer) in Thalia geniculata Linnaeus ; CNC); 4♀, Maryland, Prince George Co ., Patuxent Research Station , 7 – 13 July 1979, leg . Schauff ( CNC) .

Distribution

This is the only known Holarctic species of this genus ( Masner and Kozlov 1965; Kozlov and Kononova 1983), previously recorded from Republic of Moldova (Masner and Kozlov

1965; Kozlov and Kononova 1983; Gîrneţ 2012), Bulgaria ( Petrov 2012), and Russia (Krasnodar Krai) ( Kozlov and Kononova 1983) ( Figure 17a ).

Biology

Baeoneurella benefica is an egg parasitoid of Blissus leucopterus ( Hemiptera : Blissidae ) ( Gahan 1913, Wright and Danielson 1992; Cherry 2011) and Blissus insularis ( Hemiptera : Blissidae ) ( Coracini and Samuels 2002). It has also been reared from eggs of Ischnodemus fulvipes ( Hemiptera : Blissidae ) (L. Masner pers. comm.).

Figures

Figure 4. Baeoneurella benefica: (a) female, habitus; (b) female, head and mesosoma, detail; (c) male, habitus; (d) female, antenna; (e) male, antenna; (f) female, fore and hind wings.

Figure 5. Baeoneurela benefica (female, SEM): (a) head, frontoventral, emphasising the clypaeus, antennal rim and interantennal process; (b) head, dorsofrontal; (c) back of the head, emphasising the preoccipital furrow; (d) mandible; (e) mesosoma, dorsal; (f) mesosoma, lateral.

Figure 12. Chaetotaxy of T1–T4 in: (a) Baeoneurella benefica; (b) Baeoneurella mirabilis; (c) Baeoneurella phaeax; (d) Baeoneurella maceki.

Figure 17. Distribution map: (a) Baeoneurella benefica; (b) Baeoneurella phaeax; (c) Baeoneurella mirabilis; (d) Baeoneurella maceki.