Taeniogonalos gestroi ( Schulz, 1908 )

Binoy, C., van Achterberg, Cornelis, Polaszek, Andrew, Kumar, P. Girish & Santhosh, S., 2022, A review of Taeniogonalos (Hymenoptera: Trigonalyidae) from India with the description of two new species, Journal of Natural History 56 (21 - 24), pp. 1153-1185 : 1166-1169

Taeniogonalos gestroi ( Schulz, 1908)

( Figures 6a–e and 7a–f )

Poecilogonalos pulchella var. gestroi Schulz, 1908: 24 . Holotype, female ‘ Burma’ [ Myanmar] (re-instated as gestroi and combined with Taeniogonalos by Chen et al. 2014: 141)

Poecilogonalos thwaitesi gestroi ; Weinstein and Austin 1991: 423

Poecilogonalos thwaitesi thwaitesi ; Weinstein and Austin 1991: 424

Taeniogonalos thwaitesii ; Tsuneki 1991: 51 (not Westwood 1874) (combined with Taeniogonalos by Carmean and Kimsey 1998: 68)

Diagnosis

Scutellum and middle lobe of mesoscutum bicoloured ( Figure 7b ); supra-antennal elevations 0.1–0.4× as long as scape, outer side oblique ( Figure 6d ); antenna with 24 antennomeres ( Figure 6b ); head posteriorly with extensive yellow or orange-brown pattern, including a V-shaped yellow or orange pattern behind stemmaticum; head dorsally often densely reticulate-punctate ( Figure 6d ); temple largely smooth with sparse fine punctures ( Figure 6c ); clypeus moderately emarginate medio-ventrally ( Figure 6e ); middle mesoscutal lobe similar to lateral lobes, black or yellow laterally and black medially ( Figure 7b ); mesopleuron and metapleuron with extensive yellow pattern ( Figure 7a ); third submarginal cell of fore wing 0.5–0.7× as long as second submarginal cell ( Figure 7c ); second metasomal sternite of both sexes without medio-apical protuberance ( Figure 7f ), distinctly convex and no opening between second and following sternites in lateral view ( Figure 7d ); third metasomal sternite of female without apical ledge ( Figure 7f ).

Biology

Clausen (1929) reported the emergence of T. thwaitesii (actually T. gestroi ) from cocoons of Henicospilus rufus Tosq. (= Enicospilus rufus (Brullé, 1846) ( Hymenoptera : Ichneumonidae ). Hyperparasitoid of Ichneumonidae in pyralid caterpillars ( Carmean and Kimsey 1998, as T. thwaitesii ).

Distribution

India (Sikkim) . Extralimital: China; Indonesia (syntype); Laos; Malaysia; Myanmar (syntype); Papua New Guinea; Sri Lanka; Taiwan; Thailand ( Chen et al. 2014) . The record from Sri Lanka may concern T. thwaitesii (Westwood) and needs confirmation.

Notes

Taeniogonalos gestroi (Schulz) differs significantly from T. thwaitesii (Westwood) , and Chen et al. (2014) re-instated T. gestroi as a valid species occurring from North India to China and insular Southeast Asia. No specimens were obtained during the present study, so the above diagnosis is based on the redescription of the species by Chen et al. (2014).

Figures

Figures 6(a–e). Taeniogonalos gestroi (Schulz, 1908) ♀. a. Habitus, lateral view; b. Antenna; c. Head, lateral view; d. Head, dorsal view; e. Head, frontal view.

Figures 7(a–f). Taeniogonalos gestroi (Schulz, 1908) ♀. a. Mesosoma,lateral view; b. Mesosoma, dorsal view; c. Fore wing; d. Metasoma, lateral view; e. Metasomal tergites, dorsal view; f. Metasomal sternites, ventral view.