Eupelmus (Macroneura) muellneri Ruschka, 1921

Dorchin, Netta, Mifsud, David & Askew, Richard, 2014, Saltbush-associated Asphondylia species (Diptera: Cecidomyiidae) in the Mediterranean Basin and their chalcidoid parasitoids (Hymenoptera: Chalcidoidea), Zootaxa 3869 (4), pp. 383-396 : 394

Eupelmus (Macroneura) muellneri Ruschka, 1921

(Chalcidoidea: Eupelmidae )

Eupelmus muellneri is a brachypterous Palaearctic species known from the Canary Islands, southern Europe (north of the Czech Republic), North Africa and the former USSR. It is polyphagous but strongly associated with gallforming hosts on herbaceous plants and shrubs. Hosts in Lepidoptera (Pyralidae) , Diptera ( Cecidomyiidae , Tephritidae ), Hymenoptera ( Cynipidae , Eurytomidae ) and, improbably, Hemiptera (Aphidoidea) are cited in Noyes (2012). Specimens of E. muellneri reared from the following hosts have been examined:

Lepidoptera , Gelechiidae , Oecocecis guyonella (Guenee) on Limoniastrum ( Tunisia, Djerba Island, leg. M. Boness) (new host record); Diptera , Cecidomyiidae , Stefaniella atriplicis (Kieffer) on Atriplex halimus ( Portugal, Spain, Tunisia); Asphondylia punica Marchal on Atriplex halimus ( Cyprus) (new host record), unidentified cecidomyiid galls on Artemisia ( Spain) and Capparis spinosa ( Cyprus) ; Diptera , Tephritidae , Myopites sp (p). on Inula (mainland Spain and Majorca); Hymenoptera , Cynipidae , Isocolus lichtensteini (Mayr) on Centaurea nicaensis (Formentera) , Phanacis helminthiae (De Stefani) on Picris aculeata (Sicily, leg.V. Rocco Lo Duca, R.R. Askew) (listed under Phanacis ?caulicola in Askew et al. 2006), Timaspis cichorii Kieffer on Cichorium intybus ( Spain, leg. A. Ribes) (new host record), Diplolepis eglanteriae (Hartig) on Rosa sempervirens ( Malta, Wied Incita, D. Mifsud) and Diplolepis sp. on Rosa ( Spain) .

Material examined. 13♀, Malta, Migra Ferħa , 5–25.v.2012, D . Mifsud, emerged 13–20.vi.2012 from galls of Asphondylia scopuli ; 6♀, same data, emerged 26–30.vi.2012, all deposited in the private collections of DM & RA .

It is noteworthy that only females of E. muellneri were reared in Malta from both Asphondylia scopuli (19 individuals) and Diplolepis eglanteriae (3 individuals). In comparison, the ratio of males to females reared from cecidomyiid galls elsewhere approximates 1:2.