Illidops vitobiasi Kotenko, 2004

Höcherl, Amelie, 2025, Revision of Holarctic Illidops Mason (Hymenoptera, Braconidae): A first step towards resolving a dark taxon and descriptions of three new species, European Journal of Taxonomy 1031, pp. 1-121 : 104-107

Illidops vitobiasi Kotenko, 2004

Fig. 61

Illidops vitobiasi Kotenko, 2004: 119 , figs 1–6.

Type material

Holotype

TURKMENISTAN – [ Lebap Region] • ♀; Repetek [Repetek Biosphere State Reserve?]; [ 38.61° N, 63.21° E]; sands; 27 Apr. 1992; A. Kotenko leg.; SIZK.

Species concept

Our species concept is based on our examination of photos of the holotype and the information available in Kotenko (2004, 2007) → ***.

Ecology / host information

Host unknown.

Distribution

PAL: Turkmenistan.

Molecular data

No molecular data available.

Remarks

In addition to the holotype, there are 5 female and 2 male paratypes stored at SIZK ( Zerova et al. 2006).

Original description sensu Kotenko (2004) (translated from Russian and with updated morphological terminology and comments in brackets when our observations did not match Kotenko’s)

Diagnosis. The new species is most similar to Illidops electilis , but differs from it by eyes more strongly converging downwards, usually more articulated sculpture of the propodeum, short and wide T1 and shorter ovipositor sheaths.

Description. Female. Body length 2.3 mm. Width of head almost 2 × its length [in dorsal view head width versus head length], slightly wider than width of mesonotum; head behind eyes comparatively sharply roundly narrowed [in dorsal view head behind eyes comparatively narrow]. The occiput is rather strongly concave. Ocelli arranged in a strongly obtuse triangle [ocelli in high triangle]; tangent to the anterior margin of the posterior ocelli passing along the posterior margin of the anterior ocellus [imaginary tangent posterior to the anterior ocellus does not touch or cross the posterior ocelli]; POL distinctly greater than OD. Eyes noticeably converging downwards, their transverse diameter 1.6× less than longitudinal diameter, and almost 2.0 × longer than length of gena (laterally). Face with longitudinal median elevation, which is more distinct before frons. Height of the face with the clypeus approximately equal to its width at its lower part. Clypeus well separated, shortened, with dense setae, almost straight along the front margin. Antennae shorter than the body; length of F15 1.5× as long as its width. Mesosoma slightly shorter than metasoma, its length 1.3× its height. Fore wing length 1.3 × hind wing length, approximately equal in length to the body; length of pterostigma 2.3× its width; vein R1 shorter than pterostigma length and noticeably shorter than the distance from the apex of the R1 to the apex of the wing; vein 1cu arising around the middle of the 1st discal cell; hind wing vein cu-a almost straight. Metatibiae slightly shorter than metatarsi; inner spur of metatibia not longer than outer, distinctly shorter than half of basitarsus; Ratio of metatarsomere lengths as follows 4.4: 2.1: 1.4: 1.0: 1.3. T1 short and wide, its length 1.2× its maximum width; T2 large and wide. Ovipositor sheaths relatively short, their visible part barely longer than half length of metatibia.

Face, gena, and head dorsally with shallow sculpture, slightly shiny; occiput densely wrinkly-sculptured, matte. Mesoscutum and scutellum densely punctured, with slight satin shine, almost matte. Propodeum along anterior margin and in postero-lateral corners sculptured, matte, in middle part with smoothed sculpture and more or less shiny; propodeum often softly sculpted and matte. T1 and T2 equally densely sculptured, matte.

Body black; antennae and palps reddish-brown or brown; tegulae and legs (except mostly black metacoxa) yellowish-brown or brown; metatibial spurs whitish; wings very faintly yellowish; pterostigma light brown, usually in the basal half and along the anterior margin lighter; vein R1 and veins in the middle part of the fore wing light brown or brownish-yellow.

Male. It differs from female by longer (longer than body) antennae and darker coloration of legs (metafemur, apical half of middle and metatibiae, and metatarsus darkened).

Material. Holotype: ♀, Turkmenistan, Repetek, sands, 27 IV 1992 (A. Kotenko). Paratypes. Turkmenistan: 5 ♀♀, 2 ♂♂, labeled as in the holotype; 1 ♀, Repetek, ridge sands, white saxaul, ephedra, 9 IV 1993 (V. Perepechaenko).

Hosts of Illidops

Only a few species of Illidops have associated host information. We went through all of the literature available to us and collected the information in Table 9. This information needs to be interpreted carefully ( Shaw 2023).

DNA barcoding and COI sequence analysis of Illidops

A total of 13 out of 32 Holarctic species of Illidops are currently linked to DNA barcode sequences. From these, eight show significant cryptic diversity and are only tentatively associated with one or several barcoding clusters, and one additional sequence is of very low quality ( I. urgo ). We performed a NJ analysis of the Holarctic COI sequences of Microgastrinae in BOLD, including only the longest sequence per BIN. With this method, we found a larger cluster which we associate with Illidops and another cluster which contains I. albostigmalis and I. mutabilis (see Supp. file 10). In total, 50 different BINs in the Holarctic were associated with Illidops in the BOLD database. Of these, 29 BINs include sequences linked to voucher specimens stored in the collections accessible to us, 14 BINs include sequences which are publicly available, often with associated images, and 7 BINs include only private data. By reviewing the BIN pages and the information on Nearest Neighbors (NN), we found nine additional BINs potentially linked to Illidops , but we do not have access to these sequences and BINs. For most of the BINs listed below, we were able to observe voucher specimens, or at least photos of the vouchers, but we did not have access to voucher specimens of all BINs.

BIN distances in Illidops

In general, we observed that the overall COI divergence between the BINs of Illidops is higher than in other genera of Microgastrinae (see Table 10 for p-distances). The distance to the NN in our dataset ranges between 10.18% in I. albostigmalis and 1.18% in I. doreenae sp. nov. However, the low distance in I. doreenae sp. nov. represents the distance between both BINs currently associated with this species.

Neighbor-Joining topology of Illidops

Our Neighbor Joining (NJ) analyses of the partial cytochrome c oxidase subunit I (COI) gene for the Holarctic diversity of microgastrinae wasps show Illidops as potentially polyphyletic, with I. cf. mutabilis and I. albostigmalis clustering apart from a different, larger cluster of other species of Illidops (e.g., Supp. file 10). Neighbor Joining analyses of our Illidops data ( Fig. 62, Supp. file 4) supports the results of the BIN approach as most species and BINs show high bootstrap values. Illidops stefanschmidti Höcherl & Fernandez-Triana sp. nov. and I. scutellaris appear as sister taxa, as well as I. butalidis and an unidentified BIN BOLD:AAK1598 from Canada, and I. mutabilis and I. albostigmalis . The NJ topology also clearly shows the most divergent species, with I. butalidis and I. sophrosine (pink coloration) showing high intraspecific divergence and being represented by various BINs. The same is true for the clusters tentatively associated with I. naso (blue) and I. suevus (green), which do not appear as sister taxa to each other.