A1 Refereed original research article in a scientific journal
Microgastrinae (Hymenoptera: Braconidae) parasitizing Epirrita autumnata (Lepidoptera: Geometridae) larvae in Fennoscandia with description of Cotesia autumnatae Shaw, sp n.
Authors: Kai Ruohomäki, Tero Klemola, Mark R Shaw, Niina Snäll, Ilari E Sääksjärvi, Anu Veijalainen, Niklas Wahlberg
Publisher: ENTOMOLOGICA FENNICA
Publication year: 2013
Journal: Entomologica Fennica
Journal name in source: ENTOMOLOGICA FENNICA
Journal acronym: ENTOMOL FENNICA
Number in series: 2
Volume: 24
Issue: 2
First page : 65
Last page: 80
Number of pages: 16
ISSN: 0785-8760
The microgastrine subset of hymenopteran parasitoids of the geometrid Epirrita autumnata is investigated in Fennoscandia. Ecology, including population dynamics, of the moth has been intensively studied in northern and mountainous Finland, Norway and Sweden. Recently supported hypotheses about the causes of its cyclic population dynamics stress the role of parasitoids, while the parasitoid complex with some 15 species is insufficiently known. The complex includes four solitary microgastrine species, Protapanteles anchisiades (Nixon), immunis (Wesmael), Cotesia salebrosa (Marshall) and C. autumnatae Shaw, sp. n. Here, we provide detailed figures for the latter, which is morphologically close to C. jucunda (Marshall), and describe the species as new to science. We also provide more general habitus figures of the other three species, as well as an identification key for the four species, aiming to aid recognition of these species by ecologists dealing with microgastrine parasitoids of E. autumnata and their alternative geometrid hosts.
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