First record of Nothoserphus mirabilis Brues, 1940 (Hymenoptera: Proctotrupidae) from Pothwar, Pakistan

Imran Bodlah1, Ammara Gull-E-Fareen1, Muhammad Tariq Rasheed1, Muhammad Amin2, Ayesha Aihetasham3

1Insect Biodiversity and Conservation Group, Department of Entomology, Pir Mehr Ali Shah Arid Agriculture University, Shamsabad, Muree Road, Rawalpindi, Punjab 46000, Pakistan

2Department of Entomology, Balochistan Agriculture College, 87300 Quetta, Pakistan.

3Department of Zoology, University of the Punjab, Lahore, Pakistan.

Abstract | Nothoserphus mirabilis Brues, 1940 (Hymenoptera: Proctotrupidae) is recorded for the first time as larval parasitoid of Coccinella septempunctata (Linnaeus, 1758) and Menochilus sex maculata (Fabricius, 1781) from various areas of Pothwar. Main identification characters of N. mirabilis supported with measurements and illustrations are provided here with notes on distributional range.

Article History

Received: November 11, 2018

Revised: February 01, 2019

Accepted: February 05, 2019

Published: March 01, 2019

Authors’ Contributions

IB surveyed, collected and identified the species. AGF identificatied host beetles. MTR and MA took photographs of the specimens. AGF and AA wrote the manuscript.

Keywords

First report, Nothoserphus mirabilis, Proctotrupidae, Pothwar.

Corresponding author: Imran Bodlah

imranbodlah@gmail.com

To cite this article: Bodlah, I., Gull-E-Fareen, A., Rasheed, M.T., Amin, M. and Aihetasham, A., 2019. First record of Nothoserphus mirabilis brues, 1940 (Hymenoptera: Proctotrupidae) from Pothwar, Pakistan. Punjab Univ. J. Zool., 34(1): 47-49. http://dx.doi.org/10.17582/journal.pujz/2019.34.1.47.49

Introduction

Coccinellids are most important group of insects and mainly found in any habitat from sea coast to mountain top and from city wastelands to windswept heathlands (Honek, 2012). Almost every garden will have atleast one species (Majerus and Kearns, 1989). They comprise about 390 genera and 6000 species worldwide (Slipinki, 2007). The members of family Coccinellidae are predators of economically important pest like mites, aphids and whiteflies etc., which are destructive pests of many important crops, fruit trees and vegetables (Vandenberg, 2002). Both the larval and adult stages of this group of beetles are predators. Due to their predatory nature many species are use in biological control programs. The significance of predacious ladybird beetles lies in the fact that they are regulating the population of prey under control, thereby contribute to the ecosystem balance and control of natural pest by these bio-agents can minimize the dependence on chemical insecticides, which are considered harmful to environment and also promotes the resistance in pests (Irshad and Haq, 2010). The coccinellid beetles (Coleoptera: Coccinellidae) consist of two subfamilies including: Coccinellinae and Microweisinae (Seago et al., 2011).

Ladybirds are attacked by different insect parasitoids. Some are specific for limited ranges of taxa within the Coccinellidae, while others are broadly polyphages. All the developmental stages of ladybirds are subject to attack from parasitoids, though parasitization of eggs and adult beetles is relatively rare and the former is restricted to phytophagous ladybirds of the tribe Epilachnini. Coccinellids are attacked in all life stages by nearly 100 species of parasitoids, which primarily belong to the orders Hymenoptera and Diptera (Ceryngier and Hodek, 1996). Ceryngier et al. (2012) listed around160 parasitoids and about 40 hyperparasitoids of various families of lady bird beetles from parts of the world. They alsogave a list of about 117 taxa, representing 3 dipteran and 8 Hymenopteran families as primary parasitoids of lady bird beetles.

On the other hand, the genus Nothoserphus Brues, 1940 (Hymenoptera: Proctotrupidae) occurs in Oriental and paleartic regions, parasitizing the larvae of Coccinellidae (Townes and Townes, 1981).Genus Nothoserphus Brues (1940) was erected on the single species N. mirabilis Brues (1940) from Taiwan (Oriental region). Later on it was synonymized with Thomsonina Hellén (1941) from Europe (Western-Palaearctic). At present genus Nothoserphus is accepted as a separate genus (Townes and Townes, 1981). Townes and Townes, (1981) reviewed Serphidae (Proctotrupidae) and reported 7 species of genus Nothoserphus from various parts of the world. Of 11 species described so far, 5 have been found to be solitary parasitoids of lady-bird larvae (Ceryngier et al., 2012). The genus is divided into three species groups (boops, afissae and mirabilis group); of which mirabilis - group parasitize Coccinellinae. Lin (1987) reported 7 species of genus Nothoserphus from Taiwan. Here we report Nothoserphus mirabilis Brues (1940) for the first time from Pakistan.

Materials and Methods

Larvae of Coccinella septempunctata and Menochilus sexmaculata along with their host aphid species were collected from two host plants, Thuja orientalis L. (Cinara tujafilina (del Guercio, 1909) and Lagerstroemia indica L. (Tinocallis kahawaluokalani (Kirkaldy, 1907). They were placed in petri plates. Aphids were daily provided till the emergence of parasitoids. Emerged parasitoids were identifiedby following the literature of Townes and Townes, (1981) under binocular microscope (Noif XSZ 107BN). Measurements were done using stage and ocular micrometer. Micrographs were prepared with the help of NIKON 1500 SMZ stereo microscope. Identified specimens have been deposited in Department of Entomology, Pir Mehr Ali Shah Arid Agriculture University Rawalpindi, Pakistan.

Results and Discussion

Identification of Nothoserphus mirabilis Group

Head contains a pair of erect blade-like processes. Side of pronotum coarsely rugose in and above the sulcus. Hind ends of notaulus separated by a narrow, wedge-shaped ridge (Townes and Townes, 1981).

Nothoserphus mirabilis Brues, 1940

Figure 1

Nothoserphus mirabilis Brues, 1940

Nothoserphus mirabilis Masner, 1958

Nothoserphus mirabilis Pschorn- Walcher, 1958

Nothoserphus mirabilis Masner, 1966

Identifying characters

Body black about 3.5 mm. Scape, pedicel, maxillary palpus, and legs beyond coxae yellowish fulvous, the last segment of front and middle tarsi and all of hind tarsus brown. Head short and trans verse; clypeus moderate size and smooth. Flagellum yellowish fulvous basally, darkening to brown near middle and dark brown beyond middle. Antennae about 1.5 times shorter than body. Tyloids weak, small and situated near the bases of male antennal segment 4-7.Lower temple about 0.4-0.5 as long as eye. Median lobe of mesoscutum with a long and curved foveate groove. Tegula and coxae brown. Wings subhyaline, the rest weakly infuscate, darkest near and below stigma. Fore wing 2.3 times longer than wider, while hind wing 4.4 times. Stigma, radius and subcosta dark brown. Costa pale brown.

Measurements

Length of male and female forewing: 3.3mm; lengths of antennal segments (female): 9.,3.1,13.2,11.2,10,10,10,9.4,9,9,8.5,7.8,11.4.

Material examined

6♂, 4♀, Islamabad: N35 40.527’ E072 08.376’ 1763 ft. elev.,13-04-2017; 2♂, 2♀, Rawalpindi: N33 38.929’ E073 04.943’ 1645 ft. elev., 01-01-2015; 2♂, 2♀, Murree: N33 55.341’ E073 24.216’ 6302 ft. elev., 09-03-2017; 9♂, 4♀, Islamabad: N33 42.558’ E073 01.330’, 1686 ft. elev., 20-11-2017 (Oriental Arborvitae); 6♂, 4♀, Rawalpindi: N33֯ 38.612’ E073֯ 04.476’ 1733 ft. elev., 03-04-2016 (Crepe myrtle); 10♂, 8♀, Islamabad: N33֯ 43.929’ E073֯02.179’ 3836ft. elev., 17-03-2017.

Distribution

India, South–eastern China, Taiwan, Java and Nepal (Ceryngier and Hodek, 1996).

Remarks

Specimens collected from Pakistan were compared with published descriptions of Lin (1987) and Townes and Townes, (1981). They were found to be similar with their main identifying characters. This species is confined to the Oriental region and has been reared
from aphidovorous coccinellid larva (Lin, 1987). In our study, this was also reared from the larvae of Coccinella septempunctata (Linnaeus, 1758) and Menochilus sexmaculata (Fabricius, 1781). Our result also confirm the first record of Nothoserphus mirabilis Brues, 1940 (Hymenoptera: Proctotrupidae) from Pothwar, Pakistan. These studies may be helpful for the researchers for successful rearing of lady bird beetles in laboratories.

References

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Ceryngier, P., Roy, H.E. and Poland, R.L., 2012. Natural enemies of ladybird beetles. In: Ecology and Behaviour of the Ladybird beetles (Coccinellidae) (ed. I. Hodek, H.F. Van Emden and A. Honek). John Wiley and Sons, Ltd, Chichester, West Sussex, United Kingdom. pp. 375-443. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118223208.ch8

Honek, A., 2012. Distribution and habitats. In: Ecology and Behaviour of the Ladybird beetles (Coccinellidae) (ed. I.Hodek, H.F. Van Emden and A. Honek), John Wiley and Sons, Ltd, Chichester, West Sussex, United Kingdom. pp. 110-140. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118223208.ch4

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Seago, A.E, Giorgi, J.A., Li J.H., and Ślipiński A., 2011. Phylogeny, classification and evolution of ladybird beetles (Coleoptera: coccinellidae) based on simultaneous analysis of molecular and morphological data. Mol. Phylogen. Evol., 60:137–151. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ympev.2011.03.015

Ślipiński, S.A., 2007. The biology and classification. In:Australian ladybird beetles (Coleoptera: Coccinellidae). Australian Biological Recourse Study, Canberra. pp.486.

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