Biodiversity Data Journal : Taxonomic paper
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Taxonomic paper

Cheiloneurus flaccus (Walker, 1847) (Hymenoptera: Encyrtidae), new to New Zealand

expand article info Stephen E. Thorpe †
† School of Biological Sciences (Tamaki Campus), University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand
Corresponding author: Stephen E. Thorpe (stephen_thorpe@yahoo.co.nz)
Academic editor: José Fernández-Triana
Received: 26 Jul 2013 | Accepted: 02 Sep 2013 | Published: 16 Sep 2013
© 2013 Stephen E. Thorpe.
This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 (CC-BY) which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Citation: Thorpe S (2013) Cheiloneurus flaccus (Walker, 1847) (Hymenoptera: Encyrtidae), new to New Zealand. Biodiversity Data Journal 1: e958. doi: 10.3897/BDJ.1.e958
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Abstract

Cheiloneurus flaccus (Walker, 1847) is reported from New Zealand for the first time.

Keywords

Cheiloneurus flaccus, Hymenoptera, Encyrtidae, New Zealand, Auckland, Dryinidae, NZOR

Introduction

Cheiloneurus flaccus a distinctive species of encyrtid found widely in the New World, and also Australia (Guerrieri 2006). It is a parasitoid of dryinids. It is herein newly recorded from Auckland, New Zealand.

Taxon treatment

Cheiloneurus flaccus (Walker, 1847)

Material   Download as CSV 
  1. country: New Zealand; verbatimLocality: Tamaki Campus of University of Auckland; verbatimLatitude: 36.88661S; verbatimLongitude: 174.85253E; eventDate: 20 April 2013; individualCount: 2; sex: female; recordedBy: Stephen Thorpe; institutionCode: Auckland Museum

Description

On 20 April 2013, while looking for insects in swards of long grass on the Tamaki Campus of the University of Auckland, I noticed two specimens of an unusual looking encyrtid. I collected one of the two specimens (see Figs 1, 2), and identified it as Cheiloneurus flaccus, using the redescription by Guerrieri and Viggiani (2005). C. flaccus is a distinctive species, quite different to the two congeneric species already known from N.Z. The antenna, in particular, is distinctive, with the first segment of the funicle much longer than the pedicel (see Fig. 2). The species is known to be a parasitoid of dryinids. The site where I found C. flaccus also abounds with dryinids belonging to two species of Gonatopus. Two other species of dryinid (Bocchus thorpei, and Dryinius koebelei) also occur on the campus. I recommend that C. flaccus be added to the New Zealand Organisms Register (NZOR) as exotic, present in the wild.

Figure 1.

Cheiloneurus flaccus (female), length about 2 mm

Figure 2.

Cheiloneurus flaccus, female antenna

References