Hymenoptera: Braconidae: Microgastrinae

Apanteles erionotae Wilkinson, 1928

Female: Head and mesosoma black. Scape and pedicel yellow brown, flagellomeres dark brown. Fore and mid coxa red testaceous. First metasomal tergite deep red-black; second tergite brown with yellow infuscation in the middle, apex of hind femur and apical half of hind tibia darkened, stigma and wing veins brown. Propodeum with well marked median longitudinal carina. Oblique carinae run upwards on each side of median carina and join to a strong transverse basal carina.

Cotesia erionatae was found parasitizing larvae of Udaspes folus (Cramer). The other reported hosts from macrolepidoptera are Erionota thrax (Linnaeus) & Erionota torus Evans and the other associated hymenopterans are Eurytoma sp. (Eurytomidae) and Pediobius erinotae Kerrich (Eulophidae) (Yu 2012). The collection of the gregarious larval braconid parasitoid Cotesia erionotae (Wilkinson) from host Udaspes folus (Cramer) from Maharashtra and Karnataka States marks an extension in its distributional range from Kerala to Maharashtra and Karnataka in peninsular India.

India, China, Guam, Hawaiian Islands, Indonesia, Malaysia, Mauritius, Papua New Guinea & Thailand.

Fernández-Triana, J.L., Shaw, M.R., Boudreault, C., Beaudin, M. & Broad, G.R. (2020). Annotated and illustrated world checklist of Microgastrinae parasitoid wasps (Hymenoptera, Braconidae). ZooKeys, 920: 1-1089.
https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.920.39128

Gupta, A. & Fernández-Triana, J.L. (2014). Diversity, host association and cocoon variability of reared Indian Microgastrinae (Hymenoptera: Braconidae). (Monograph), Zootaxa, 3800(1), 1–101.
https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.3800.1.1

Gupta, A., Lokhande, S.A. & Soman, A. (2013). Parasitoids of Hesperiidae from peninsular India with description of a new species of Dolichogenidea (Hymenoptera: Braconidae) parasitic on caterpillar of Borbo cinnara (Wallace) (Lepidoptera: Hesperiidae). Zootaxa, 3701 (2): 277–290.
http://dx.doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.3701.2.8