Scientific name

Apenesia sahyadrica Azevedo & Waichert

Taxonomic position

Hymenoptera: Chrysidoidea: Bethylidae

Diagnosis

Female: Wingless. Head, mesosoma and legs castaneous / reddish brown to yellowish brown; metasoma dark pitchy brown and shiny, tergites posteriorly paler, reddish brown. Head large, quadrate with much reduced, elliptical eyes with indistinguishable facets; ocelli absent. Mandibles with two large apical teeth, upper tooth smaller. Clypeus truncate.

   Head, female

Male: Fully winged and slightly smaller than females. Head and mesosoma black, metasoma dark castaneous; mandibles, antennae, palpi and legs castaneous; wings subhyaline. Mandibles with five apical teeth, lower tooth larger than rest. Ocelli present. Clypeus rounded.

Males and females very strongly sexually dimorphic. Azevedo & Waichert (2006) described both sexes in detail with illustrations.

     Adult female, dorsal view

Distribution

India: Originally described from Western Ghats. Presently mass produced and used in the augmentative biological control of coffee white stem borer, Xylotrechus quadripes Chevrolat (Coleoptera: Cerambycidae) in Karnataka, Kerala, and Tamil Nadu.

Hosts / Biology

It is a gregarious external parasitoid of Xylotrechus quadripes Chevrolat (Coleoptera: Cerambycidae). The adult also feeds on smaller grubs, pupae and adults of the stem borer. The wasp lays its eggs on third to fourth instar larvae on the lateral and dorsal sides after paralysing them. There are four larval instars lasting 6-8 days. Pupation takes place inside silken cocoons and pupal stage lasts for about 18 days. The female exhibits parental care and remains near the brood till the emergence of adults. One female parasitises 3-5 stem borer larvae in its lifetime. Seetharama et al. (2002) studied its biology in detail.

   
Female of A. sahyadrica ovipositing on white stem borer larva

 
Eggs of A. sahyadrica on white stem borer larva

   
Larvae of A. sahyadrica on the larva of coffee white stem borer

   
Adult female showing parental care

 
Cocoons of A. sahyadrica

This parasitoid is mass produced and periodically augmentatively released in the coffee plantations of southern India for the management of X. quadripes.

References

  • Azevedo, C.O. & Waichert, C. 2006. A new species of Apenesia (Hymenoptera, Bethylidae) from India, a parasitoid of coffee white stem borer, Xylotrechus quadripes (Coleoptera, Cerambycidae). Zootaxa, 1174: 63-68.
  • Seetharama, H.G., Vinod Kumar, P.K., Sreedharan, K. and Vasudev, V. 2002. Biology and observations on the field parasitism by Apenesia sp. (Hymenoptera: Bethylidae), an indigenous parasitoid of the coffee white stem borer, Xylotrechus quadripes, pp. 513-519. In: Proceedings of the 15th Plantation Crops Symposium PLACROSYM XV (Eds. K. Sreedharan et al.), Central Coffee Research Institute, Chikmagalur, Karnataka.