JHR 61: 49-64 (2017) gee JOURNAL OF terme sense ie eet (4) Hymenoptera http://jhr.pensoft.net The Insertional Society of ymenoptersts. RESEARCH Cotesia icipe sp.n.,a new Microgastrinae wasp (Hymenoptera, Braconidae) of importance in the biological control of Lepidopteran pests in Africa Komi K.M. Fiaboe!, Jose Fernandez-Triana’, Faith W. Nyamu', Komi M. Agbodzavu' | International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology (icipe), Plant Health Unit, P O. Box 30772-00100, Nairobi, Kenya 2. Canadian National Collection of Insects, Ottawa, Canada Corresponding author: Jose Ferndndez-Triana (jose.fernandez@agr.gc.ca) Academic editor: G. Broad | Received 15 September 2017 | Accepted 7 November 2017 | Published 20 December 2017 http.//zoobank. ore/C76 1 FAEB-8FBE-43D0-8 CE4-1ED61LA1FOA6D Citation: Fiaboe KKM, Fernandez-Triana J, Nyamu FW, Agbodzavu KM (2017) Cotesia icipe sp. n., a new Microgastrinae wasp (Hymenoptera, Braconidae) of importance in the biological control of Lepidopteran pests in Africa. Journal of Hymenoptera Research 61: 49-64. https://doi.org/10.3897/jhr.61.21015 Abstract A new species of Microgastrinae, Cotesia icipe Fernandez-Triana & Fiaboe, sp. n., is described from eastern Africa. It was reared in Kenya as a solitary parasitoid from two major amaranth pests, Spodoptera littoralis (Boisduval, 1833) and S. exigua (Hiibner, 1808); study of specimens in collections also revealed its pres- ence in four other countries in the Afrotropical region (Madagascar, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, and Yemen). Morphological, molecular and biological characters are used to describe the new species and to distinguish it from all 12 previously described species of Afrotropical Cotesia. Cotesia icipe shows potential in the biological control of key Lepidopteran pests in small scale farming conditions in Africa. Keywords Microgastrinae, Cotesia, Spodoptera, biological control, Africa Introduction The subfamily Microgastrinae (Hymenoptera, Braconidae) is the single most impor- tant group of parasitoid wasps attacking caterpillars, with many species used or being considered as biocontrol agents against Lepidopteran pests in agriculture and forestry Copyright Komi K.M. Fiaboe et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. 50 Komi K.M. Fiaboe et al. / Journal of Hymenoptera Research 61: 49-64 (2017) (Whitfield 1997). It comprises more than 2,700 described species (Yu et al. 2016) with many thousands of additional, undescribed ones (Rodriguez et al. 2013). The genus Cotesia is currently the second largest, with almost 300 described species worldwide (Yu et al. 2016) but many hundreds awaiting description. There are 12 species of Cotesia recorded from the entire Afrotropics (Rousse and Gupta 2013, Yu et al. 2016, Kaiser et al. 2017). We do not include in that total Cotesia plutellae (Kurdjumov, 1912), which was recently removed from synonymy with Cotesia vestalis (Haliday, 1834) and considered as a valid species by Rousse and Gupta (2013). Rousse and Gupta based their decision on a paper from Rincon et al. (2006) that found that “Cotesia plutellae’ seemed to comprise two partially incompatible popula- tion aggregates. While we agree that specimens previously identified as “Cotesia plutel- lae” might comprise a complex of morphologically cryptic species —as is the case with many other species of Microgastrinae (e.g., Fernandez-Triana 2010, Fernandez-Triana et al. 2014, Kaiser et al. 2017), without further study, especially of the type specimens involved, there is no real basis for raising that name from synonymy. It is clear from both papers (Rincon et al. 2006, Rousse and Gupta 2013) that those authors never studied the pertinent material, and at present there is no sound evidence for a conclu- sion as to which type specimens (if any) are associated with their segregates. ‘Therefore, we consider here the name Cotesia plutellae (Kurdjumov, 1912) to be just a synonym of Cotesia vestalis (Haliday, 1834). This paper describes a new species of Cotesia from Kenya (also present in oth- er Afrotropical countries), which has been found to be important in the biological control of two major amaranth pests, Spodoptera littoralis and S. exigua (Lepidoptera, Noctuidae). The parasitoid was found during various field studies carried out by the International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology (icipe), in the scope of develop- ing an IPM programme against amaranth pests in East Africa. In Kenya, specimens of the new species were collected from different locations where the project activities are carried out and there is a potentially much wider distribution. The new species is compared to the other 12 species of Cotesia previously recorded from the Afrotropical region, and diagnostic characters to recognize it are provided. Methods Specimens of the new species were collected from different locations in Central Ken- ya: Yatta, (01.23044°S; 37.45789°E) and Mwea (0.6309°S; 37.35117°E); Kitengela (1.6°S; 36.85°E) and Thika (1.00269°S; 37.07858°E). The material has been deposited in the International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology, Nairobi, Kenya (icipe), the Canadian National Collection of Insects, Ottawa (CNC) and the National Muse- ums of Kenya (NMK). Morphological terms and measurements of structures follow those used by Mason (1981), Huber and Sharkey (1993), Whitfield (1997), Karlsson and Ronquist (2012), and Fernandez-Triana et al. (2014). The abbreviations T1, T2, and T3 refer to meta- Cotesia icipe sp. 2., a new Microgastrinae wasp (Hymenoptera, Braconidae)... 51 somal mediotergites 1, 2, 3; and F1-F16 refer to antennal flagellomeres 1 to 16. The description of the new species contains ratios commonly used in taxonomic studies of Microgastrinae (e.g., ovipositor sheaths length/metatibia length); we also provide the raw measurements of morphological structures (in mm) as they allow for additional ratios to be explored in the future, if needed. Seven specimens (including the holotype and paratypes, with voucher codes CNC507547—CNC507553) were sampled for DNA barcodes (the 5’ region of the cytochrome c oxidase I (CO1) gene, Hebert et al. 2003). DNA extracts were obtained from single legs using a glass fibre protocol (Ivanova et al. 2006). Total genomic DNA was re-suspended in 30 pl of dH20, a 658-bp region near the 5’ terminus of the CO1 gene was amplified using standard primers (LepF1—LepR1) following established pro- tocols (http://v4.boldsystems.org/index.php), and a composite sequence was generated for all successful amplifications. All information for the sequences associated with each individual specimen can be retrieved from the Barcode of Life Data System (BOLD) (Ratnasingham and Hebert 2007). Photos were taken with a Keyence VHX-1000 Digital Microscope, using a lens with a range of 10-130 x. Multiple images were taken of a structure through the focal plane and then combined to produce a single in-focus image using the software associ- ated with the Keyence System. Plates were prepared using Microsoft PowerPoint 2010. A map with the distribution of the species was generated using SimpleMappr (Shorthouse 2010). Original descriptions and/or authenticated specimens of the 12 Cotesia species previously recorded for the Afrotropical region were checked. In the Detailed diagnosis section below, the new species is compared individually with all other species previ- ously described from the Afrotropics, and diagnostic characters to separate it from all of them are presented. Morphological comparisons are based mostly on female specimens, as male Microgastrinae often are difficult to identify (e.g., Whitfield 1997, Fernandez- Triana et al. 2014). A neighbor-joining tree (K2P) of all specimens in the Barcoding of Life Data Sys- tem (BOLD) currently associated with the new species (BIN BOLD:ABZ7318) was generated using the capabilities available in BOLD (for an explanation of the BIN concept see Ratnasingham and Hebert 2007). A second neighbor-joining tree (K2P) was generated for all Afrotropical species of Cotesia with available sequences over 500 base pairs in BOLD (the data was accessed on September 2017). Results Cotesia icipe Fernandez-Triana & Fiaboe, sp. n. http://zoobank.org/E69761 1 F-08A4-4CA7-B300-E35B50675BD9 Holotype. Female, Kenya, NMK. Holotype locality: Yatta. Holotype labels: KENYA, Yatta, 1°13'49.59"S 37°27'28.41"E, 1184m, coll. ICIPE. Voucher code: CNC507547. 52 Komi K.M. Fiaboe et al. / Journal of Hymenoptera Research 61: 49-64 (2017) Paratypes. 3 females (CNC507548, CNC507549, CNC507553), 3 males (CNC50750, CNC50751, CNC50752); same locality of holotype. Paratypes depos- ited in the CNC, ICIPE and NMK. Other specimens considered as this species. There are 10 DNA barcodes in BOLD from Madagascar, Saudi Arabia, South Africa and Yemen (Fig. 4) whose se- quences match those of the Yemen holotype and paratypes and thus we consider them all as conspecific. However we only include in the type series those specimens from Kenya that we were able to examine. Diagnosis. Metasoma with T3 dark brown to black centrally, yellow laterally; hind legs mostly yellow, except for metacoxa (mostly black, with small yellow spot on apical 0.1), brown spots on apical 0.1 of metafemur (dorsally), apical 0.1 of metatibia dark brown, and metatarsus entirely dark brown; tegula and humeral complex yellow; fore wing with most veins brown. Besides coloration, C. icipe has scuto-scutellar sulcus with eight carinae; T1 almost parallel-sided, very slightly widening towards posterior margin; [2 relatively small, quadrate and not covering the entire surface of the tergum, and T3 1.3x as long as [2 length. The above combination of characters is sufficient to separate the species from all other described species of Afrotropical Cotesia, but see the Detailed diagnosis section below for one-to-one comparisons of C. icipe versus every other species. Beyond morphological characters, from a molecular perspective there is also sufficient information to recognize the new species. Eight out of the 12 previously described Afrotropical species of Cotesia have DNA barcodes available in BOLD (Fig. 5), and they are all clearly different from C. icipe. Description. Female (Fig. 1). Metasoma brown dorsally, except for T3 (which is centrally brown, laterally yellow); most of laterotergites and sternites yellow, hy- popygium brown; F2 length 1.78—2.00 x F14 length; metafemur length 3.60—3.80 x metafemur width; metatibia inner spur length 1.17 x metatibia outer spur length; metatibia inner spur length 0.52 x first segment of metatarsus length; T1 entirely sculptured with coarse punctures and a polished knob centrally on posterior mar- gin; I'l very slightly widening towards posterior margin (width at posterior margin 1.1-1.2 x its width at anterior margin); T1 length centrally 1.5—1.7 x its width at posterior margin; T2 entirely sculptured, with coarse punctures along all margins and longitudinal striation centrally; T2 more or less rectangular, width at poste- rior margin 2.0 x its length centrally; T3 smooth, with rows of setae that are more dense on posterior half of tergite; T3 length centrally 1.3 x T2 length centrally; ovipositor sheaths length 0.16—0.19 x metatibia length. Body measurements (all in mm). Body length: 2.20-—2.50; fore wing length: 2.20—2.50; ovipositor sheaths: 0.12—0.15; metafemur length 0.65; metafemur width: 0.17—0.18; metatibia length: 0.76—0.80; metatibia inner spur: 0.21; metatibia outer spur: 0.18; first segment of metatarsus: 0.40. T1 length centrally: 0.35—-0.37; T1 width at anterior margin: 0.19; T1 maximum width: 0.25; T1 width at posterior margin: 0.22—0.24; T2 width at posterior margin: 0.32; T2 length centrally: 0.16; T3 length centrally: 0.21; length of F1: 0.17—0.19; length of F2: 0.16—0.18; length of F3: 0.16—0.17; length of F14: 0.09; length of F 15: 0.08; length of F16: 0.10. Cotesia icipe sp. 2., a new Microgastrinae wasp (Hymenoptera, Braconidae)... Si) | [7 top 2 er - =o Ss ; AERIALS SNe STP eae Figure |. Cotesia icipe, female holotype. A Habitus lateral B Wings C Hind leg, hypopygium and ovi- positor D Head frontal E Head and mesosoma dorsal F Propodeum and metasoma dorsal. Male (Fig. 2). As female but with darker metasoma dorsally, sometimes with T3 entirely dark brown to black. Komi K.M. Fiaboe et al. / Journal of Hymenoptera Research 61: 49-64 (2017) Figure 2. Cotesia icipe, male paratype. A Habitus lateral B Head and mesosoma dorsal C Head frontal D Wings E Propodeum and metasoma dorsal. Biology. Based on 4,000+ parasitism cases observed under laboratory condition at icipe in Kenya, C. icipe is a solitary larval endoparasitoid of Spodoptera littoralis (Bois- duval, 1833) and Spodoptera exigua (Hiibner, 1808) (Lepidoptera, Noctuidae). It was Cotesia icipe sp. 1., a new Microgastrinae wasp (Hymenoptera, Braconidae)... 55 Figure 3. Known distribution of Cotesia icipe in the Afrotropical region. Blue dots show distribution based on specimens of the type series (Kenya), red dots show distribution based on specimens with DNA barcodes matching those of the Kenya series. successfully reported to attack those two noctuid species tested on amaranth. However, it failed to parasitize three Crambidae species tested on the same host plant: Spoladea recurvalis (Fabricius, 1775), Udea ferrugalis (Hiibner, 1796) and Herpetogramma bi- punctalis (Fabricius, 1794). Further studies of host range are warranted to explore the full potential of the new species in the biological control of key pests in small scale farming conditions in Africa. The female prefers ovipositing on second instar host lar- vae. Ihe development time from egg to adult is two weeks and ovipositing females fed with honey can live more than two weeks at 25°C (our unpublished data). Distribution. Afrotropical: Kenya, Madagascar, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Yem- en (Fig. 3). DNA barcodes. Currently (as of September 2017) there are in BOLD 19 avail- able sequences from five Afrotropical countries: Kenya (9 sequences), Madagascar (1), Saudi Arabia (3), South Africa (1) and Yemen (5). Although we could not examine the specimens from Saudi Arabia or South Africa, their sequences are identical to the rest, and thus we consider them all to represent the species Cotesia icipe. They belong to BIN BOLD:ABZ7318; however, that BIN is likely to contain more than one spe- cies, as the sequences currently assigned to it are grouped in different clusters (Fig. 4). The Afrotropical sequences are in a single cluster, separated by more than 1% different 56 Komi K.M. Fiaboe et al. / Journal of Hymenoptera Research 61: 49-64 (2017) 0.2 % Cotesia|SY C53 12-14|French Polynesia|BOLD:ABZ7318 Cotesia|SY C5311-14|French Polynesia[BOLD: ABZ73 18 Cotesia|S YC4410-14|French Polynesia|BOLD:ABZ7318 Cotesia|SY C5309-14|French Polynesia|BOLD:ABZ7318 Cotesia PK04|[D-Unpublished|Pakistan.Islamabad|BOLD:ABZ7318 4Cotesia PK04|ID-Unpublished|Pakistan.Islamabad|BOLD:ABZ7318 Cotesia PK04|ID-Unpublished|Pakistan.Islamabad|]BOLD:ABZ7318 Cotesia PK04|ID-Unpublished|Pakistan.Islamabad|]BOLD:ABZ7318 Cotesia[NIABA059- 15|Pakistan. Punjab|BOLD:ABZ7318 Cotesia PK04|[D-Unpublished|Pakistan.Islamabad|BOLD:ABZ7318 Cotesia PK04|[D-Unpublished|Pakistan.Islamabad|BOLD:ABZ7318 Cotesia PK04|ID-Unpublished|Pakistan.Islamabad|]BOLD:ABZ7318 Cotesia|ID-Unpublished|Australia.Queensland|BOLD:ABZ7318 Cotesia|ID-Unpublished|Australia.Queensland|BOLD:ABZ73 18 Cotesia|ID-Unpublished|Australia.Queensland|BOLD:ABZ73 18 Cotesia|ID-Unpublished|Australia.Queensland|BOLD:ABZ7318 Cotesia PK04|ID-Unpublished|Pakistan.Islamabad|BOLD:ABZ7318 Cotesia PK04|ID-Unpublished|Pakistan.Islamabad|BOLD:ABZ7318 (Cotesia|ID-Unpublished|Bangladesh.Chittagong|BOLD:ABZ7318 Cotesia|ID-Unpublished|Pakistan .Islamabad|BOLD:ABZ7318 Cotesia|ID-Unpublished|Pakistan Islamabad|BOLD:ABZ7318 ‘Cotesia PK04|ID-Unpublished|Pakistan.Islamabad|BOLD:ABZ7318 Cotesia|NIABA068-15|Pakistan.Punjab| BOLD:ABZ7318 (Cotesia PK04|ID-Unpublished|Pakistan.Islamabad|BOLD:ABZ7318 (Cotesia PKO4|ID-Unpublished|Pakistan.Islamabad|BOLD:ABZ7318 ‘Cotesia PK04|ID-Unpublished|Pakistan.Islamabad|BOLD:ABZ7318 Cotesia PK04|ID-Unpublished|Pakistan.Islamabad|BOLD:ABZ7318 ‘Cotesia PK04|ID-Unpublished|Pakistan.Islamabad|BOLD:ABZ7318 Cotesia|GMBUB1094-14|Bulgaria.Sofiya|outgroup-nn Cotesia|[D-Unpublished| Australia. Western Australia|BOLD:A4BZ7318 Cotesia|ID-Unpublished| Australia. Western Australia|BOLD:ABZ7318 CotesiaJHY QTB326-12|Australia.Queensland|BOLD:ABZ7318 ‘Cotesia|ID-Unpublished|Australia. Western Australia|BOLD:ABZ7318 Figure 4. Neighbor-joining tree (K2P) of all specimens in the Barcoding of Life Data System (BOLD) currently associated with BIN BOLD:ABZ7318 (for explanation on the BIN concept see Methods of this paper). The cluster highlighted in Yellow in the tree shows the specimens considered in the present paper as Cotesia icipe. Cotesia icipe sp. 2., a new Microgastrinae wasp (Hymenoptera, Braconidae)... 57 0 Cotesia vanessae|KF640229|Canada y Lt 1 ‘Cotesia vanessae|KF640231|Canada Cotesia vanessae|WAM 0401|Spain Cotesia vanessae|WAM 0402) Cotesia vanessae|WAM 0403 Cotesia vanessae|WAM 0404 Cotesia vanessae|WAM 0405 Cotesia vanessae|WAM 0406] Cotesia vanessae|WAM 0407| Cotesia vanessae|WAM 0408} Cotesia vanessae|WAM 0425 Cotesia vanessae|WAM 0426) Cotesia vanessae|WAM 0427| Cotesia vanessae|WAM 0448} Cotesia vanessae|WAM 0449 Cotesia vanessae|WAM 0463|India Cotesia bignellii|AY333890|Finland Cotesia bignellii|AY33389 1|Spain Cotesia bignellii|A Y333892|United Kingdom Cotesia bignellii|A Y333889|France Cotesia bignellii|cotsas2|Germany Cotesia flavipes|DQ232330|United States Cotesia flavipes|JQ396710 Cotesia flavipes|JQ396732 Cotesia flavipes|DQ232340|Thailand Cotesia flavipes|JQ3967 16 Cotesia flavipes|JQ396736 Cotesia vestalis|A Y934813|India Cotesia flavipes|DQ232317|Kenya Cotesia flavipes|DQ232336|India Cotesia flavipes|JQ396717 Cotesia flavipes|CoflH05|Kenya Cotesia flavipes|CoflH04|Kenya Cotesia flavipes|CoflH06|Kenya Cotesia flavipes|CoflH07|Kenya Cotesia flavipes|DQ232320|Brazil Cotesia flavipes|JQ396709 Cotesia flavipes|JQ396722 Cotesia flavipes|JQ396735 ‘Cotesia flavipes|JQ396715 Cotesia flavipes|DQ232335|Pakistan Cotesia flavipes|DQ232321|Jamaica Cotesia flavipes|GQ853456|India Cotesia flavipes|JQ396703 Cotesia flavipes|JQ396714 Cotesia flavipes|JQ396718 Cotesia flavipes|DQ232316|Papua New Guinea Cotesia flavipes|DQ232319|Mauritius Cotesia flavipes|DQ232329 Cotesia flavipes|DQ232337|Indonesia Cotesia flavipes|JQ396705 Cotesia flavipes|JQ396707 Cotesia flavipes|JQ396708 Cotesia flavipes|DQ232328|Japan ‘Cotesia flavipes|JQ396706 Cotesia sesamiae|C_ses1|Kenya Cotesia sesamiae|CoseH10|Kenya Cotesia sesamiae|CoseH09|Kenya Cotesia sesamiae|CoseH08|Kenya Cotesia sesamiae/DQ232325|Kenya Cotesia sesamiae|JQ396728 Cotesia sesamiae|JQ396738 Cotesia sesamiae|JQ396739 Cotesia sesamiae|JQ396740 Cotesia sesamiae|JQ396743 Cotesia sesamiae|JQ396729 Cotesia sesamiae|JQ396727 Cotesia sesamiae|JQ396726 Cotesia sesamiae|JQ396725 Cotesia sesamiae|JQ396724 Cotesia sesamiae|JQ396723 Cotesia sesamiae|DQ232326|South Africa Cotesia sesamiae|JQ396731 Cotesia sesamiae|JQ396733 Cotesia sesamiae|KP 100076 Cotesia sesamiae|JQ396744 Cotesia sesamiae|JQ396742 Cotesia sesamiae|JQ396741 Cotesia sesamiae|JQ396737 Cotesia sesamiae|JQ396734 Cotesia sesamiae|JQ396730 Cotesia sesamiae|DQ232324|Kenya Cotesia sesamiae|DQ232318|Kenya Cotesia sesamiae|KP100077 Cotesia sesamiae|CosppH01|Kenya Cotesia sesamiae|CosppG12iKenva Figure 5. Neighbor-joining tree (K2P) of Afrotropical species of Cotesia in the Barcoding of Life Data System (BOLD) with over 500 base pairs; data accessed on September 2017. Specimens named as “Cotesia jft52” in BOLD actually belong to the species Cotesia icipe (cluster highlighted in Yellow), and specimens named as “Cotesia jft68” in BOLD actually belong to the species Cotesia chrysippi (Viereck, 1911). 58 Komi K.M. Fiaboe et al. / Journal of Hymenoptera Research 61: 49-64 (2017) Cotesia sesamiae|CosppG12|Kenya Cotesia sesamiae|CosppG11|Kenya Cotesia sesamiae|CosppG10|Kenya Cotesia sesamiae|CospH02|Kenya Cotesia sesamiae|KP 100080 Cotesia sesamiae|KP100081 Cotesia sesamiae|KP 100078 Cotesia sesamiae|KP100079 Cotesia sesamiae|KP100082 Cotesia plutellae|JMIC 0293|United Arab Emirates Cotesia vestalis|AY934814|Benin Cotesia plutellae|JMIC 0352|/United Arab Emirates Cotesia vestalis|A Y934821 |Thailand Cotesia vestalis|AY934819|South Africa Cotesia vestalis|AY934817|Kenya Cotesia vestalis|A Y9348 15|India Cotesia plutellae|JMIC 0336|United Arab Emirates ‘Cotesia plutellae|JMIC 0300|United Arab Emirates Cotesia plutellae|JMIC 0294|United Arab Emirates ‘Cotesia plutellae|JMIC 0350|United Arab Emirates Cotesia plutellae|JMIC 0302|United Arab Emirates Cotesia plutellae|JMIC 0351|United Arab Emirates Cotesia vestalis|MRS-JFT 0557|/United Kingdom Cotesia vestalis\CNCHYM 00730|Hungary Cotesia vestalis|AM087129|South Africa Cotesia vestalis|MRS-JFT 0610\United Kingdom Cotesia vestalis|MRS-JFT 0611\United Kingdom Cotesia jft68|CNCH2773|Republic of the Congo ‘Cotesia jft68|CNCH2827|Republic of the Congo Cotesia ruficrus|BIOUG08368-C01|Germany Cotesia ruficrus};CNCH1775|Sweden Cotesia ruficrus|]BCLDQ0373|United Kingdom Cotesia ruficrus|BIOUG08212-B09|Germany Cotesia ruficrus|BIOUG08212-E11|Germany Cotesia ruficrus|BIOUG08212-H01|Germany Cotesia ruficrus|BIOUG08360-F 10|Germany Cotesia ruficrus|CNCH1777|Sweden Cotesia ruficrus|\CNCH1770|Sweden ‘Cotesia ruficrus|CNCH1778|Sweden Cotesia ruficrus|BIOUG02547-A06|Pakistan Cotesia ruficrus|NZAC04044670|New Zealand Cotesia ruficrus|NZAC04044559|New Zealand Cotesia ruficrus|NZAC04043774|New Zealand Cotesia ruficrus|]BIOUG02547-C04|Pakistan Cotesia ruficrus|NZAC04044739[New Zealand Cotesia ruficrus|NZAC04099595|New Zealand (Cotesia ruficrus|NZAC04049034|New Zealand Cotesia ruficrus|BIOUG02547-B05|Pakistan. Cotesia ruficrus|BIOUG02546-H07|Pakistan Cotesia ruficrus|BIOUG02546-F06|Pakistan Cotesia ruficrus|BIOUG02546-C01|Pakistan. Cotesia muficrus|BIOUG02546-B12|Pakistan Cotesia ruficrus|BIOUG02546-B08|Pakistan Cotesia ruficrus|BIOUG02546-B07|Pakistan. (Cotesia ruficrus|BIOUG02546-A 1 2|Pakistan (Cotesia ruficrus|BIOUG02542-D07|Pakistan (Cotesia ruficrus|NZAC04044213|New Zealand Cotesia ruficrus|CL-649|New Zealand Cotesia ruficrus|KM107110/New Zealand (Cotesia ruficrus|NZAC04033872|New Zealand Cotesia ruficrus|NZAC04033349|New Zealand Cotesia ruficrus|NZAC04045285|New Zealand Cotesia ruficrus|;W AM 0339|New Zealand Cotesia ruficrus|WAM 0341 |New Zealand Cotesia ruficrus|WAM 0347|New Zealand Cotesia ruficrus| WAM 0380|New Zealand Cotesia ruficrus|WAM 0381 |New Zealand Cotesia ruficrus|WAM 0382|New Zealand Cotesia ruficrus| WAM 0383 {New Zealand Cotesia ruficrus|WAM 0386|New Zealand Cotesia ruficrus|WAM 0387|New Zealand Figure 5. Continued. Neighbor-joining tree (K2P) of Afrotropical species of Cotesia in the Barcoding of Life Data System (BOLD) with over 500 base pairs; data accessed on September 2017. Specimens named as “Cotesia jft52” in BOLD actually belong to the species Cotesia icipe (cluster highlighted in Yellow), and specimens named as “Cotesia jft68” in BOLD actually belong to the species Cotesia chrysippi (Viereck, 1911). Cotesia icipe sp. 2., a new Microgastrinae wasp (Hymenoptera, Braconidae)... 59 base pairs from the other sequences in that BIN (from Australia, French Polynesia and Pakistan, all in separate clusters). Solving the species limits for this BIN is beyond the scope of this paper, but for the time being we consider that only the Afrotropical sequences represent Cotesia icipe. Etymology. We dedicate this species to the “International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology (cipe)” for its long-term promotion of Integrated Pest Management and for building the capacity of thousands of African young scientists over the years in insect sciences. Detailed diagnosis. Additionally, and to facilitate future work on the group, we detail below how each of the other 12 species of Cotesia previously described from the Afrotropics individually differ from C. icipe. Cotesia bignellii (Marshall, 1885) has metasoma (entirely) and hind legs (mostly) dark brown, very different from the body color of C. icipe as detailed above. C. bignellii also parasitizes a different family of Lepidoptera hosts (Nymphalidae) and it is mostly distributed in Europe (Yu et al. 2016). Cotesia chrysippi (Viereck, 1911) parasitizes a different family of Lepidoptera hosts (Nymphalidae) (Yu et al. 2016) and it has a very different color, with a reddish- brown metasoma dorsally, dark brown tegula and humeral complex and fore wing with most veins white. Cotesia decaryi (Granger, 1949) is only known from Madagascar and probably rep- resents a local endemic from that country. It parasitizes a different family of Lepi- doptera hosts (Lasiocampidae) (Yu et al. 2016). It has metacoxa mostly smooth (rugose-punctate in C’ icipe), T1 clearly widens towards posterior margin, [2 covy- ers most of the tergum dorsally, and T3 is about the same length than T2 (T3 1.3 x as long as T2 length in C. icipe). Cotesia flagellator (Wilkinson, 1930) is only known from Uganda (Yu et al. 2016); it has scuto-scutellar sulcus with 4—5 (very rarely 6) major carinae (C. icipe has 8—9, rarely 7 major carinae); metacoxa mostly smooth, with only indefinite coarse punctures anterodorsally (metacoxa mostly with shallow punctures in C. icipe); T2 2.2 x as long as wide at posterior margin (2.0 x in C. icipe); T3 1.5 x as long as T2 length (1.3 x in C. icipe). Three related species, Cotesia flavipes Cameron 1891, Cotesia sesamiae (Cameron, 1906) and Cotesia typhae Fernandez-Triana, 2017, have all been recently revised in Kaiser et al. (2017), including extensive illustrations. They are all part of the fla- vipes complex and can be distinguished by relatively short antennae (much shorter than body length, usually not surpassing the length of head and mesosoma; where- as the antenna of C. icipe is comparatively much longer, about as long as body), body relatively depressed, and metasoma extensively to slightly pale in coloration (yellow, orange or light brown) but clearly much lighter in color than C. icipe. Beyond the substantial morphological differences these three species parasitize dif- ferent host species within the families Crambidae and Noctuidae (Yu et al. 2016, Kaiser et al. 2017). 60 Komi K.M. Fiaboe et al. / Journal of Hymenoptera Research 61: 49-64 (2017) Cotesia pistrinariae (Wilkinson, 1929) has a strongly narrowed T1 centrally, which is unique among all known species of Cotesia; extensive illustrations of pistrinariae can be found in Gupta et al. (2016). It also parasitizes a different family of Lepi- doptera hosts (Pieridae) (Yu et al. 2016). Cotesia vestalis (Haliday, 1834) has T1 clearly widening towards posterior margin and T2 covering most of the tergum dorsally, both tergites are also much more coarsely sculptured than in C. icipe; the coxae (especially pro- and mesocoxae) are also darker colored as compared to icipe. There are many host records attributed to this species (Yu et al. 2016), some of them dubious; they include mostly Erebidae, Nymphalidae and Plutellidae, with a couple of Noctuidae species different from those parasitized by C. icipe. Cotesia vanessae (Reinhard, 1880) is mostly a Palearctic species, recently found to have spread into the Nearctic (Hervet et al. 2014), and only marginally distributed in Af rica (Yu et al. 2016). It has tegula and humeral complex dark brown to black, meta- soma entirely black dorsally, and legs mostly dark brown. Numerous host records, some of them certainly inaccurate, are attributed to this species (Yu et al. 2016). Of all described Afrotropical species Cotesia ruficrus (Haliday, 1834) looks most similar to C. icipe from a morphological perspective; however, it has T1 clearly wider at posterior margin as compared to anterior margin (almost the same width in C. icipe); T2 covers most of the tergum surface; and vein R1 in fore wing is comparatively much shorter, about the same length of pterostigma, and with the distance between end of vein R1 and the end of vein 3RSb being more than 0.4 x the length of vein R1 (in C. icipe the vein R1 in fore wing is comparatively much longer, clearly longer than pterostigma length, and with the distance between end of vein R1 and the end of vein 3RSb being less than 0.2 x the length of vein R1); also, the overall coloration is lighter and more reddish than in C. icipe. Further- more, from a biological point of view, C. ruficrus is a gregarious parasitoid while C. icipe is a solitary parasitoid. Numerous host records, some of them certainly inaccurate, are attributed to C. ruficrus (Yu et al. 2016). Cotesia rugosa (Szépligeti, 1914) presents the most difficult case to assess, as it is only known from the male holotype, collected in 1912 at an altitude of 2,000 m, on the western side and near of Mount Kenya (Szépligeti 1914, Papp 2008). C. icipe has been collected not too far from that locality, at close to 1,200 m. However, and according to the original description, C. rugosa has different colored legs, includ- ing many red areas (legs mostly yellow in C. icipe, with a few areas brown); tegula reddish-brown (yellow in C. icipe); T2 as long as T3 (0.7—0.8 x in C. icipe); T1 is described as ‘almost transversal’ (Szépligeti 1914: 184) which, within the context of the Microgastrinae species described in that paper, seems to indicate that T1 is strongly widened towards posterior margin, i.e., T1 width at posterior margin is about as long as T1 length medially (whereas T1 is 1.5 x as long as wide at poste- rior margin in C. icipe). Cotesia icipe sp. 2., a new Microgastrinae wasp (Hymenoptera, Braconidae)... 61 Discussion The finding of the new species C. icipe is of particular interest because it successfully attacks Noctuids of the genus Spodoptera (Agbodzavu et al. in press), which includes notorious pest species. The tropical and subtropical genus Spodoptera includes several economically important species in Africa (Brown and Dewhurst 1975). The most de- structive ones reported in the Afrotropical regions include S. /ittoralis, S. exigua, S. exempta (Brown and Dewhurst 1975) and S. frugiperda (Goergen et al. 2016). The first two have been confirmed as suitable hosts for C. icipe, which therefore represents a new component in the environmental friendly management of both pests in small scale farming systems (Agbodzavu et al. in press). Spodoptera littoralis and S. exigua are her- bivores with over 90 known host plants including cotton, tobacco, soybean, cabbage, amaranth, coffee, potato and wheat, among others (Abdullah et al. 2000, Agbodzavu et al. in press, Azidah and Softan-Azirun 2006, Clarke-Harris et al. 2004, Saeed et al. 2017, Santiago-Alvarez and Ortiz-Garcia 1992). Young larvae of both pests feed on terminal leaf clusters, seedlings, and stems of host crops, leading to skeletonized plants (Bohmfalk et al. 1999, East et al. 1989, McDougall et al. 2013). Further studies are also warranted to assess the performance of C. icipe on S. exempta and S. frugiperda. The African armyworm S. exempta is a serious pest of maize and rice, the most important staple crops across Africa (Grzywacz et al. 2008, Okello-Ekochu and Wilkins 1996, Sithole 1989) while the fall armyworm S. frugiperda is a newly reported invasive pest on the continent, causing currently the highest damage on maize, rice, sorghum and millet (Cock et al. 2017, Goergen et al. 2016). Cotesia icipe represents therefore a potential candidate for natural control of pests of these staple crops. Acknowledgements The research at icipe was carried out with financial support from the German Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ). 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Link: https://doi.org/10.3897/jhr.61.21015.suppl1 Supplementary material 2 Tree Result — Search: Sample IDs; Seq Length(500 bp); Include public records (170 records returned) (170 records selected) Authors: Komi K.M. Fiaboe, Jose Fernandez-Triana, Faith W. Nyamu, Komi M. Agbodzavu Data type: moleculara data Copyright notice: This dataset is made available under the Open Database License (http://opendatacommons.org/licenses/odbl/1.0/). The Open Database License (ODbL) is a license agreement intended to allow users to freely share, modify, and use this Dataset while maintaining this same freedom for others, provided that the original source and author(s) are credited. Link: https://doi.org/10.3897/jhr.61.21015.suppl2