View source for Coriophagus casui

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[[File:Halictophagus.jpg|thumb|400px|fig. 1: ''Halictophagus'' sp. female with emergent triungulin in cicadellid host]]
==Taxonavigation==
Ordo: Strepsiptera<br />
Familia: Halictophagidae
==Name==
* ''Coriophagus casui'' {{aut|Cowley}}, 1985 [[Wikispecies:Coriophagus_casui|Wikispecies link]]
==Introduction==
* ''Coriophagus casui'' was the second of two species of Strepsiptera so far described from New Zealand. The species was based on a unique male specimen, collected in a light trap near the Waitakere Ranges, Auckland. Elsewhere in the world, members of this genus are parasites of Heteroptera. The only other described New Zealand strepsipteran species, ''Elenchus maorianus'' is a parasite of delphacids.

==Taxonomic notes==
* unfortunately, ''Coriophagus casui'' almost certainly belongs in fact to the genus ''Halictophagus'', parasites of Cicadellidae 
* Unassociated males of these two genera can be very difficult to tell apart, and Don Cowley had no previous experience in Strepsiptera taxonomy
* My investigations have revealed no evidence for strepsipteran parasitism of Heteroptera in New Zealand, but plenty of evidence for strepsipteran parasitism of cicadellids (e.g. see {{aut|Prestidge}}, 1989: 57), though male strepsipterans are extremely hard to find
* I have seen several cicadellids parasitised by females of what are clearly ''Halictophagus'' (see fig. 1), some of them from within just a few kilometres of the type locality of ''Coriophagus casui''
* Cowley (1985: 353) noted a case of strepsipteran parasitism of cicadellids, based on a female from the southern part of the South Island, but did not associate it with his male because 'females of the Coriophaginae, however, parasitise Heteroptera'
* Therefore, the presence in New Zealand of ''Coriophagus''/strepsipteran parasites of Heteroptera must be viewed with great suspicion.
==References==
* {{aut|Cowley, D.R.}} 1985(1984): ''Coriophagus casui'' sp. n. (Halictophagidae: Coriophaginae): a male strepsipteran from Auckland, New Zealand. ''New Zealand journal of zoology'', '''11'''(4): 351-353. [http://books.google.co.nz/books?id=B_dOlzk0jOgC&pg=PA351#v=twopage&q&f=false Google books]
* {{aut|Prestidge, R.A.}} 1989: [http://www.ento.org.nz/nzentomologist/abstract.php?volume_issue=j12_1&first_page=54 Preliminary observations on the grassland leafhopper fauna of the Central North Volcanic Plateau.] ''New Zealand entomologist'', '''12''': 54–57.


[[User:Stephen Thorpe|Stephen Thorpe]] 03:20, 4 March 2011 (CET)