Coriophagus casui

fig. 1: Halictophagus sp. female with emergent triungulin in cicadellid host

Taxonavigation

Ordo: Strepsiptera
Familia: Halictophagidae

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.

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 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.

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. Google books
Prestidge, R.A. 1989: Preliminary observations on the grassland leafhopper fauna of the Central North Volcanic Plateau. New Zealand entomologist, 12: 54–57.

Stephen Thorpe 03:20, 4 March 2011 (CET)