Taeniogonalos fasciatipennis
| Notice: | This page is derived from the original publication listed below, whose author(s) should always be credited. Further contributors may edit and improve the content of this page and, consequently, need to be credited as well (see page history). Any assessment of factual correctness requires a careful review of the original article as well as of subsequent contributions.
If you are uncertain whether your planned contribution is correct or not, we suggest that you use the associated discussion page instead of editing the page directly. This page should be cited as follows (rationale):
Citation formats to copy and paste
BibTeX: @article{Smith2012JournalofHymenopteraResearch29, RIS/ Endnote: TY - JOUR Wikipedia/ Citizendium: <ref name="Smith2012Journal of Hymenoptera Research29">{{Citation See also the citation download page at the journal. |
Ordo: Hymenoptera
Familia: Trigonalidae
Genus: Taeniogonalos
Name
Taeniogonalos fasciatipennis (Cameron) – Wikispecies link – Pensoft Profile
- Trigonalys fasciatipennis Cameron 1897[1]: 271.
- Taeniogonalos gundlachii (in part): Carmean and Kimsey 1998[2]: 67.
Discussion
This species is distinguished as follows: vertex black; mandible outer surface black, upper surface yellow, teeth reddish brown; clypeus with large yellow spot on each side; narrow yellow line on gena on hind orbit (Figs 8, 10); mesoscutellum entirely yellow or with thin medial black stripe; second metasomal tergum with broad posterior transverse band, not extended laterally (Figs 8, 10). Female armature present, in ventral view with lobes short and with shallow central depression (Fig. 12), in lateral view, posterior and ventral sides perpendicular, not directed downward at apex (Figs 8, 11); male genitalia with paramere long, about three-quarters length of gonostipes (Fig. 14); paramere in lateral view with dorsal margin straight (Fig. 13), without slight depression.
Taeniogonalos fasciatipennis was described by Cameron (1897)[1] from two Mexican specimens, a female from “Atoyac in Vera Cruz” and a male from “Venta de Zopilote in Guerrero.” The male from the State of Guerrero was chosen as the lectotype by Carmean and Kimsey (1998)[2]. This lectotype (BMNH, examined) is morphologically identical to males reared as this species from ACG. It is noteworthy that the region around the type locality in Mexico is ecologically the same kind of tropical dry forest ecosystem as is the dry forest of ACG and shares a very large number of species of plants and insects with it.
The female syntype (not examined) from Veracruz was treated by Carmean and Kimsey (1998)[2] as the “same” as Taeniogonalos gundlachii. It may not be the same species as the lectotype, and some of the specimens treated as Taeniogonalos fasciatipennis by Carmean and Kimsey (1998)[2] are probably the species we here describe as Taeniogonalos woodorum.
This and the species from North America and Cuba have long been regarded as the “gundlachii” group, the members of which are distinguished from others by having similar color and the presence of distinctive female armature. However, Taeniogonalos fasciatipennis can be distinguished from North American Taeniogonalos gundlachii by the female armature and male parameres as described above. Taeniogonalos fasciatipennis is morphologically separable from Taeniogonalos woodorum by the former having the female armature present and the male paramere short in relation to the gonostipes.
The DNA barcodes of Taeniogonalos fasciatipennisDHJ01 and Taeniogonalos fasciatipennisDHJ02 are 5.66% divergent from each other in the COI barcode region and both are 9% divergent from Taeniogonalos woodorum.
Distribution
Mexico and Costa Rica.
Specimens examined
Taeniogonalos fasciatipennisDHJ01 53, 42 barcoded; Taeniogonalos fasciatipennisDHJ02 15, 13 barcoded. Deposited in USNM, INBio, CNC, BMNH.
Hosts and biology
In the absence of genetic information, Taeniogonalos fasciatipennis appears to be one morphologically distinctive species that occurs throughout ACG dry forest (85 m to about 1300 m elevation) and does not occur in adjacent ACG rain forest or cloud forest. It is a hyperparasitoid of a wide variety of caterpillar and primary host species (see below). However, DNA barcoding has revealed that this morphologically-distinct species is divided into two distinct mitochondrial types in the ACG dry forest. One, baptized here as Taeniogonalos fasciatipennisDHJ01 (Figs 8, 9, 11–14) is an interim name in the inventory website database (http://janzen.bio.upenn.edu/caterpillars/database.lasso) and occurs throughout the ACG dry forest (85 to 700 m elevation). The other, interim name Taeniogonalos fasciatipennisDHJ02 (Fig. 10), has a very distinctive microgeographic distribution. Twelve of the 13 records are from the intermediate elevation southwest facing slope of the volcanic massif of Rincon de la Vieja (325–1276 m elevation in Sector Mundo Nuevo of ACG). The single other rearing record (two individuals from tachinid fly puparia from the same caterpillar) is from a site that is an ecogeographic analogue in biota, elevation, and climate to the Sector Mundo Nuevo site (600 m on the southwest facing slope of Volcan Cacao in Sector Cacao of ACG). Taeniogonalos fasciatipennisDHJ01 is probably the same as the lectotype from western (dry forest) Mexico, but since there is no present way to know for certain, both Taeniogonalos fasciatipennisDHJ01 and Taeniogonalos fasciatipennisDHJ02 have to be treated as interim names, and are therefore not italicized (and see below).
In general terms, Taeniogonalos fasciatipennisDHJ01 conspicuously ranges from the driest parts of ACG dry forest to its intermediate-elevation intersection with cloud forest and rain forest, and Taeniogonalos fasciatipennisDHJ02 is restricted to the upper, cooler, moister portion of this range. To emphasize the cooler and moister aspect of this very small range, there is even a single specimen (DHJPAR0016846) of the rain forest specialist, Taeniogonalos woodorum, from the very center of the range of Taeniogonalos fasciatipennisDHJ02. While Taeniogonalos fasciatipennisDHJ01 has not been found in the Sector Mundo Nuevo exact site occupied by Taeniogonalos fasciatipennisDHJ02, and thus they are parapatric, Taeniogonalos fasciatipennisDHJ01 is absolutely sympatric with the single record of Taeniogonalos fasciatipennisDHJ02 on the southwestern slopes of Volcan Cacao.
This situation creates two different taxonomic problems. First, since the two apparent ACG species within what appears morphologically to be Taeniogonalos fasciatipennis currently cannot be distinguished by any morphological trait, there is no way to know which of the two matches the lectotype from the State of Guerrero, Mexico. It is also possible that neither does. Second, the presence of two sympatric/parapatric species of “Taeniogonalos fasciatipennis” in the small area of ACG raises the spectre that this species of wasp may be a complex of sibling (cryptic) species. In contrast to parallel cases with extremely host-specific Microgastrinae Braconidae (e.g., Smith et al. 2008[3]) or Tachinidae (Smith et al. 2007[4]), the unambiguously generalist host-selection and/or larval-survival ability of Taeniogonalos fasciatipennis excludes the use of host records as a way to verify or predict the presence of cryptic species.
If Taeniogonalos fasciatipennisDHJ02 were not distinctive by barcode from Taeniogonalos fasciatipennisDHJ01 (Fig. 2), it would not have been noticed. Taeniogonalos fasciatipennisDHJ01 and Taeniogonalos fasciatipennisDHJ02 have the same extremely varied lists of caterpillar and primary parasitoid hosts. In brief, Taeniogonalos fasciatipennisDHJ01 has been reared and barcoded 48 times from nine Lepidoptera families: Crambidae, Hesperiidae, Megalopygidae, Noctuidae, Nymphalidae, Papilionidae, Saturniidae, Sphingidae, and Uraniidae. While 53 more specimens of Taeniogonalos fasciatipennis have been raised, until (and if) those specimens are successfully barcoded, we cannot categorize them as Taeniogonalos fasciatipennisDHJ01 or Taeniogonalos fasciatipennisDHJ02.
In all cases, the primary parasitoid host was Tachinidae: Acantholespesia, Belvosia, Blepharipa, Calolydella, Carcelia, Chetogena, Drino, Eucelatoria, Hemisturmia, Houghia, Hyphantrophaga, Leschenaultia, Lespesia, Patelloa, Winthemia, and Zizyphomyia. If we add to this the other specimens of “Taeniogonalos fasciatipennis” that were not successfully barcoded but occupy the ACG ecosystem occupied by Taeniogonalos fasciatipennisDHJ01 a few more Lepidoptera families and tachinid genera are added to these lists, as well as three large-bodied genera in the Ichneumonidae (Enicospilus, Pedinopelte, Trogus).
Taeniogonalos fasciatipennisDHJ02 has been reared 13 times from parasitoids of Crambidae, Hesperiidae, Noctuidae, Notodontidae, Nymphalidae, Riodinidae, Saturniidae, and Sphingidae. The primary host genera are Tachinidae (Blepharipa, Drino, Houghia, Lespesia, Patelloa), Ichneumonidae (Enicospilus) and Braconidae (Macrocentrinae).
Taxon Treatment
- Smith, D; Janzen, D; Hallwachs, W; Smith, M; 2012: Hyperparasitoid wasps (Hymenoptera, Trigonalidae) reared from dry forest and rain forest caterpillars of Area de Conservación Guanacaste, Costa Rica Journal of Hymenoptera Research, 29: 119-144. doi
Other References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Cameron P (1897) New species of Hymenoptera from Central America. Annals and Magazine of Natural History 6 (19): 261-276. doi: 10.1080/00222939708680536
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 Carmean D, Kimsey L (1998) Phylogenetic revision of the parasitoid wasp family Trigonalidae (Hymenoptera). Systematic Entomology 23: 35-76. doi: 10.1046/j.1365-3113.1998.00042.x
- ↑ Smith M, Rodriguez J, Whitfield J, Deans A, Janzen D, Hallwachs W, Hebert P (2008) Extreme diversity of tropical parasitoid wasps exposed by iterative integration of natural history, DNA barcoding, morphology, and collections. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 105: 12359-12364. doi: 10.1073/pnas.0805319105
- ↑ Smith M, Wood D, Janzen D, Hallwachs W, Hebert P (2007) DNA barcodes affirm that 16 species of apparently generalist tropical parasitoid flies (Diptera, Tachinidae) are not all generalists. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 104: 4967–4972. doi: 10.1073/pnas.0700050104
Images
|
