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Megastigmus zebrinus Grissell

(Life: Kingdom: Metazoa (animals); Phylum: Arthropoda; Class: Hexapoda; Order: Hymenoptera;  Superfamily: Chalcidoidea; Family:  Megastigmidae; Genus: Megastigmus)

Megastigmus zebrinus Grissell, 2006. Holotype in Iziko South African Museum, Cape Town (SAMC). Type locality: Travellers Rest (60 km NE Clanwilliam; 32°04’S 19°05’E) Western Cape, South Africa.

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Photographs © Simon van Noort (Iziko Museums of South Africa).

Distribution

Native to Australia. Introduced to Afrotropical region: South Africa; Neotropical region: Argentina; Oriental region: Thailand (Huang et al. 2018).

Biology

 Parasitoid of Lineage A of the eucalyptus gall wasp Leptocybe invasa, and of Selitrichodes neseri (Tetrastichinae, Eulophidae) and of Megastigmus pretorianensis (Megastigmatidae), all part of the Leptocybe gall associated community on Eucalyptus camaldulensis (Gevers et al. 2020). Originally thought to be a gall-former in seed capsules of Eucalyptus camaldulensis and has also been reared from seed capsules of Syzygium cordatum in South Africa (Grissell, 2006). Reared from Leptocybe invasa galls on Eucalyptus species in Thailand (Doganlar & Hassan, 2010), and South Africa (Gevers et al. 2020). Also a parasitoid in the Quadrastichodella nova gall community on Eucalyptus (Klein et al. 2015).

References

Doǧanlar M. 2015. Diagnosis of Megastigmus spp. (Hymenoptera: Torymidae) reared from galls of Leptocybe invasa Fisher & Lasalle, 2004, (Hymenoptera: Eulophidae) on Eucalyptus spp. (Myrtaceae), with description of a new species from South Africa. Entomofauna-Zeitschrift für Entomologie 36: 561–580.

Doganlar, M. & Hassan E. 2010. Review of Australian species of Megastigmus (Hymenoptera: Torymidae) associated with Eucalyptus, with descriptions of new species. Australian Journal of Basic and Applied Sciences 4(10): 5059-5120.

Gevers, C.R., Dittrich-Schröder, G., Slippers, B. and Hurley, B.P. 2020. Interactions between hymenopteran species associated with gall-forming wasps: the Leptocybe invasa community as a case study. Agricultural and Forest Entomology https://doi.org/10.1111/afe.12413

Grissell, E.E. 2006. A new species of Megastigmus Dalman (Hymenoptera: Torymidae), galling seed capsules of Eucalyptus camaldulensis Dehnhardt (Myrtaceae) in South Africa and Australia. African Entomology 14(1): 88-92.

Huang, Z., Li, J., Lu,W. & Yang, Z. 2018. Parasitoids of the Eucalyptus gall wasp Leptocybe spp.: a global review. Environmental Science and Pollution Research 25: 29983–29995.

Klein H, Hoffmann JH, Neser S & Dittrich-Schroder G. 2015. Evidence that Quadrastichodella nova (Hymenoptera: Eulophidae) is the only gall inducer among four hymenopteran species associated with seed capsules of Eucalyptus camaldulensis (Myrtaceae) in South Africa. African Entomology 23: 207–223. doi: 10.4001/003.023.0117

Credits

Photographs and map illustration © Simon van Noort (Iziko Museums of South Africa).

Web author Simon van Noort (Iziko South African Museum)

 

Citation: van Noort, S. 2024. WaspWeb: Hymenoptera of the World. URL: www.waspweb.org (accessed on <day/month/year>).

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