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Diadegma mollipla (Holmgren) 

(Life: Kingdom: Metazoa (animals); Phylum: Arthropoda; Class: Hexapoda; Order: Hymenoptera;  Superfamily: Ichneumonoidea; Family: Ichneumonidae; Subfamily: Campopleginae; Genus: Diadegma)

Limneria mollipla Holmgren, 1868. Holotype: in Naturhistoriska Riksmuseet, Stockholm. Type locality:

Diadegma_mollipla_habitus

Distribution

Canary Islands, Mauritius, Reunion, South Africa, Yemen, Zambia, Zimbabwe.

Biology

Solitary larvo-pupal enparasitoid of Plutella xylostella (L.) (Lepidoptera: Plutellidae) and Phthorimaea operculella (Lepidoptera: Gelechioidea).  Diadegma mollipla is a well known parasitoid of the diamondback moth (P. xylostella) and the potato tuber moth (P. operculella). Surprisingly, its host range appears to be restricted to these two unrelated species. The determination of Diadegma species is difficult as D. mollipla is morphologically variable (areolet more or less closed, for example) and numerous sibling Diadegma species develop also on P. xylostella (Azidah et al. 2000; Rousse & Villemant, 2012).

References

Azidah, A.A., Fitton, M.G. & Quicke, D.L.J. 2000. Identification of the Diadegma species (Hymenoptera: Ichneumonidae, Campopleginae) attacking the diamondback moth, Plutella xylostella (Lepidoptera: Plutellidae). Bulletin of Entomological Research, 90(5), 375–389.

Holmgren, A.E. 1868. Hymenoptera. Species novas descripsit. Kongliga Svenska Fregatten Eugenies Resa omkring jorden. Zoologi. 6:391-442.

Rousse, P. & Villemant, C. 2012. Ichneumons in Reunion Island: a catalogue of the local Ichneumonidae (Hymenoptera) species, including 15 new taxa and a key to species. Zootaxa 3278: 1–57.

Credits

Photographs by Agničle Touret-Alby © MNHN (specimens database http://coldb.mnhn.fr).

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

 

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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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