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Megastigmus
transvaalensis (Hussey)
(Life:
Kingdom: Metazoa (animals);
Phylum: Arthropoda;
Class: Hexapoda;
Order: Hymenoptera;
Superfamily: Chalcidoidea; Family: Megastigmidae; Genus:
Megastigmus)
Eumegastigmus
transvaalensis Hussey, 1956. Holotype in the Natural History Museum,
London (NHML). Type locality: Pretoria,
South Africa.
Eumegastigmus
rhusi Hussey, 1956.
Holotype in the Natural History Museum,
London (NHML). Type locality: Bloemfontein,
South Africa.
(Synonymy by Grissell & Prinsloo, 2001) |
Female
Male
Photographs © Alain Roques (INRA, France). |
Distribution |
Afrotropical region: Kenya, Mauritius, Reunion, South
Africa, Zimbabwe. Introduced to: Argentina, Brazil, Canary islands,
California, Hawaii, Mauritius, Reunion. Introduced to California with
its native host plant Searsia lancea and subsequently switched to
introduced Schinus species.
Nearctic
region: Mexico, USA (California, Florida, Hawaii); Neotropical
region: Argentina, Brazil; and Palaearctic region: France,
Israel, Morocco, Portugal, Spain (Canary Islands). |
Biology |
 Gall-former in seed capsules of Searsia (=Rhus)
species
(Anacardiaceae), host shift to Schinus molle and Schinus terebinthifolia (Anacardiaceae).
Reared from Searsia natalensis (depicted above) and S.
vulgaris in Kenya.
Photograph
© Robert Copeland (ICIPE, Kenya). |
References |
Bouček, Z. 1978.
A study of the non-podagrionine Torymidae with enlarged hind femora, with a key
to the African genera (Hymenoptera). Journal
of the Entomological Society of Southern Africa 41: 91-134.
Grissell, E.E & K.R.
Hobbs. 2000. Megastigmus transvaalensis (Hussey) (Hymenoptera:
Torymidae) in California: Methods of introduction and evidence of host
switching, pp.265-278. In The Hymenoptera: Evolution, biodiversity and
biological control. CSIRO Publishing, Melbourne, Australia.
Grissell, E.E. &
Prinsloo, G.L. 2001. Seed-feeding species of Megastigmus (Hymenoptera: Torymidae) associated with Anacardiaceae.
Journal of
Hymenoptera Research, 10, 271-279.
Habeck, D.H., F.D.
Bennett, & E.E. Grissell. 1989. First record of a phytophagous seed chalcid
from Brazilian peppertree in Florida. Florida Entomologist 72: 378-379.
Hussey, N. W. 1956.
A new genus of African Megastigminae (Hymenoptera: Chalcidoidea). Proceedings
of the Royal Entomological Society London (B) 25: 157-162.
Roques A, Copeland
RS, Soldati L, Denux O, Auger-Rozenberg M-A 2016.
Megastigmus seed chalcids (Hymenoptera, Torymidae) radiated much more on
Angiosperms than previously considered. I- Description of 8 new species from
Kenya, with a key to the females of Eastern and Southern Africa. ZooKeys
585: 51–124. doi: 10.3897/zookeys.585.7503
Scheffer, S. &
Grissell, E.E. 2003. Tracing the geographic origin of Megastigmus
transvaalensis (Hymenoptera: Torymidae): an African wasp feeding on a South
American plant in North America. Molecular Ecology 12: 415–421.
Wheeler, G.S., L.M.
Massey & M. Endries. 2001. The Brazilian peppertree drupe feeder
Megastigmus
transvaalensis (Hymenoptera: Torymidae): Florida distribution and impact. Biological Control
22:
139-148. |
Credits |
Photographs © Alain Roques (INRA, France) or Robert Copeland (ICIPE,
Kenya). Map illustration © Simon van Noort (Iziko Museums of South Africa). |
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