Ambush predators such as spiders affect the flower-visiting behavior of diurnal pollinators such as bees (Dukas 2001, Dukas and Morse 2003), potentially causing diurnal pollinators to avoid flowers where ambush predators wait (Dukas 2001). Thus, ambush predators can diminish the reproductive success of flowering plants (Gonçalves-Souza et al. 2008). Although nocturnal insects such as moths are important pollinators of many flowering plants (Hahn and Brühl 2016), the impact of ambush predators on nocturnal pollinators remains unclear.On 19 September 2018, we found a praying mantis, Tenodera sinensis (Mantodea:Mantidae), eating a moth, Sarcopolia illoba (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae), on flowers of Eupatorium lindleyanum (Asteraceae) at night in Hyogo, Japan (Fig. 1A). This suggests that ambush predators such as praying mantises prey on nocturnal pollinators, as they
A new species of Microgastrinae (Hymenoptera: Braconidae) from Japan, Dolichogenidea maetoi Fernandez-Triana & Shimizu sp. nov., is described, representing the first record of a braconid wasp parasitizing the lepidopteran family Hyblaeidae in the Palaearctic Region (from Hyblaea fortissima Butler, 1881). The new species is fully illustrated, diagnosed and compared with all previously described species of the genus Dolichogenidea Viereck, 1911 in the Holarctic (154 species). Details on the wasp biology, including observed sex ratios, are provided.
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