A maximalist approach to the systematics of a biological control agent: Gryon aetherium Talamas, sp. nov. (Hymenoptera, Scelionidae)

Abstract

A morphological and molecular analysis of Gryon Haliday (Platygastroidea, Scelionidae) was conducted to provide a taxonomic and phylogenetic context for a species under evaluation as a biological control agent of Bagrada hilaris (Burmeister) (Hemiptera, Pentatomidae). Our analysis revealed that Gryon is polyphyletic and that the biological control agent is not G. gonikopalense, a name that was tentatively applied to this species in 2019. We here describe this species as new, Gryon aetherium Talamas sp. nov., and resurrect the generic name Hadronotus Förster. Morphological characters that delimit our concepts of Gryon and Hadronotus are presented. Based on morphological characters and multilocus phylogenies, we determined that five presently valid scelionid genera belong within Gryon. In total, 15 species are transferred into Gryon from these genera, 215 species are transferred from Gryon to Hadronotus, and 6 species are transferred from Gryon to Dyscritobaeus Perkins. Specimens collected during field studies in California and reevaluation of specimens determined as G. myrmecophilum in Mexico reveal that G. aetherium is adventive in North America.

Stink bug egg parasitoids (Hymenoptera, Scelionidae) associated with pistachio in Iran and description of a new species: Trissolcus darreh Talamas

“…DNA extraction, PCR and sequencing were conducted at the Florida State Collection of Arthropods, Gainesville, Florida, USA, as outlined in Ganjisaffar et al (2020), using the primers of Folmer et al (1994). For samples that did not produce a visible PCR product, subsequent attempts were made to amplify COI using the primer pairs listed in Talamas et al (2021). Brightfield images were produced with a Macropod imaging system using a 20X objective lens and rendered in Helicon Focus.…”

 Gryon aetherium Talamas (Hymenoptera, Scelionidae): Parasitoid of Bagrada hilaris (Burmeister) (Hemiptera, Pentatomidae) Adventive in Chile

“…Sequences were compared to those available in the NCBI database (GenBank) using BLASTN (Altschul et al 1990) with standard settings and to COI data made available in Talamas et al (2021). Gryon prisma Mineo (Hymenoptera, Scelionidae) was selected as the closest outgroup to our specimens based on the phylogenetic analysis in Talamas et al (2021). Three Hadronotus species i.e.…”

“…H. drunoris, H. ancinla and H. charon group sp. 2, were added to this analysis because they were originally described under the genus Gryon, until they were synonymized with Hadronotus by Talamas et al (2021). Trissolcus basalis (Wollaston) (Hymenoptera, Scelionidae) |MN615650| was used as the outgroup to root the tree.…”

First record of Telenomus fariai Costa Lima, 1927 (Hymenoptera, Scelionidae, Telenominae) as a parasitoid of Triatoma dimidiata (Latreille, 1811) (Hemiptera, Reduviidae, Triatominae) eggs in Mexico

“…Masner (1975) described two species reared from the eggs of Triatoma Laporte: Hadronotus triatomae (Masner) and H. linshcostei (Masner). These were originally treated as species of Gryon Haliday but have since been placed in Hadronotus Förster (Talamas et al 2021). Johnson (1984) described two species reared from the eggs of Zelus Fab., Te.…”