Research Article |
Corresponding author: Jing-Xian Liu ( liujingxian@yahoo.com ) Academic editor: Norman Johnson
© 2020 Hua-Yan Chen, Massimo Olmi, Hong Pang, Jing-Xian Liu.
This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Citation:
Chen H-Y, Olmi M, Pang H, Liu J-X (2020) Application of DNA barcoding confirms the host of Gonatopus viet Olmi, 1986 (Hymenoptera, Dryinidae). ZooKeys 944: 115-120. https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.944.53054
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Gonatopus viet Olmi, 1986 was originally described from Vietnam based on a single female. No further distribution records or hosts have been documented since its original discovery. In the present study, this species is newly recorded from China and its host is confirmed as Stirellus capitatus (Distant, 1918) using DNA barcoding techniques. The utility of DNA barcoding to discover host-Dryinidae associations is discussed.
Chrysidoidea, host association, leafhopper, molecular identification, Stirellus capitatus
Species of Dryinidae (Hymenoptera: Chrysidoidea) are parasitoids and predators of Auchenorrhyncha (Hemiptera), many of which are important insect pests in agriculture and forestry (
On the other hand, most species of Dryinidae are ectoparasitoids of the nymphs or adults of their hosts, that is, the larvae of the wasps strongly protrude from the host’s body and feed on the internal structures of the host from outside (
During an expedition to the Xisha Islands of South China Sea organized by Sun Yat-sen University in 2019, the first author collected a Gonatopus adult, a parasitized leafhopper nymph (Figure
This work is based upon specimens of Dryinidae wasps and leafhoppers collected by yellow pan traps (YPT) on Dong Island (16°39.875'N, 112°43.813'E) of South China Sea. The adult dryinid wasp was identified using the keys of
Genomic DNA was extracted from the adult wasp, the wasp larva, the parasitized leafhopper nymph, and a female leafhopper adult. A nondestructive DNA extraction protocol was used for the adult wasp and leafhopper, as described in
The Dryinidae female adult is identified as G. viet based on morphology. It matches well with the original descriptions of G. viet except the body length is 2.86 mm (the holotype is 2.4 mm). This species can be recognized by the following characters (Figure
The COI sequences are also over 99% identical between the parasitized leafhopper nymph and a female leafhopper adult, indicating that they are conspecific. This female leafhopper adult, along with the males from the same sample, is morphologically identified as Stirellus capitatus (Figure
Dryinidae is a diverse group of parasitic wasps, with approximately 1900 species described worldwide (
Many species of Dryinidae display extreme sexual dimorphism, especially in the subfamilies Dryininae and Gonatopodinae (
Thanks to Dr. Lin Lu (Northwest A&F University) for his help in the identification of the leafhopper. The scientific expedition in 2019 was organized by South China Sea Institution of Sun Yat-sen University. This study was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 3147207; responsible Jingxian Liu).