Euplectrus plathypenae (Hymenoptera: Eulophidae) Reared from Anicla infecta (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae), a New Host Record

Abstract

Euplectr us plathypenae Howard, a gregarious external parasitoid, is recorded here as the third known hymenopterous enemy of the green cutworm, Anicla infecta Ochsenheimer (Lycophotia incivis Guenee). Thompson (1944) listed Rogas politiceps Gahan (Braconidae) and Teleno2mus minutissimus Ashmead (Scelionidae) as parasitoids of A. infectae in the United States and British Guiana, respectively. Wilson (1933) presented a detailed study of the biology of E. plathypenae. Muesebeck et al. (1951) recorded 12 species of the following genera of Lepidoptera as hosts of E. plathypenae: Cirphis, Diatraea, Heliothis, Laphygma, Leucania, Peridroma, Platlhypena, Prodenia, and Protoparce. A living larva of A. inf ecta was found clinging to a blade of a tall grass in the Bonnet Carre Spillway crossing U.S. Route 61, west of New Orleans, Louisiana on 3 December 1965. A group of 23 light-greenish larvae of E. plathypenae was situated in a mass on a posterolateral surface of the noctuid larva. The larva of A. uinfecta appeared to be of normal color, but it was almost immobile. It was placed in a vial and taken to Ithaca, New York, where it was kept at 20 to 23? C. On 4 December the noctuid larva was still light green but somewhat flaccid, and the eulophid larvae were no longer grouped in one place but had dispersed over the surface of the host. One of the 23 larvae was preserved. On 5 December the noctuid larva was brownish in color and obviously dead. The hymenopterous larvae had spun open networks of threads about themselves, and they had attached the moth larva to the piece of grass by spinning threads between the venter of the larva and the edge of the grass. The larvae did not pupate until 7 December. Twenty-one wasps (2 males and 19 females) emerged on 13 December. One pupa failed to produce an adult. The wasps and noctuid larva were kindly determined by B. D. Burks and J. G. Franclemont, respectively.