|
Back to List of Background & Research Materials Maeta,
Y. & S. Yamane. HOST
RECORDS AND BIONOMICS OF Melittobia
japonica MASI (HYMENOPTERA, EULOPHIDAE). Bulletin of the Tohoku National Agricultural Experiment
Station (47): 115 - 131. 1974. Abstract. In the course of our biological studies on wild bees and wasps we found Melittobia japonica Masi, a gregarious ectoparasitic chalcid wasp belonging to the family Eulophidae, often giving a serious damage to their nests. Since Masi's original description (Masi, 1936) the biology of this species has been studied by Iwata and Tachikawa (1966) and Iwata and Katayama (1966). In Japan this wasp is widely and commonly distributed and is found in the nests of tube-renting bees and wasps, but no satisfactory study on its biology [at least part of a sentence is missing here] based on observations made in 1967 to 1970. Before going further we must express our hearty thanks to Prof. Dr. K. Tsuneki of the Faculty of Education, Fukui Univ., who was willing to identify Trypoxylon spp., to Dr. S. Momoi of the Institute of Applied Entomology, Faculty of Agriculture, Kobe Univ., for his identifications of ichneumon flies, and also to Mr. N. Fukuhara of the Division of Entomology, National Institute of Agricultural Sciences, for his identification of Amobia signata Meigen. Melittobia Species Mentioned: Melittobia acasta, M. chalybii (= Melittobia spp.), and M. japonica (= M. clavicornis). Comments. Figure 1 shows photographs of infestation of four hosts (wasps and bees) by Melittobia japonica (=M. clavicornis), Table 1 shows a list of host species for M. japonica (=M. clavicornis) based on different authors. Table 2 shows host species of Melittobia acasta and M. chalybii (=Melittobia spp.) according to different authors. Melittobia chalybii in this paper is based on Krombein's (1967. Trap-nesting wasps and bees. Smithsonian Press, Washington, D.C.) and Fye's (1965. Canadian Entomologist 97: 863 - 877) works. The first one may refer to different Melittobia species (Krombein collected infested trap nests from different places in the U.S. and used the known name for Melittobia sp. from the U.S. at the time). The second is very probably Melittobia acasta (again, it was probably mistakenly identified with the information available at the time). Tables 3 and 4 show position of cells of different hosts parasitized by M. japonica (=M. clavicornis). Tables 5 to 7 show number of progeny of M. japonica (=M. clavicornis) from different hosts. Tables 9 to 15 show percentage of parasitism by M. japonica (=M. clavicornis) on different hosts. |