Rearings of four European Microgastrinae (Hymenoptera: Braconidae), three new to Britain including a new species of Cotesia Cameron, 1891

Abstract

• Cotesia carterocephali sp. nov. is described from a single gregarious brood reared from a posthibernation final instar larva of the hesperiid butterfly Carterocephalus palaemon in Scotland. Details of English rearings of two other Microgastrinae recorded from Britain for the first time are also given: Distatrix pompelon, gregariously from the erebiid lymantriine Orgyia antiqua (also recorded from the same host in Austria), and Dolichogenidea hemerobiellicida, solitarily from the coleophorid Coleophora hemerobiella (with a record from possibly the same host in the Netherlands). The non-British Glyptapanteles aletta is recorded as a solitary parasitoid of Limenitis populi in Finland, France and Germany: a previous host record for this parasitoid is regarded as incorrect.