Bulletin of Entomological Research (1995) 85, 379-386

Susan W. Kimani and William A. Overholt (1995)
Biosystematics of the Cotesia flavipes complex (Hymenoptera: Braconidae): interspecific hybridization, sex pheromone and mating behaviour studies
Bulletin of Entomological Research 85 (3), 379-386
Abstract: Mating behaviour, sex pheromone attraction and reciprocal breeding of Cotesia flavipes Cameron (Hymenoptera: Braconidae), C. sesamiae (Cameron) and C. chilonis (Matsumura) were studied. These three putative species comprise the Cotesia flavipes complex. Wing fanning and antennal vibration were the initial courtship signals from the males. Antennal stroking by the male was also an important contact signal and a prerequisite to successful mounting and copulation. Interspecific crosses revealed that males of C. flavipes exhibited courtship behaviour, and mounted and copulated with, females of C. chilonis and C. sesamiae; the males transferred sperm but progeny from these crosses did not include females. Males of C. sesamiae copulated with females of C. chilonis and the progeny included viable females. The progeny backcrosses of the hybrid females to male parents also included viable females. Sex pheromone experiments were conducted in a Y-tube olfactometer and in large field cages. Males and females of C. flavipes perceived and responded to odours emitted by the opposite sex. There was no significant response to odours from conspecific individuals of the same sex in any of the three species. Pheromone bioassays in field cages using sticky traps baited with live virgin C. flavipes females attracted conspecific males.
(The abstract is excluded from the Creative Commons licence and has been copied with permission by the publisher.)
Link to article at publishers website
Database assignments for author(s): William A. Overholt

Research topic(s) for pests/diseases/weeds:
biocontrol - natural enemies
Research topic(s) for beneficials or antagonists:
general biology - morphology - evolution
identification/taxonomy

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Pest and/or beneficial records:

Beneficial	Pest/Disease/Weed	Crop/Product	Country	Quarant.
Cotesia flavipes (parasitoid)
Cotesia sesamiae (parasitoid)
Cotesia chilonis (parasitoid)