A Morphological and Molecular Treatment of Species Related to Hadronotus pennsylvanicus (Hymenoptera: Scelionidae), with New Host Records

Abstract

Parasitoid wasps reared from the eggs of a leaf-footed bug, Phthiacnemia picta (Drury, 1773) (Hemiptera: Heteroptera: Coreidae), in Uruguay are identified as Hadronotus pennsylvanicus (Ashmead, 1893) (Hymenoptera: Scelionidae), representing a new host association and an expansion of the known distribution for the parasitoid. The identification was made in the context of a COI phylogeny and morphological analysis of closely related species. Based on the results, we resurrect the name Hadronotus atriscapus Gahan, 1927, revised status, for a species known mostly from the western part of North America. We provide a key to Nearctic species in the H. pennsylvanicus species subgroup, discuss intraspecific variation, the possibility of cryptic species, and report adventive populations of H. pennsylvanicus in Africa and Australia that have implications for biological control.