Kojima, Jun-ichi

Ubaidillah, Rosichon

English

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Treubia 2004 33 (2) 199-201Short ComunicationRECORD OF Smicromorpha, (HYMENOPTERA: CHALCIDIDAE:SMICROMORPHINAE) POSSIBLE PARASITOIDS OF WEAVER ANTS,FROM HALMAHERA, THE NORTH MOLUCCASRosichon Ubaidillah' and [un-ichi Kojima/'Museum Zoologicum Bogoriense, Research Center for Biology, Indonesian Institute of,Sciences - LIPI, Jl. Raya Jakarta-Bogor Km 46, Cibinong 16911, Bogor, Indonesia2Natural History Laboratory, Faculty of Science, Ibaraki University, Mito, 310-8512 JapanThe parasitoid wasp genus Smicromorpha Girault, 1913, consisting of sixdescribed species, is the only genus in the subfamily Smicromorphinae of the familyChalcididae (Naumann, 1986). Of the six species, three (5. doddi Girault, 1913, S.minera Girault, 1926, and S. lagynos Naumann, 1986) are distributed throughoutnorthern Australia, S. eudela Naumann, 1986, is known only from the northern part ofthe Northern Territory of Australia, and S. banksi Naumann, 1986, was described fromnortheastern Australia and New Guinea. The only species described from outsideAustralia and New Guinea is 5, keralensis Narendran, 1979, which is known only fromsouthern India. Boucek (1988) referred to, without mentioning any details, anundescribed species from central Africa, and Narendran (1989) suggested an occurrenceof a species in Nigeria. In addition to these localities, Naumann (1986) listed thePhilippines, as a personal communication with Dr. S.F. Riek, to harbor asmicromorphine parasitoid. A highly unusual species is known from a single specimenfrom Singapore (Naumann, personal communication).During our field research on hymenopterous insects in the northern part ofHalmahera Island conducted in September 2003, we successfully collected S. lagynosas follows.One female and one male S. lagJJnoswere collected around the nest of the weaver antO. smaragdina (Fabricius) on an Anona muricata tree at around 1100 on 5 September 2003(Galela, Tobello. 01°46'N 127°57'E). On 7 September 2003, two females were collected ataround 09.30hours while they were flying around a nest of O. smaragdina at a Citrus sp. tree(Gomohoku, Tobello, 01°48'N 128°00'E). The next day, the other two females also flyingaround a nest of the weaver ant on a Citrus tree were collected at around 11.00 hours atAkesahu, Jailolo (01°OO'N127°30'E), and a male was captured also around the nest of theweaver ant at about 13.30hours at Hoku-hoku Kie,Jailolo (01°06'N 127°28'E).The specimensare now deposited in the Museum Zoologicum Bogoriense, Bogor (4 females, 1 male)and in the Natural History Collection at Ibaraki University, Mito (1 female, 1 male).200 Ubaidillah & Kojima: Record of Smicromorpho, (Hymenoptera: Chalcididae:Smicromorphinae) Possible Parasitoids of Weavear Ants, .Without specifying the species, Naumann (1986:172) mentions" At least fourspecies ofSmicromorphinae are known to be attracted to light and are therefore probablynocturnal; certainly one of these species is crepuscular." The fact that we collected thespecimens while they were flying around weaver ant nests during daytime shows thatS. lagynos is neither nocturnal nor crepuscular. Actually the species has relativelysmall ocelli in the genus (Naumann, 1986).Large ocelli are often a feature of nocturnalor crepuscular Hymenoptera.Girault (1915)and Dahms (1984)mentioned thatthe host of S.doddi is the weaverant O. smaragdina [Naumann (1986) referred to Girault (1913) for the host, which,however, mentions nothing about hosts]. Naumann (1986:172) stated "Specimens ofSmicromorphinae have been collected near nests of O. smaragdina on several occasions",and the Indian species, S. keralensis, is known flying around the nest of Oecophylla(Narendran, 1989).We also collected the parasitoids flying around weaver ant nests.All these observations, though any direct evidences have not yet been available, stronglysuggest that the hosts of Smicromorpha parasitoids are Oecophylla ants. The slender,highly mobile and telescopic metasoma of Smicromorpha could be an adaptation tooviposition on Oecophylla larvae in nest construction, during which the ant workershold larvae in their mandibles to bind leaves together by the larval silk.As Naumann (1986) pointed out, the distribution of Smicromorpha generallyparallels that of the two extant Oecophsjlla species: O. smaragdina occurs from India tothe Solomon Islands and in northern Australia, and O. longinoda (Latreille) in tropicalAfrica. Aside from the possible occurrence in the Philippines, the disjunct distributionof Smicromorpha, in Papua-Australian region (including Halmahera), southern India,and central Africa, implies its Gondwana origin and low dispersal ability rather thandispersal events simply in association with the hosts.AcknowledgementsWe thank John LaSalle of ANIC, CSIRO, Canberra for his confirming of theSmicromorpha species identification. We also thanks to Dr. Ian Naumann of AustralianDepartment of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry and Dr. Alex Gumovsky ofSchmalhausen Institute of Zoology, Ukraine for his critical reading of the manuscript.The present study partly supported by the RONPAKU (Dissertation PhD) programfrom the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science.Literature citedBoucek, Z., 1988. Australasian Chalcidoidea (Hymenoptera). A Biosystematic Revision ofGenera of Fourteen Families, with a Reclassification of Species. CAB International,WaIIingford, axon, U.K., 832pp.Treubia 2004 33 (2) 201Dahms, E.C., 1984. A checklist of the types of Australian Hymenotera described byAlexandra Arsene Girault: Ill. Chalcidoidea F-M with advisory notes. Memoirsof the Queensland Museum 21: 579-842.Girault, AA, 1913. Some chalcidoid Hymenoptera from north Queensland. Archiv furNrzturgeschichte (A) 79(6): 70-90.Girault, AA, 1915. Australian Hymenoptera Chalcidoidea. - XIV. Memoirs of theQueensland Museum 4: 314-365.Narendran, T.c., 1989. Zoological Monograph: Oriental Chalcididae (Hymenoptera :Chalcidoidea). Department of Zoology, University of Calcutta, Kerala, India,441 pp.Naumann, I.D., 1986. A revision of the Indo-Australian Smicromorphinae(Hymenoptera: Chalcididae). Memoirs of the Queensland Museum 22: 169-187.

RECORD OF Smicromorpha, (HYMENOPTERA: CHALCIDIDAE: SMICROMORPHINAE) POSSIBLE PARASITOIDS OF WEAVER ANTS, FROM HALMAHERA, THE NORTH MOLUCCAS

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RECORD OF Smicromorpha, (HYMENOPTERA: CHALCIDIDAE: SMICROMORPHINAE) POSSIBLE PARASITOIDS OF WEAVER ANTS, FROM HALMAHERA, THE NORTH MOLUCCAS

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