The Wharton Lab

Utetes Foerster, 1862: 261: Type species: Opius testaceus Wesmael, 1838 (monobasic and original designation).

Synonyms:
Bracanastrepha Brèthes, 1924, synonymized by Wharton (1988).
Nipponopius Fischer, 1963, synonymized by Wharton (1997).
Therobolus Foerster, 1862, synonymized by Wharton (1997).

Type locality of type species: Belgium, Luettich. Lectotype female in Institut Royal des Sciences Naturelles de Belgique, Brussels, designated by Wharton (1987)

Treated as a subgenus of Opius by Fischer (1972); elevated to generic rank by Wharton (1988). Current status: valid genus (Wharton 1997, Fischer 1999, Li et al. 2013).

Occipital carina variable, present laterally and extending dorsally more than half height of head in most species, absent in the Neotropical Utetes anastrephae (Viereck) species group (= Bracanastrepha ). Labrum in nearly all species broadly exposed beneath short, truncate or crescentic clypeus (Fig. 1: africanus, and Fig. 2: bianchii); clypeus usually evenly protruding, more rarely with clypeus flattened. First flagellomere slightly longer than second. Propleuron always without oblique carina dorsad propleural flange. Notauli usually deep, sculptured to unsculptured, but usually very short, confined to anterior-lateral margin in most species (Fig. 3: africanus and Fig. 4: perkinsi), rarely a little longer (Fig. 5: bianchii), never complete to midpit. Midpit often long, deep, and narrowly tear-drop shaped. Postpectal carina absent. Hind tibia dorso-posteriorly with distinct basal carina (Figs 6&7). Fore wing (Fig. 8: richmondi) with second submarginal cell relatively long; m-cu arising distinctly distad 2RS. Hind wing (Fig. 9: richmondi) with RS nearly always absent basally, represented at most by a weak crease distally; m-cu absent. Second metasomal tergum unsculptured beyond petiole in most species, though sculptured in a few Southeast Asian species. Ovipositor varying from very short to nearly equal in length to abdomen, never as long as in Diachasmimorpha and Doryctobracon.

Differential coloration of subapical abdominal segments suggests the presence of large abdominal glands in many if not most of the species of Utetes. One of the species included in Utetes by Fischer (1987), Opius froggatti Fullaway, has been reared from tephritids and needs to be mentioned here. This species superficially resembles Utetes in several respects, including loss of hind wing RS and m-cu, but lacks the diagnostic carina at the base of the hind tibia. Fischer (1987) placed several species with froggatti in his Opius (Utetes) froggatti species group and the resemblance of the members of this group to the species of Utetes needs to be further explored to determine if the similarities represent a sister-group relationship or merely convergence.

Utetes is readily characterized by the presence of a sharp ridge or carina located basal-medially on the hind tibia (Figs 1&2). The type species of both Bracanastrepha and Nipponopius have this feature and the two genera were therefore included in Utetes by Wharton (1988, 1997). The placement of Nipponopius as a synonym of Utetes was rejected by Tobias (2000: 13) and the synonymy with Utetes was also rejected, by implication, by Li et al. (2013: 167). Wharton 1997 recognized that similar ridges were also present in the type species of Opiognathus, even though other features, such as the shape of the mandible, were quite different. Li et al. 2013 elevated Opiognathus to generic rank based largely on differences in the mandible (presence of a basal lobe or tooth ventrally in Opiognathus).

The species of Utetes reared from fruit are also generally characterized by having the origin of RS+M widely separated from the parastigma relative to species in other genera (1RS 0.3-0.6 × 1M). Also, many (but not all) have a large, elliptical to transverse pit mid-dorsally on the pronotum. As in Psyttalia, the labrum is broadly exposed below the shortened clypeus.

Utetes is cosmopolitan, with about one-fourth of the described species having been reared from fruit-infesting Tephritidae. Rhagoletis is an important host in the Nearctic and Palaearctic Regions, while Anastrepha and Tomoplagia have been recorded as hosts of several Neotropical species. Members of the Dacini (Subtribes Dacina and Ceratitidina) are hosts of species in Australia and the Afrotropical Region.

There are also several species of Utetes that are known to attack hosts in other dipteran families. For example, at least two species, including Utetes ruficeps (Wesmael), develop on leaf-mining Anthomyiidae. It is through species such as Utetes ruficeps and Utetes truncatus (Wesmael) that evolution of host shifts between fruit-infesting and leaf-mining flies can be explored.

The species of Utetes that attack fruit-infesting Tephritidae were generally included in the genus Opius prior to about 1990, though Tobias (1977) and Tobias and Jakimavicius (1986) included Utetes as a subgenus of Xynobius. Neotropical species lacking an occipital carina have often been placed as a separate genus Bracanastrepha. Utetes is worldwide in distribution.

See Wharton (1997) for further information as well as the website on parasitoids of fruit-infesting Tephritidae, specifically page http://mx.speciesfile.org/projects/8/public/public_content/show/13231?content_template_id=88

Foerster described the genus Utetes, but only included one species. Fischer treated Utetes as a subgenus of Opius, and over a period of many years, placed a large number of species there, many of them that he described. Wharton (1988) elevated Utetes to generic rank, restricted the definititon and for this reason specifically included only a few species. Several additional species were included in Wharton (1997), and Belokobylskij et al. (2003). Yu et al. (2012) included under the genus Utetes all of the species Fischer had placed in Opius (Utetes). Unfortunately, this includes many species that fit Fischer’s concept of his subgenus Utetes but not the revised concept of Utetes sensu Wharton (1997), Fischer (1999), and Li et al. (2013).

This page was assembled by Bob Wharton and Danielle Restuccia. It is part of a review of the genera of World Opiinae, conducted at Texas A&M University. We are particularly grateful to Xanthe Shirley, Andrew Ly, Patricia Mullins, Trent Hawkins, Lauren Ward, Cheryl Hyde, Karl Roeder, and Andrea Walker, who did nearly all of the imaging (together with Danielle) for this project. Matt Yoder and Istvan Miko provided guidance on databasing issues associated with our use of mx and HAO respectively. This project would not have been possible without the kindness of many curators at museums throughout the world who gave generously of their time to Bob Wharton and his students. In particular, I thank Henry Townes (deceased) and David Wahl (American Entomological Institute, Gainesville), Gordon Nishida (Bernice P. Bishop Museum, Honolulu), Norm Penny, and Bob Zuparko (California Academy of Sciences, San Francisco), Bill Mason (deceased), Mike Sharkey, Andrew Bennett, and Henri Goulet (Canadian National Collection, Ottawa), Paul Dessart (deceased) (Institut Royal des Sciences Naturelles de Belgique, Brussels), Marc De Meyer (Koninklijk Museum voor Midden-Afrika, Tervuren), Axel Bachmann (Museo Argentino de Ciencias Natureles, Buenos Aires), Eberhard Koenigsmann (deceased) and Frank Koch (Museum fuer Naturkunde der Humboldt-Universitaet, Berlin), J. Casevitz Weulersse and Claire Villemant (Museum National d’Historie Naturelle, Paris), James O’Connor (National Museum of Ireland, Dublin), Jenö Papp (National Museum of Natural History, Budapest), Kees van Achterberg (National Museum of Natural History, Leiden), Max Fischer, Herb Zettel, and Dominique Zimmermann (Naturhistorisches Museum, Wien), Per Persson and Lars-Åke Janzon (Naturhistoriska Riksmuseet, Stockholm), Ermenegildo Tremblay (Silvestri Collection, Portici), Erasmus Haeselbarth (Staatliche Naturwissenschaftliche Sammlungen Bayerns, Munich), Tom Huddleston and Gavin Broad (The Natural History Museum, London), Paul Marsh and Robert Kula (USDA Systematic Research Laboratory and US National Museum of Natural History, Washington, D. C.), Vladimir Tobias (deceased) and Sergey Belokobylskij (Zoological Institute, Academy of Sciences, St. Petersburg), and Roy Danielsson (Zoological Institute, Department of Systematics, Lund) for facilitating loans and general assistance associated with examination of holotypes and other material in their care. This work was supported largely by NSF/PEET DEB 0328922 and 0949027, with REU supplements 0723663, 1026618, 1213790, and 1313933 (to Wharton). Page last updated July, 2015. The material on this page is freely available, but should be acknowledged if used elsewhere.

This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant Numbers DEB 9300517, DEB (PEET) 9712543, DEB (PEET) 0328922 with REU supplements 0723663 and 1026618 and DEB 0949027 with REU supplements 1213790 and 1313933. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.