The Wharton Lab

Sternaulopius Fischer, 1965: 309-311. Type species: Sternaulopius bisternaulicus Fischer, 1965 (monobasic and original designation).

Type locality of type species: Rutshuru, Congo; holotype female in Koninklijk Museum voor Midden-Afrika, Tervuren.

Initially proposed as a genus, retained as a valid genus by Fischer (1972), (1987) and Wharton (2006).

The genus Sternaulopius was described by Fischer (1965) to accomodate species with two “sternauli” on each side of the mesopleuron (the true sternaulus is ventral to the other groove, now know as the precoxal sulcus). Normally, only a single groove (the precoxal sulcus) is present in braconid wasps, or the groove is completely lost. The species of Sternaulopius are thus distinctive, though their placement in the classification of the Opiinae is still unsettled (Wharton 2006). In overall appearance (body shape, size, and fore wing venation), they somewhat resemble species in the genus Utetes, and are occasionally reared from the same host fruits. The species of Sternaulopius, however, lack the sharp carina on the base of the inner side of the hind tibia that characterizes members of the genus Utetes.

For additional information, see the Braconidae and Opiinae pages.

Sternaulopius is defined on the basis of the presence of both a sternaulus and a precoxal sulcus on the mesopleuron. In overall appearance (body shape, size, and fore wing venation), members of the genus Sternaulopius somewhat resemble species in the genus Utetes, and are occasionally reared from the same host fruits. The species of Sternaulopius, however, lack the sharp carina on the base of the inner side of the hind tibia that characterizes members of the genus Utetes.

The images here are from Wharton (2006).

We have reared Sternaulopius bisternaulicus Fischer from a variety of fruits infested by Ceratitis and Trirhithrum (Tephritidae) in both Cameroon and Kenya (Wharton 2006). Aside from these rearing records, there are no further details known of the biology of any of the species.

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 August, 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.