Opius (Bellopius) hirtus Fischer, 1963

Taxonomic History / Nomenclature
Opius hirtus Fischer, 1963: 365, 376-378. Holotype female in Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard University (original description incorrectly states California Academy of Sciences; corrected by Fischer 1977).
Desmiostoma hirtum: Fischer 1977: 850, 865-867.
Opius hirtus: Wharton 1983: 61 (redescription, variation, and range extension).
Opius (Bellopius) hirtus: Wharton 1997: 28.
Remarks
Wharton studied variation in this species, with particular regard to material reared from different hosts (Wharton 1983).
For additional information, see the Bellopius page.
Description
This species is similar to Opius (Bellopius) bellus but is darker and has a somewhat narrower stigma. It is virtually identical to Desmiostoma caldasanum in color and many other features.
3031_mximage
1.Face, anterior
3032_mximage
2. Face, oblique showing cly...
3034_mximage
3. head and mesosoma,...
 
Biology / Hosts
Opius (Bellopius) hirtus has been reared from various species of Anastrepha as well as the introduced Ceratitis capitata (e. g. Wharton 1983, Aluja et al. 2003).
Biology and Behavior
See Ovruski et al. (2000) for summary of the few publications on this species. Additionally, this species was one of several discussed in terms of relationships between ovipositor length, fruit morphology, and host location by Sivinski et al. (2001) and Sivinski and Aluja (2001).
Map

There are no specimens currently determined for this OTU, or those specimens determined for this OTU are not yet mappable.

Acknowledgements
This page was assembled largely by Bob Wharton. It is part of a revision of New World, mostly neotropical, opiines reared from Tephritidae conducted by Condon et al. (2014) and Wharton and Norrbom (2013). We are particularly grateful to Lauren Ward who did all of the imaging. Matt Yoder and Istvan Miko provided guidance on databasing issues associated with our use of mx and HAO respectively. We thank Martin Aluja and John Sivinski for sending us material from lab cultures in Xalapa and curators at the Museum of Comparative Zoology for facilitating loans and general assistance associated with examination of the holotype. This work was supported partly by NSF DEB 0949027, with REU supplement 1313933 (to Wharton) and partly by NSF/PEET DEB 0328922 (also to Wharton). Page last updated March, 2015. The material on this page is freely available, but should be acknowledged if used elsewhere.

This material is based upon work at Texas A&M University supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant Numbers DEB 0949027 and DEB 0328922 with REU supplement 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.