Psyttalia fijiensis (Fullaway, 1936)

Taxonomic History / Nomenclature
Originally described as Opius fijiensis by Fullaway (1936).
Fischer (1987) later placed this species in the genus Austroopius, which Wharton (1987) included as a subgenus of Psyttalia. The combination Psyttalia fijiensis was first used by Waterhouse (1993).
Remarks
Summaries of the known information on this species are provided by Wharton and Gilstrap (1983) and Carmichael et al. (2005). For additional information, see the Psyttalia page.
Description
Within the genus Psyttalia, this and other species formerly included in Austroopius are characterized by the thickened 2RS of the forewing (Fig. 1). According to Fischer (1963), this species is further characterized by the presence of an infumate anterior-posterior band through the middle of the fore wing. However, this wing coloration character seems to vary amongst the material in museums that have been identified as this species (Carmichael et al. 2005). Most of the species with a thickened fore wing 2RS differ from one another by the relative lengths of their ovipositors, but this ovipositor feature has unfortunately not been quantified and some of the described species without host records are known only from males.
3057_mximage
1. Psyttalia fijiensis left fore w...
 
Distribution
Indo-Pacific. Originally described from Fiji, and subsequently recorded from northern Australia, New Caledonia, and Papua-New Guinea.

Introduced to Hawaii; released but not recovered.

Biology / Hosts
Recorded hosts include Bactrocera barringtoniae (Tryon), B. curvipennis (Froggatt), B. endiandrae (Perkins and May), B. fagraea (Tryon), B. frauenfeldi (Schiner), B. jarvisi (Tryon), B. kraussi (Hardy), B. laticaudus (Hardy), B. murrayi (Perkins), B. musae (Tryon), B. pallida (Perkins and May), B. passiflorae (Froggatt), B. psidii (Froggatt), B. tryoni (Froggatt), and B. xanthodes (Broun) (See Wharton and Gilstrap (1983) and Carmichael et al. (2005)). Lab reared on B. dorsalis (Hendel) (Clausen et al. 1965).
Map

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