The Wharton Lab

This is the most commonly encountered of the three described species of Lopheucoila, and the only described species of Lopheucoila that has ever been reared.

Relative to other eucoilines that attack fruit-infesting flies, this species is readily recognized by the sculpture of the mesonotum, the four pointed lobes around the posterior margin of the scutellum and the posteriorly-directed spine that sits on top of the scutellar plate (Figs. 2-3). See the Eucoilinae page for additional information on how to identify this group of wasps, as well as the Lopheucoila page.

Although recorded from A. fraterculus and other, undetermined species of Anastrepha, the normal hosts of L. anastrephae appear to be fruit-infesting members of the genus Neosilba in the family Lonchaeidae (Wharton et al. 1998). The regular use of Anastrepha as hosts by this parasitoid is still in need of verification. The best method of verification is individual isolation of puparia after the maggots have emerged from infested fruit. The puparia of Lonchaeidae are easily distinguished from those of Anastrepha. For additional information on this species, see Guimaraes et al. 1999 and Ovruski et al. 2000.