The Wharton Lab

Bellopius Wharton, 1997: 27-28. Type species: Opius bellus Gahan, 1930 (original designation).

Bellopius is presently treated as a subgenus of Opius (Wharton 1997). The species placed here have been referred to as the Opius bellus species group and were discussed in some detail by Wharton (1983, 1988). Earlier (Fischer 1972), they were included in the genus Desmiostoma Foerster, but Wharton (1983) noted that the clypeus and labrum were quite different from the true Desmiostoma, which is a parasitoid of leaf-mining Agromyzidae. Wharton (1997) subsequently proposed the subgeneric name Bellopius for this group.

See the Opius and Opiinae pages for additional information.

Opius (Bellopius) is most easily recognized by the following combination of characters: occipital carina and notauli completely absent, clypeus completely concealing labrum, mandible without basal tooth, fore wing second submarginal cell elongate and widely separated from m-cu, and hind wing RS and m-cu present. Bellopius is defined as monophyletic on the basis of the combined loss of occipital carina and notauli.

The species of Bellopius that have been reared from tephritids (including bellus and hirtus) have a median carina present on the otherwise unsculptured propodeum. Other species in this subgenus lack the carina.

The posterior margin of the pronotum is elevated in the species of Bellopius similar to the condition in Doryctobracon, suggesting that the relationship between the two should be further explored. The occipital carina is completely absent in Doryctobracon as it is in Bellopius, but the fore wing venation differs. Bellopius is unrelated to Utetes as the species of Bellopius lack both the hind tibial carina and the posterior displacement of fore wing RS+M. It is similarly difficult to show a close relationship between Psyttalia and Bellopius mainly because of differences in the clypeus and hind wing venation.

Occipital carina completely absent (Fig. 1). Labrum completely concealed by clypeus when mandibles closed (Figs 2, 3); outer surface of clypeus flat to evenly but weakly convex; ventral margin thin and weakly convex, sometimes produced medially as a weak tooth. First flagellomere longer than second. Propleuron always without oblique carina dorsad propleural flange. Notauli and midpit completely absent (Fig. 4). Postpectal carina absent. Hind tibia dorso-posteriorly without basal carina. Fore wing (Fig. 5) with second submarginal cell long; m-cu arising basad 2RS. Hind wing (Fig. 6) with RS distinct, represented by a pigmented crease, at least over basal half; m-cu is a short but distinctly pigmented crease, usually extending about half way to wing margin. Metasoma unsculptured beyond petiole. Ovipositor usually shorter than in Doryctobracon but longer than in many species of Utetes.

All known species are Neotropical.

Chinajariyawong et al. provide an extensive list of opiine species and their tephritid hosts collected in Thailand and Malaysia during surveys conducted between 1986 and 1994 (Chinajariyawong et al. 2000). The specimens were primarily collected from various Bactrocera spp. and include Opius bellus Gahan. This latter record is in need of confirmation since this species is not known to occur outside the New World.

All known species have only been reared from tephritids. Two species, Opius (Bellopius) bellus Gahan and Opius (Bellopius) hirtus Fischer have been reared from medfly and from several species of Anastrepha. Other species, as yet unidentified and representing several undescribed species, have been reared from Blepharoneura (Condon et al. 2014).

This page was assembled by Bob Wharton and Danielle Restuccia. It is part of a review of the genera of World Opiinae. 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 0616851, 1026618, and 1313933 (to Wharton). Page last updated July, 2014. 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.