Vol. 62, 2023

(update: 2023.5.26)

A New Distinctive Darwin Wasp Represents the First Record of the Ophion minutus Species-group (Hymenoptera: Ichneumonidae: Ophioninae) from Japan and the Far East, with an Analysis of DNA Barcode-based Species Delimitation in Ophion

and Kaoru Maeto²

¹Institute for Agro-Environmental Sciences, NARO, Tsukuba, Ibaraki, Japan. *Correspondence: E-mail: parasitoidwasp.sou@gmail.com (Shimizu)
²Laboratory of Insect Biodiversity and Ecosystem Science, Graduate School of Agricultural Science, Kobe University, Rokkodaicho 1–1, Nada, Kobe, Hyogo 657–8501, Japan. E-mail: maeto@kobe-u.ac.jp (Maeto)

(Received 20 June 2022 / Accepted 21 February 2023 / Published 26 May 2023)
Communicated by Y. Miles Zhang

A new Darwin wasp species, Ophion kobensis Shimizu sp. nov. (Hymenoptera: Ichneumonidae: Ophioninae), has been described using the integrated morphological and molecular species delimitation approaches. Our results indicated that the new species is closely related to European O. ventricosus Gravenhorst, 1829 of the O. minutus species-group but can be distinguished using morphological characters, such as entirely black body colour with some light-yellow marks and not inclined epicnemial carina in lateral view. The record of the new species represents the first record of the species-group from Japan and the Far East. Phylogenetic analysis also indicated that the O. minutus species-group was weakly recovered as monophyletic and sister to Ophion s. str. and two clades within the O. minutus species-group (O. minutus and O. ventricosus clades) diverged significantly. This suggests that the species-group, as well as the two included clades, could potentially be treated as separate species-groups or genera. The present study supports previous integrative taxonomic and phylogenetic studies of Ophion and is the first fundamental step for future studies of the challenging Japanese and Far Eastern Ophion.

Key words: bPTP, Integrative taxonomy, MtCO1, Parasitoid wasps, Phylogeny.

Citation: Shimizu S, Maeto K. 2023. A new distinctive Darwin wasp represents the first record of the Ophion minutus species-group (Hymenoptera: Ichneumonidae: Ophioninae) from Japan and the Far East, with an analysis of DNA barcode-based species delimitation in Ophion. Zool Stud 62:27.doi:10.6620/ZS.2023.62-27.

Supplementary materials: Fig. S1丨Fig. S2丨Supplementary file S1丨Supplementary file S2丨Supplementary file S3