Pediobius cajanus sp. n. (Hymenoptera, Eulophidae), an important natural enemy of the Asian fly (Melanagromyza obtusa (Malloch)) (Diptera, Agromyzidae) in the Dominican Republic

Abstract

Pediobius cajanus sp. n. is described based on material from the Dominican Republic, where it is widespread, and it is anticipated to have a much larger distribution in tropical America. It is compared to other species of Pediobius from the New World, and is also compared to P. vignae (Risbec), a similar species from Africa with similar biology. The new species is a gregarious endoparasitoid of the pupae of the Asian fly, Melanagromyza obtusa (Malloch), an agromyzid that causes major damage to pigeon pea, Cajanus cajan (L). Millspauh. In the Dominican Republic P. cajanus sp. n. is the most important parasitoid of this pest. Details on its biology are provided. Copyright Rosina Taveras, Christer Hansson. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.