First record of Conura ( Conura ) maculata ( Fabricius , 1787 ) ( Hymenoptera , Chalcididae ) parasitizing Opsiphanes invirae amplificatus Stichel , 1904 ( Lepidoptera , Nymphalidae ) in the province of Corrientes , Argentina

We report the first record of Conura (Conura) maculata (Fabricius, 1787) in the province of Corrientes, Argentina. A total of 85 adult wasps of C. maculata were obtained from 3 chrysalides of Opsiphanes invirae amplificatus Stichel, 1904, a lepidopteran pest of native and exotic palm trees. This is the first report of the occurrence of this parasitoid in the province of Corrientes, extending this species’ known distribution in the country. This is also the first report of the parasitoid-host interaction between these 2 species for Argentina.


Introduction
The parasitoids can be considered key species for maintaining communities' equilibrium by functioning as regulators of the population density of other insects (Stireman andSinger 2003, Nájera andSouza 2010).The majority of the Chalcididae are primarily parasitoids of Lepidoptera, Diptera, and Coleoptera, while some parasitize species in other insect orders, such as Hymenoptera and Neuroptera, and others are hyperparasitoids (Gibson 1993, De Santis 1989, Gates et al. 2012).The family has a worldwide distribution with 1,464 species in 87 genera (Noyes 2017).The Neotropical fauna is represented by 217 species (Delvare and Arias-Penna 2006) of which 63 have been reported in Argentina (Noyes 2017), where the genus Conura Spinola,1837 is the best represented, with 30 species (Noyes 2017).Conura are generally parasitoids of both larval and pupal stages of lepidopteran (Marchiori et al. 2004, Marcicano et al. 2007, Salgado-Neto and Lopes da Silva 2011, Tibcherani et al. 2016), but also parasitize larvae of Diptera and other Hymenoptera (Stireman andSinger 2003, Couri et al. 2006), Coleoptera (Montes and Costa 2011), and Neuroptera, or are hyperparasitoids of Icneumonidae and Tachinidae (Couri et al. 2006, Sakazaki et al. 2011).They are usually solitary parasitoids, but some smaller species are gregarious (Gates et al. 2012).
Opsiphanes invirae (Hübner, [1808]) is a lepidopteran of the family Nymphalidae.In some South American Countries, it is considered a pest of plants of economic interest, like bananas (Musaceae) (Pulido and Cardenas 1979), the açaí palm (Euterpe oleraceae), the oil palm (Elaeis guineensis), and the coconut (Cocos nucifera) (Salgado Neto 2013, Ferreira et al. 2015, Brandão et al. 2017).In Argentina, O. invirae amplificatus Stichel, 1904 is widely distributed in the central-northeastern provinces (Hayward 1973, Núñez Bustos 2008) and has been reported causing damage to native and exotic palms (Pastrana and Braun 2004).It is considered among the 3 most problematic insects for palms in the province of Buenos Aires (Márquez and Florentino 2007).
Conura maculata has been reported acting as a natural enemy of O. invirae amplificatus by Salgado-Neto and Lopez da Silva (2011) in Brazil.Here, we report for the first time the occurrence of this parasitoid in the province of Corrientes.Our new record extends the known distribution of this species in Argentina and expands the known distribution of the host-parazitoid interaction between C. maculata and O. invirae amplificatus to the province of Corrientes.

Methods
We sampled in an urban area near the campus of the Universidad Nacional del Nordeste, Corrientes city, province of Corrientes, Argentina (Fig 1).Between June 2013 and April 2014, we collected chrysalides of O. invirae amplificatus from Syagrus romanzoffiana (Cham.)Glassman stipes, house lintels, and external walls of buildings.Chrysalids were carefully removed, placed in plastic containers, and transported to the Laboratorio Biología de los Invertebrados.They were isolated in the lab and each chrysalid was hung by the cremaster with a thread inside cellophane paper bags (30 cm × 25 cm) with microperfo-

A C D B
rations.The chrysalids were kept under light-controlled conditions (equal amounts of light and darkness in a 24 h period) and natural temperature and humidity.The chrysalids were observed daily until the emergence of the butterfly or the parasitoids.Some parasitoids obtained were kept in 80% ethanol while others were mounted on entomological pins.We recorded the number of individuals and sex ratio of the emerged parasitoids.
Adults of C. maculata were identified based on the species redescriptions by Bouĉek and Delvare (1992)  All the material was deposited in the collection of the Universidad Nacional del Nordeste, Facultad de Ciencias Exactas, Naturales y Agrimensura, Corrientes, Corrientes, Argentina (CARTROUNNE).

Results
We randomly collected 21 chrysalids of O. invirae ampli ficatus.Thirteen emerged as adults, 5 died, and 3 were wild-caught parasitized (Cp).From the latter, 70 adult females and 15 adult males of C. maculata emerged (C1p: 32♀ 5♂; C2p: 27♀ 2♂; C3p: 11♀ 8♂).Chrysalids had an average of 3 perforations each made by the eruption of parasitoids.We observed that an adult of C. maculata emerges from the host through a circular opening (Fig. 2), which could be made with its mandibles or by taking advantage of a perforation already made by another individual.Identification.To facilitate the identification of C. ma culata, female body coloration and some external morphological characters of males (Fig. 1) are given below.The information is based on Bouĉek and Delvare (1992).

Conura maculata (Fabricius
Female body size 5.5-6 mm.Scape and pedicel yellowish, flagellum brownish; body yellow with some parts black: an inverted V on the antennal scrobes (Fig. 1C); a median line between lateral and occipital ocelli; a median line on pronotal collum; a macula above occipital foramen (Fig. 1D); mesoscutal mid lobe also with a black part just behind posterior edge of pronotum; central small spots on each mesoscutal lateral lobes (Fig. 1D); transscutal line, mesoscutal mid lobe, median line on scutellum (Fig. 1C, D), and on mesopleuron anterior (Fig. 1C); mesopleuron with a small spot on the femoral scrobe (Fig. 1A, B), hind coxa with 2 spots, 1 proximal and dorsal, other at apex; hind trochanter and hind femur with a small spot apically, all teeth of hind femur and ovipositor sheaths; tergites 1 to 5 with transverse dorsal stripes.
Males present smaller body sizes than females, with a mean length of 4.5 mm.Antenna generally completely yellowish; scape hardly widening towards apex, with sensilar area hardly visible, pedicel not modified, clava area with sutures slightly oblique and, rounded at apex; striae of mesoscutum better developed than in female; hind coxa with a complete longitudinal strip ventrally; petiole only slightly longer than in female (Bouĉek and Delvare 1992).

Discussion
Conura maculata is not included among the species of Conura reported for Argentina by Bouĉek and Delvare (1992), De Santis and Fidalgo (1994), and Arias and

Figure 2 .
Figure 2. Specimen of Conura maculata from Corrientes emerging from a pupae of Opsiphanes invirae amplificatus in the laboratory.