Parasitoids of Fruit-Infesting Tephritidae

Fopius persulcatus (Silvestri, 1916)

See comments under the Fopius persulcatus species group on the Fopius page. There has been considerable confusion regarding the identity of this species and hence all biological information, except that provided in the original description, is suspect.

Originally described from India by Silvestri (1916) as Biosteres persulcatus. Transferred to Fopius by Wharton (1997).
Fischer (1963) described three subspecies of persulcatus (see the Opiinae page).

Striate sculpture on the second metasomal tergum and frons densely covered with large punctures are characteristics of this and other members of the Fopius persulcatus species group.

A tabular summary of morphological features that facilitates comparison of the known species of Fopius is provided by Wharton (1999).

Introduced to Hawaii, probably released, but confusion with other species led to uncertainty regarding both it’s release and establishment.

Native

India (Cameron, E. 1941.; Clausen, C. P.; Clancy, D. W.; Chock, Q. C. 1965.; Fullaway, D. T. 1951.; Silvestri, F. 1916.; Thompson, W. R. 1953.; Blunck, H. 1953.; Papp, J. 1985.; Palacio, I. P.; Ibrahim, A. G.; Ibrahim, R. 1988.; Gilstrap, F. E. and Hart, W. G. 1987.; Monaco, R. 1978.; Cochereau, P. 1970.; Lawrence, T. C. 1950.; Wilson, F. 1960.; Liquido, N. J.; Harris, E. J.; Dekker, L. A. 1994.)

Karnataka (Fischer, M. 1960.; Narayanan, E. S. and Chawla, S. S. 1962.; Puttarudriah, M. and Usman, S. 1954.; Narayanan, E. S. and Batra, H. N. 1960.)

Tamil Nadu (Hadden, F. C. 1936.; Gurney, W. B. 1936.; Narayanan, E. S. and Chawla, S. S. 1962.)

Introduced

Hawaii (Clancy, D. W. 1950.; Anonymous. 1949.; Anonymous. 1951.; Haramoto, F. H. and Bess, H. A. 1970.; Mainland , G. B. 1950.; Bess, H. A.; van den Bosch, R.; Haramoto, F. 1950.; Clancy, D. W. 1951.; van den Bosch, R. 1951.)

Apparently Bactrocera dorsalis (Hendel), B. latifrons (Hendel), and possibly B. zonata (Saunders) (Wharton and Gilstrap 1983). Ibrahim et al. (1993) studied the life cycle of a Malaysian population of this species in the laboratory.