Diachasma muliebre (Muesebeck, 1956)
Figures of the related species D. alloeum, as well as additional comments, can be found under the Diachasma page.
Diachasma muliebre is nearly identical to Diachasma ferrugineum but the sculpture of the petiole differs slightly (Muesebeck 1956). The species from Western USA (muliebre) is apparently thelytokous whereas ferrugineum is arrhenotokous, with normal production of males and females.
The ovipositor is distinctly longer than the body in Diachasma alloeum, and about equal in length to the body in ferrugineum and muliebre. However, this character needs to be more critically examined because of potential allometry problems associated with hosts (and resulting parasitoids) that vary considerably in size.
This and the other species of Diachasma superficially resemble Diachasmimorpha mellea, but mellea and muliebre can be readily distinguished by differences in the clypeus, which is short (broadly exposing the labrum) in D. muliebre.
