Fopius caudatus (Szépligeti, 1913)

Remarks
See comments on the Fopius page.
Taxonomic History / Nomenclature
The generic names Opius and Biosteres have also been used for this species.
Opius coffeae Fischer, 1962 is a synonym of Fopius caudatus (Wharton 1987).
Description
Fopius caudatus is readily separated from all other species of Fopius by the distinctive band of setae and punctures on the frons extending between the eye and ocelli (Fig. 2). Fopius caudatus resembles members of the Fopius desideratus species group in the morphology of the clypeus and petiole, but has a distinctly different ovipositor (strongly narrowed, with a shape identical to that of Fopius arisanus, suggesting oviposition in the host egg: Fig. 3) as well as several features unusual for members of the genus Fopius (Wharton 1997, 1999). The commonly collected Fopius caudatus also superficially resembles Fopius silvestrii, and both have been reared from ceratitidines in coffee samples.
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1. Fopius caudatus habitus: latera...
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2. Fopius caudatus to...
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3.Fopius caudatus ovipositor tip.
 
Diagnosis and Relationships
A tabular summary of morphological features that facilitates comparison of the known species of Fopius is provided by Wharton (1999).
Distribution
Fopius caudatus is known from tropical regions of both eastern and western Africa.

This species was shipped to Hawaii and Guatemala from Kenya during the period from 1999-2004; and was previously liberated in Costa Rica (from collections made in West Africa), though never recovered.

Distribution
Native
Introduced
Biology / Hosts
Fopius caudatus has thus far been reared exclusively from ceratitidines (Steck et al. 1986, Wharton et al. 2000). Vayssieres et al. (2011) found it to be the most abundant parasitoid of tephritids infesting a variety of fruits in Benin and it was also recovered from fruit samples in Mali (Vayssieres 2002).
Biology - Host Range Testing
This is one of three egg-larval parasitoids (with F. ceratitivorus and F. arisanus) evaluated by Wang et al. (2004) on a nontarget flowerhead-feeding tephritid, Trupanea dubautiae. This tephritid is critical for pollination of certain native plants in Hawaii. In laboratory experiments, no evidence of parasitism of T. dubautiae by any of the 3 parasitoids was observed.