Pleistodontes macrocainus

Pleistodontes macrocainus
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Hymenoptera
Suborder: Apocrita
Superfamily: Chalcidoidea
Family: Agaonidae
Subfamily: Agaoninae
Genus: Pleistodontes
Species: P. macrocainus
Binomial name
Pleistodontes macrocainus
Lopez-Vaamonde, Dixon & Cook

Pleistodontes macrocainus is a species of fig wasp which is native to Australia. It is associated with Ficus cerasicarpa and F. brachypoda.[1]

Description

Female P. macrocainus wasps are 1.6 to 1.9 millimetres (0.063 to 0.075 in) long, while males are 0.9 to 1.1 mm (0.035 to 0.043 in) long.[1]

Taxonomy

Pleistodontes macrocainus was described by Carlos Lopez-Vaamonde, Dale Dixon and James M. Cook in 2002 based on specimens collected from Ficus cerasicarpa. Since they could not discern any consistent differences between the wasps collected from F. cerasicarpa and F. brachypoda, they concluded that both figs are pollinated by the same species of fig wasp.[1]


References

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 Lopez-Vaamonde, Carlos; Dixon, Dale J.; Cook, James M.; Rasplus, Jean-Yves (2002). "Revision of the Australian species of Pleistodontes (Hymenoptera: Agaonidae) fig-pollinating wasps and their host-plant associations". Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 136 (4): 637–83. doi:10.1046/j.1096-3642.2002.00040.x.