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Biosystematics of the Cotesia flavipes complex (Hymenoptera: Braconidae): interspecific hybridization, sex pheromone and mating behaviour studies

Mating behaviour, sex pheromone attraction and reciprocal breeding of Cotesia flavipes Cameron (Hymenoptera: Braconidae), C. sesamiae (Cameron) and C. chilonis (Matsumura) were studied. These three putative species comprise the Cotesia flavipes complex. Wing fanning and antennal vibration were the initial courtship signals from the males. Antennal stroking by the male was also an important contact signal and a prerequisite to successful mounting and copulation. Interspecific crosses revealed that males of C. flavipes exhibited courtship behaviour, and mounted and copulated with females of C. chilonis and C. sesamiae ; the males transferred sperm but progeny from these crosses did not include females. Males of C. sesamiae copulated with females of C. chilonis and the progeny included viable females. The progeny backcrosses of the hybrid females to male parents also included viable females. Sex pheromone experiments were conducted in a Y-tube olfactometer and in large field cages. Males and females of C. flavipes perceived and responded to odours emitted by the opposite sex. There was no significant response to odours from conspecific individuals of the same sex in any of the three species. Pheromone bioassays in field cages using sticky traps baited with live virgin C. flavipes females attracted conspecific males.