A new species of Ormyrus Westwood (Hymenoptera, Ormyridae) developing in ﬁ gs of Ficus microcarpa in Europe

. Known by many names, the Chinese banyan ( Ficus microcarpa L.) is a monoecious plant species originating from south-eastern Asia which has been introduced as an ornamental in numerous areas outside its native range, including the Mediterranean. Like every species of Ficus , it is associated with a series of chalcid wasp species, known as ﬁ g wasps. These species are distributed in the families Agaonidae, Epichrysomallidae, Eurytomidae, Ormyridae and Pteromalidae. In this publication, we describe a new species of Ormyrus Westwood, 1832 (Hymenoptera, Chalcidoidea, Ormyridae), O. microcarpae Askew & Koutsoukos sp. nov., reared from ﬁ gs of F. microcarpa collected from Greece and Cyprus. The new species is compared with O. lini and O. watshami . This species is likely to be a parasitoid of Meselatus bicolor Chen, 1999 (Hymenoptera, Epichrysomallidae) . In addition, the previously unknown female of O. lini is also described and illustrated. This publication constitutes the ﬁ rst report of species of Ormyrus associated with ﬁ gs in Europe.


Introduction
Globalisation and international trade have contributed to the translocation and establishment of an increasing number of species far beyond their distributional boundaries (Hulme 2009).The introduction of plant species beyond their native range for ornamental purposes has been an increasing trend in the Mediterranean since its suitable climate allows numerous exotic species to establish (Lopez-Vaamonde et al . 2010;Bella 2014).Following their host plants, a series of insect species from other continents have managed to reach these introduced areas (Lopez-Vaamonde et al . 2010;Compton et al . 2019).
Ficus microcarpa L. (also known as the Chinese Banyan) is a large evergreen tree, native to south-east Asia from India and Sri Lanka through southern China to Malaysia and north-east Australia, but widely introduced elsewhere as a shade or ornamental tree (Chen et al . 1999;Bhandari & Cheng 2016).As with other species of Ficus , F. microcarpa has host-specifi c fi g wasp pollinators.Eupristina verticillata Waterston, 1921 (Hymenoptera, Agaonidae) is the recorded pollinator, but recent research suggests this taxon comprises an aggregate of closely related species, all associated with F. microcarpa (Wang R. & Rasplus J.-Y., pers. com.).Adult females pollinate the fl owers in the fi gs and also gall some of them.Their larvae then feed on the galled ovules within the fi gs (Cook & Rasplus 2003).This mutualistic relationship is exploited by a series of chalcid wasps distributed in the families Epichrysomallidae Hill & Riek, 1967, Eurytomidae Walker, 1832, Ormyridae Förster, 1856 and Pteromalidae Dalman, 1820, known collectively as non-pollinating fi g wasps (NPFW).They have various trophic regimes (phytophagous, parasitoids, inquilines) and do not all need the fi gs they occupy to have been pollinated (van Noort et al . 2013;Wang et al . 2015a).Many of these species (along with the pollinator) have managed to follow their host plant as it has been transported around the world and has reached multiple Mediterranean countries (Compton 1989;Mifsud et al . 2012;Wang et al . 2015a).
In Greece, the fi rst report of fi g wasps associated with F. microcarpa dates back to the discovery of Odontofroggatia galili Wiebes, 1980 (Hymenoptera: Epichrysomallidae) (Compton 1989), followed by Wang et al . (2015a) with a total of seven species from the Dodecanese, a number that is about to double (Koutsoukos et al . pers. com.).Regarding Cyprus, samples throughout the last decade yielded twelve fi g wasp species associated with F. microcarpa , amongst them an undescribed species of the genus Ormyrus (Demetriou et al . 2023).
Ormyridae is a small family of chalcid wasps, distinctive and easily recognised but with affi nities to Torymidae.It is considered to include the genera: Asparagobius Mayr, 1905, Hemadas Crawford, 1909and Ormyrulus Bouček, 1986 , which are monotypic, and Ormyrus Westwood, 1832, including 142 species (Noyes 2019;Burks et al . 2022;Cruaud et al . in press) of which 60 are recorded from the Palaearctic region (31 from Europe) and another 60 from the Indo-Australian region (Narendran 1999).A further 14 species are listed from the Afrotropical region, 20 from the Nearctic region and just four from the Neotropical region (Noyes 2019).
The species of Ormyrus for which biological information is available are all parasitoids in insect galls, particularly in galls induced by Cynipidae, although their precise trophic relationships within the galls are often unknown.Described European species have been reared from galls of Cynipidae Latreille, 1802 (Hymenoptera), Cecidomyiidae Newman, 1835 and Tephritidae Newman, 1834 (Diptera) and rarely from those of Eurytomidae (Hymenoptera) (Askew & Blasco-Zumeta 1998).Most species are restricted to galls on a single genus of host plants.Outside Europe, a species of Ormyrus has been KOUTSOUKOS E. et al., A new species of Ormyrus (Hymenoptera) from Ficus microcarpa fi gs found to parasitise a gall-forming weevil (Coleoptera: Curculionidae) on Celtis L. in China (Yao & Yang 2004).Cynipid, cecidomyiid, agromyzid and tephritid hosts have all been reported (Noyes 2019).In addition, a group of species is associated with fruits of Ficus spp., inside which they are known or presumed to be parasitoids in the galls of other fi g wasps (Noyes 2019).Zerova & Seryogina (2006) reviewed 34 species of Palaearctic Ormyrus, but none was reported to be associated with species of the genus Ficus .Bouček et al . (1981) described three species of Ormyrus reared from fi gs of Ficus thonningei Blume (= F. burkei (Miguel)) in the Ethiopian region, and Narendran (1999) cited 21 species that are certainly or probably associated with various species of Ficus in his account of 60 species of Ormyrus from the Indo-Australian region.Subsequently, O. lini Chen, 1999 was described as a presumed parasitoid in F. microcarpa fi gs in Taiwan (Chen et al . 1999).Ormyrus fernandinus Nieves-Aldrey, Hernández & Gómez, 2007 , from Africa (Equatorial Guinea) may also be a fi g wasp parasitoid (Nieves-Aldrey et al . 2007).None of the Nearctic or Neotropical species of Ormyrus is known to be associated with fi gs.
The edible fi g F. carica L. is the only fi g tree native to Europe, but numerous exotic species have been planted, especially around the Mediterranean.To date, there has been no European record of a Ficusassociated Ormyrus .Although Timberlake (1922) reported three unnamed species of Ormyrus reared from F. microcarpa [as F. retusa ] fi gs from Hong Kong, only O. lini has been described previously (Chen et al . 1999).Here, we describe a new Ormyrus associated with F. microcarpa , and compare it with O. watshami , a closely related species from Africa and O. lini , which was reared from F. microcarpa within its native Asian range.We also describe the female of O. lini for the fi rst time.

Material and methods
Collections were made throughout the southern parts of Greece and Cyprus, with an emphasis on areas where F. microcarpa is abundant (touristic and urbanised regions).Sampling started in July 2021 and continued until August 2022 (Table 1).
Figs were collected from F. microcarpa individuals with late-C to early D phase fi gs following Galil & Eisikowitch (1968), as the exit of adult fi g wasps predominantly takes place during these stages (Wang 2014).Collected fi gs were stored in sealed polyethylene bags to allow the fi g wasps, including some Ormyrus individuals, to emerge.Afterward, the specimens were stored in 90% ethanol.The fi gs were also stored in ethanol.These were later transferred to plastic boxes fi lled with water for ten minutes and were afterward dissected in four parts for the examination of galls (Wang et al . 2015a : 170-193 (2024) galls were removed from the fi gs, and carefully opened with the use of entomological forceps to remove any adult insects.Reared fi g wasps were stored in either 70% or 90% ethanol, before identifi cation under a stereo microscope and molecular treatment.Specimens were air-dried, and card-mounted.Initial identifi cation was carried out with a combination of descriptions and keys (Bouček et al . 1981;Chen et al . 1999;Narendran 1999;Zerova & Seryogina 2006).Terminology follows Gibson (1997).
In addition to the morphological identifi cation, three specimens of Ormyrus stored in 95% ethanol were sent to the Laboratory of Forest Entomology (Forest Research Institute -HAO Demeter, Greece) for molecular identifi cation.DNA was extracted from each individual using PureLink® Genomic DNA kit (Invitrogen), following the instructions of the manufacturer.Amplifi cation was carried out in 25 μl volume using MyTaq™ Red Mix (BioLine) with two different primer pairs, namely i) LCO/HCO) (Folmer et al . 1994) and ii) Pat/Jerry (Simon et al . 1994) that amplify two fragments of mtDNA's Cytochrome Oxidase subunit I gene (COI).Conditions of the fi rst (i) PCR consisted of an initial denaturation stage at 94˚C for 3 minutes, and then 45 cycles of 30 seconds at 94˚C, 30 seconds at 47˚C and 90 seconds at 72˚C with a fi nal extension at 72˚C for 5 minutes.The second (ii) PCR amplifi cation included an initial denaturation stage at 94˚C for 3 minutes, and then 5 cycles of 60 seconds at 94˚C, 90 seconds at 45˚C and 75 seconds at 72˚C, followed by 40 cycles of 60 seconds at 94˚C, 90 seconds at 51˚C and 75 seconds at 72˚C, with a fi nal extension at 72˚C for 5 minutes.Purifi cation of PCR products was carried out with PureLink® PCR Purifi cation Kit (Invitrogen) according to the manufacturer's protocol.Purifi ed products were sequenced in the automated sequencer ABI3730XL of CeMIA Company (Larisa, Greece), using the same primers with PCR.Finally, sequences were initially visualised with Chromas software ver.2.6.6 (Technelysium Pty Ltd.) to avoid any wrong identifi cation of nucleotides and then blasted in the NCBI GenBank database.
Images were all acquired by SvN at SAMC with a Leica LAS 4.9 imaging system, comprising a Leica® Z16 microscope with a Leica DFC450 Camera and 0.63× video objective attached.The imaging process, using an automated Z-stepper, was managed using the Leica Application Suite ver.4.9 software installed on a desktop computer.Diffused lighting was achieved using a Leica LED 5000 Dome.All images included in this paper, as well as additional images, will be made available on WaspWeb ( https://www.waspweb.org) (van Noort 2023).

Results
Sequences obtained for both mitochondrial primer pairs (Accession Numbers will be provided) were blasted in NCBI Genbank.They clearly clustered with already-deposited sequences belonging to species of Ormyrus , without matching identically with any of these sequences.Sequences obtained for both KOUTSOUKOS E. et al., A new species of Ormyrus (Hymenoptera) from Ficus microcarpa fi gs mitochondrial primer pairs (Accession Number OQ98061 for the locus amplifi ed with LCO/HCO and OQ980660 with Pat/Jerry) were blasted in NCBI Genbank.
A new species of Ormyrus reared from F. microcarpa is described, illustrated and compared to closely allied species.The female of O. lini is also described and illustrated since this species was previously known only from one male individual.

Diagnosis (both sexes)
Body length 1.4-1.7 mm.Colour dark metallic greenish blue, without testaceous colouration except about the wing bases (Figs 3A-B, 5A-C).Antennae placed higher than the lower level of eyes (Figs 3C, 5E).Flagellum with 2 anelli present, length of fl agellum 1.16× height of eye, Fu1 at most 0.5× width of Fu6 (Figs 3C , 5E).Mouth margin metallic (Fig. 3C).Vertex without long setae (Figs 1C-E, 5B-C).Gt3 with two, Gt4 with three irregular transverse rows of exposed large foveae (Fig. 3F).In females, gaster with distinct mid-dorsal carina (Fig. 3F).Epipygium directed almost vertically upwards (Fig. 3D).In males, gaster dorsoventrally compressed (Fig. 5F).HEAD.In dorsal view 2.2× as broad as long, eye length 0.9× head length with temple dorsally only about 0.07× head length; ocelli in obtuse triangle of about 140°, POL 3.1× OOL, OOL about 1.4× diameter of posterior ocellus; vertex transversely striate, abruptly down-turned just behind posterior ocelli; occipital carina low and about 2× OD behind posterior ocelli.Head in front view 1.4× as broad as high, eye length almost 0.8× height of head; scrobal grooves narrow, smooth, upwardly divergent and extending to about an ocellar diameter below level of anterior ocellus, scrobal area triangular, depressed and transversely striate; parascrobal area with poorly defi ned, mostly vertical striation and rather dense piliferous punctures with short, white setae; eyes with inner margins very weakly divergent ventrally, their minimum separation 0.55× head width; toruli with lower margins just above lower eye margin; clypeus small, its anterior margin produced as two very small lobes; malar space about 0.6× width of oral fossa, malar sulcus straight; mandibles each with two small, acute teeth.Antenna with scape about 5× as long as broad and 0.62× height of eye, scape apex much below anterior ocellus; pedicel plus fl agellum 0.6× width of head, pedicel about 1.5× as long as broad and as long as three basal fl agellars; fl agellum fusiform, short, only 1.16× height of eye; two discoid anelli, the second less than 0.3× width of pedicel; six transverse funicle segments, Fu1 about as broad as pedicel and 2× as broad as long, Fu6 European Journal of Taxonomy 917: 170-193 (2024) about 1.5× as broad as Fu1 and about 2.5× as broad as long; linear sensilla in a single transverse row on each funicle segment; clava with 3 clavomeres, slightly shorter than the combined length of the three preceding funicle segments, C1 as broad as Fu6, clava thence tapering to blunt apex.

Etymology
MESOSOMA.Mesosoma dorsally convex, in dorsal view 1.28× as long as wide; pronotum transversely striate, its anterior near-vertical face descending abruptly from the broad collar but lacking a distinct pronotal carina, laterally with two irregular vertical rows, reduced to a single row dorsally, of rather long, white setae; mesoscutum twice as broad as long, transversely striate with notauli shallow but evident at least near transscutal suture (traceable throughout in one paratype), mid-lobe with about 20 irregularly arranged setae, each seta arising from a quite large puncture, the setae longest towards transscutal suture; scutellum 1.25× length of mesoscutum, concentrically striate, smooth and shining between the striae, with fi ve or six setae on each side, apical rim of scutellum protruding over the vertical metanotum and most of the propodeum which slopes at an angle of about 60° to the plane of the scutellum.Propodeum European Journal of Taxonomy 917: 170-193 (2024) smooth medially, weakly striate laterally, callus abundantly pilose, spiracle round and separated from metanotum by less than half its diameter.Hind leg coxa enlarged, about 2× as long as broad with fl at, reticulate outer face; metafemur 2.8× as long as wide; metatibia slightly curved, its posterior edge with about 12 spines (stout setae) which are longest on distal half and almost 0.5× tibial width, the longer tibial spur about 1.5× apical width of tibia and slightly shorter than 0.9× length of metabasitarsus.Fore wing with lengths costal cell: marginal vein: stigmal vein: postmarginal vein as 69:41:7:17; short stigmal vein bent at base of stigma which is 2× as long as the base of the vein; submarginal vein with 8 to 10 long setae which mostly are longer than width of costal cell; costal cell upper surface bare, lower surface with a sparse row of short setae in distal half; basal cell bare except 0 to 3 setae near junction of basal and cubital folds; speculum large, open below and extending behind marginal vein almost or quite to stigmal vein, pilosity of disc sparse beyond this bare area.
METASOMA.Gaster about 1.3× as long as mesosoma, laterally compressed, in profi le rectangular and truncate, upturned epipygium forming 90° angle to dorsal surface, median dorsal longitudinal carina on all gastral tergites except Gt1; Gt3-5 each basally with one to three exposed transverse rows of large foveae with additional foveae partly concealed by preceding tergites, the non-foveate apical areas fi nely punctured.

Male
Body length 1.4-1.6 mm.Bluish green, brighter than female and lacking purplish tints on mesosoma; antennae and legs a little paler than in female; gaster bluish green with foveate areas of Gt3 and Gt4 dull purple.Head (including antenna) and mesosoma much as in female.Gaster dorsoventrally compressed, as long as head and mesosoma together, in dorsal view 1.7× as long as wide, widest at Gt1 thence tapering to rounded apex; Gt1 transversely striate, Gt2 short and shallowly punctured, Gt3 and Gt4 long, each with two irregular transverse rows of large and deep foveae on their anterior halves, remaining tergites vaguely sculptured, partly smooth and shining.

Hosts
Reared from fi gs of Ficus microcarpa that contained galls produced by Meselatus bicolor Chen, 1999 (Hymenoptera, Epichrysomallidae).Meselatus bicolor prevents pollination and seed production by creating conspicuously large ovule galls (Wang et al . 2015b).All individuals of Ormyrus microcarpae Askew & Koutsoukos sp.nov.were found inside these galls.As such, we consider O. microcarpae a parasitoid of M. bicolor.Ficus microcarpa and M. bicolor are introduced species in Greece and Cyprus, and almost certainly O. microcarpae as well.

Material examined
BODY LENGTH.1.6 mm.HEAD.In dorsal view 2.05× as broad as long, eye length 0.7× head length with temple 0.15× head length; ocelli in obtuse triangle of about 140°, POL 3.9× OOL, OOL about 1.7× diameter of posterior ocellus; vertex transversely striate with four pairs of setae of differing length near posterior edge, the outermost pair (behind eyes) and a pair behind posterior ocelli the longest, each seta about 3× OD and inclined forwards, another pair of long setae near inner eye margins behind posterior ocelli.Head in front view 1.3× as broad as high, eye length 0.6× height of head; eyes with inner margins weakly divergent ventrally; upper face vertically striate with a row of about fi ve short setae near inner margin of eye; toruli below eyes with upper margins at about level of lower eye margins; lower face with several short white setae in small punctures and with weak reticulate sculpture.Antenna with scape about 5.5× as long as wide, 0.8× height of eye, not quite reaching anterior ocellus; pedicel plus fl agellum 0.7× width of head, pedicel about 1.7× as long as broad and three times as long as the two short and very transverse anelli together; fl agellum fusiform, all six funicle segments transverse, each with a single transverse row of linear sensilla, Fu1 1.7× as broad as long, Fu2 about 1.9× as broad as long, Fu3-Fu6 each of about equal length and twice as broad as long, clava ovoid, about 2.5× as long as but scarcely broader than Fu6.
MESOSOMA.Mesosoma dorsally convex, in dorsal view 1.27× as long as wide, very shiny with transverse striae which are most narrowly spaced on pronotum; mesoscutum 1.8× as broad as long, notauli traceable throughout and quite deeply impressed at posterior ends, setation very sparse, the mid-lobe with only two pairs of relatively long setae in posterior half and the side-lobes with a few setae laterally; scutellum 1.25× as long as mesoscutum, concentrically striate with three long setae on each side, apical rim protruding over vertical metanotum and almost occluding propodeum in dorsal view.Propodeum sloping at an angle of about 120° to tangential plane of scutellum, callus thickly pilose.Metacoxa about twice as long as wide, its fl at outer face reticulate; metafemur 2.8× as long as wide; metatibia with about eight white spines on posterior edge, longest tibial spur slightly longer than metabasitarsus.Fore wing with lengths costal cell: marginal vein: stigmal vein: postmarginal vein as 72:37:5:10, stigmal vein widening almost from its base; submarginal vein with about 10 dorsal setae, each 1.5-2.0×width of costal cell; basal cell bare, basal fold with two setae; speculum large, open below, extending behind about 0.75× length of marginal vein.
METASOMA.Gaster 1.6× as long as mesosoma, ovate in dorsal view and 1.7× as long as wide, in lateral view 1.4× as long as deep; median dorsal carina absent; ovipositor slightly exserted, epipygium and ovipositor directed obliquely upwards forming an angle of about 120° with dorsal plane of Gt5; Gt3 dorsally with maximally three exposed transverse rows of foveae, Gt4 with four and Gt5 with three, the narrow apical non-foveate parts of these tergites almost smooth and very shiny.

Host
Reared from fi gs of F. microcarpa ; however, its precise biology is unknown.

Remarks
This species was originally described from a single male reared from F. microcarpa collected in Taiwan (Chen et al . 1999).The female is described here, also based on a specimen collected in Taiwan.Additionally, a male and female from Guangzhou, China have been examined.
All the material was reared from fi gs of F. microcarpa .No signifi cant structural differences between individuals from the two localities were detected and the most noticeable difference concerned colouration, with specimens from mainland China being more extensively yellowish testaceous.The female from mainland China is yellowish testaceous on the face below the level of the toruli, sides of the mesosoma, legs including coxae, propodeum and entire ventral surface of gaster.There is less of a colouration difference between males, but the specimen from mainland China is testaceous on the entire face below the level of the upper margins of the toruli whereas the Taiwanese male has a triangular testaceous area with apex between the toruli and extending to the lateral corners of the mouth opening.Bouček, 1981 Figs 9-11 Ormyrus watshami Bouček, 1981: 224-226, fi g. 157.

Distribution
Zimbabwe.

Remarks
Ormyrus watshami is a parasitoid in galled ovules of Ficus burkei .A resemblance between O. microcarpae Askew & Koutsoukos sp.nov.and the description of O. watshami , especially the fi gure (Bouček et al . 1981: 225, fi g. 157) depicting the female gaster, prompted an examination of the female holotype (images provided in Figs 9-11), and male and female paratypes of O. watshami from the Natural History Museum (London).
The female paratype of O. watshami , body length 2.0 mm, is larger than the usual size of O. microcarpae Askew & Koutsoukos sp.nov., the body is brighter green to greenish blue with weaker sculpture and the legs are somewhat darker with metallic tints on the front and hind femora, the outer face of the metacoxa is shiny with weakly raised reticulate sculpture, and the spines on the posterior edge of the metatibia are fully half as long as the tibial width.The antennal fl agellum of O. watshami is longer (1.47× length KOUTSOUKOS E. et al., A new species of Ormyrus (Hymenoptera) from Ficus microcarpa fi gs of eye compared to 1.16× in O. microcarpae ) and stouter (Fu1 about 0.65× width of Fu6 compared to hardly 0.5× width of Fu6) than in O .microcarpae .The mesoscutum of O. watshami is less setose than in the new species with a few setae only on its mid-lobe and these are restricted to the sides of the posterior half.Gasters of O. watshami and O. microcarpae have the same characteristic shape but differ signifi cantly in that O. watshami has large foveae fully exposed only on Gt3.European Journal of Taxonomy 917: 170-193 (2024) The male paratype of O. watshami differs from male O. microcarpae Askew & Koutsoukos sp.nov. in that the gaster is less dorsoventrally compressed, its ventral surface brownish and the discs of Gt2-4 are largely pale and non-metallic, and there are about four rows of comparatively small and shallow foveae exposed on Gt3 and Gt4.

Discussion
We have described a new species of the genus Ormyrus from the eastern Mediterranean, probably far outside its unknown native range.The description of chalcid wasps associated with introduced ornamentals outside their host's native range is not a rare phenomenon.For instance, the leaf galler of F. microcarpa, Josephiella microcarpae Beardsley & Rasplus 2001 (Hymenoptera: Epichrysomallidae), was originally described from California, the Canary Islands and Hawaii (Beardsley & Rasplus 2001).Parasitoids have similarly followed their host insect and host plant.Monoksa dorsiplana Bouček, 1991 (Hymenoptera: Pteromalidae), for example, has been described far away from its natural distribution (South America) (Bouček 1991).This is the fi rst report of a species of Ormyrus associated with F. microcarpa outside its native distributional range, and only the second Ormyrus known from this host.
There is an indication that many of the species of Ormyrus associated with fi gs share morphological characteristics.All of the Ficus -associated species in Narendran's (1999: 8) key to Indo-Australian species fall into the section of the key distinguished by the 'scutellum bearing no adpressed pilosity but with pairs of setae [...] separated in middle by median bare area or strip; speculum usually open'.Bouček (1988: 155) recognised a small group of species of Ormyrus , based upon O. watshami , an African species associated with fi gs and characterised by sparse but long and suberect mesonotal setae, particularly on the mesoscutum.In contrast, Ormyrus that are parasitic in galls on other host plants have relatively dense, short and more adpressed setae on the mesoscutum and anteriorly on the scutellum.Ormyrus lini was described from a single male specimen reared from F. microcarpa in Taiwan (Chen et al. 1999) and it is the only species of Ormyrus recorded by Wang et al . (2015a) in a wide-ranging survey of F. microcarpa , its fi g wasps and associated fauna.Ormyrus lini has rarely been collected; possibly F. microcarpa is not its principal host fi g.Alternatively, this apparent rarity may be linked to having an uncommon specifi c insect host within the fi gs of F. microcarpa.
In its introduced range, F. microcarpa has been reported to affect building infrastructure, and even escape from urban habitats, becoming an invasive species (McKey 1989;Beardsley 1998;Wang et al . 2015a).Assisted by the introduction of its pollinator, it has managed to become invasive in Bermuda, Florida and Hawaii, while germination of seedlings away from planted trees has been reported even from Greece (Rhodes) (Galanos 2015;Wang et al . 2015b;Compton et al . 2017).Various non-pollinating fi g wasps inhabiting F. microcarpa fi gs are known to compete with the pollinator, thus reducing the reproductive success of the plant, and have been discussed as potential biocontrol agents against their host species, in case it is deemed invasive (Dunn et al . 2008;Segar & Cook 2012;Wang et al . 2015b;Compton et al . 2017).
Meselatus bicolor was regarded as the most promising species for biological control of F. microcarpa , since the galls it creates prevent pollination and by extension seed production (Wang et al . 2015b).Although previous works (Wang et al . 2015a(Wang et al . , 2015b) revealed a limited distribution of the species in the Mediterranean (i.e., the Dodecanese Islands), the absence of the M. bicolor parasitoid Bruchophagus sensoriae Chen, 1999 in these introduced areas was encouraging (Wang et al . 2015b).Nevertheless, the report of O. microcarpae Askew & Koutsoukos sp.nov.as a possible parasitoid of M. bicolor , could be a limiting factor in any schemes of biological control that include the latter.While M. bicolor has a wide distribution in Southern Greece and Cyprus (Koutsoukos et al . in prep . ), the impact O. microcarpae on M. bicolor should be considered in case F. microcarpae becomes invasive and its delimitation through biological control is regarded as necessary.