taxonID	type	description	language	source
7383FCF7C28D22A45A3A13712D5F7F8F.taxon	diagnosis	Diagnosis. Metasoma with T 3 dark brown to black centrally, yellow laterally; hind legs mostly yellow, except for metacoxa (mostly black, with small yellow spot on apical 0.1), brown spots on apical 0.1 of metafemur (dorsally), apical 0.1 of metatibia dark brown, and metatarsus entirely dark brown; tegula and humeral complex yellow; fore wing with most veins brown. Besides coloration, C. icipe has scuto-scutellar sulcus with eight carinae; T 1 almost parallel-sided, very slightly widening towards posterior margin; T 2 relatively small, quadrate and not covering the entire surface of the tergum, and T 3 1.3 x as long as T 2 length. The above combination of characters is sufficient to separate the species from all other described species of Afrotropical Cotesia, but see the Detailed diagnosis section below for one-to-one comparisons of C. icipe versus every other species. Beyond morphological characters, from a molecular perspective there is also sufficient information to recognize the new species. Eight out of the 12 previously described Afrotropical species of Cotesia have DNA barcodes available in BOLD (Fig. 5), and they are all clearly different from C. icipe.	en	Fiaboe, Komi K. M., Fernandez-Triana, Jose, Nyamu, Faith W., Agbodzavu, Komi M. (2017): Cotesia icipe sp. n., a new Microgastrinae wasp (Hymenoptera, Braconidae) of importance in the biological control of Lepidopteran pests in Africa. Journal of Hymenoptera Research 61: 49-64, DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3897/jhr.61.21015, URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.3897/jhr.61.21015
7383FCF7C28D22A45A3A13712D5F7F8F.taxon	description	Description. Female (Fig. 1). Metasoma brown dorsally, except for T 3 (which is centrally brown, laterally yellow); most of laterotergites and sternites yellow, hypopygium brown; F 2 length 1.78 - 2.00 x F 14 length; metafemur length 3.60 - 3.80 x metafemur width; metatibia inner spur length 1.17 x metatibia outer spur length; metatibia inner spur length 0.52 x first segment of metatarsus length; T 1 entirely sculptured with coarse punctures and a polished knob centrally on posterior margin; T 1 very slightly widening towards posterior margin (width at posterior margin 1.1 - 1.2 x its width at anterior margin); T 1 length centrally 1.5 - 1.7 x its width at posterior margin; T 2 entirely sculptured, with coarse punctures along all margins and longitudinal striation centrally; T 2 more or less rectangular, width at posterior margin 2.0 x its length centrally; T 3 smooth, with rows of setae that are more dense on posterior half of tergite; T 3 length centrally 1.3 x T 2 length centrally; ovipositor sheaths length 0.16 - 0.19 x metatibia length. Body measurements (all in mm). Body length: 2.20 - 2.50; fore wing length: 2.20 - 2.50; ovipositor sheaths: 0.12 - 0.15; metafemur length 0.65; metafemur width: 0.17 - 0.18; metatibia length: 0.76 - 0.80; metatibia inner spur: 0.21; metatibia outer spur: 0.18; first segment of metatarsus: 0.40. T 1 length centrally: 0.35 - 0.37; T 1 width at anterior margin: 0.19; T 1 maximum width: 0.25; T 1 width at posterior margin: 0.22 - 0.24; T 2 width at posterior margin: 0.32; T 2 length centrally: 0.16; T 3 length centrally: 0.21; length of F 1: 0.17 - 0.19; length of F 2: 0.16 - 0.18; length of F 3: 0.16 - 0.17; length of F 14: 0.09; length of F 15: 0.08; length of F 16: 0.10. Male (Fig. 2). As female but with darker metasoma dorsally, sometimes with T 3 entirely dark brown to black.	en	Fiaboe, Komi K. M., Fernandez-Triana, Jose, Nyamu, Faith W., Agbodzavu, Komi M. (2017): Cotesia icipe sp. n., a new Microgastrinae wasp (Hymenoptera, Braconidae) of importance in the biological control of Lepidopteran pests in Africa. Journal of Hymenoptera Research 61: 49-64, DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3897/jhr.61.21015, URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.3897/jhr.61.21015
7383FCF7C28D22A45A3A13712D5F7F8F.taxon	biology_ecology	Biology. Based on 4,000 + parasitism cases observed under laboratory condition at Cotesia icipe in Kenya, C. icipe is a solitary larval endoparasitoid of Spodoptera littoralis (Boisduval, 1833) and Spodoptera exigua (Huebner, 1808) (Lepidoptera, Noctuidae). It was successfully reported to attack those two noctuid species tested on amaranth. However, it failed to parasitize three Crambidae species tested on the same host plant: Spoladea recurvalis (Fabricius, 1775), Udea ferrugalis (Huebner, 1796) and Herpetogramma bipunctalis (Fabricius, 1794). Further studies of host range are warranted to explore the full potential of the new species in the biological control of key pests in small scale farming conditions in Africa. The female prefers ovipositing on second instar host larvae. The development time from egg to adult is two weeks and ovipositing females fed with honey can live more than two weeks at 25 ° C (our unpublished data).	en	Fiaboe, Komi K. M., Fernandez-Triana, Jose, Nyamu, Faith W., Agbodzavu, Komi M. (2017): Cotesia icipe sp. n., a new Microgastrinae wasp (Hymenoptera, Braconidae) of importance in the biological control of Lepidopteran pests in Africa. Journal of Hymenoptera Research 61: 49-64, DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3897/jhr.61.21015, URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.3897/jhr.61.21015
7383FCF7C28D22A45A3A13712D5F7F8F.taxon	distribution	Distribution. Afrotropical: Kenya, Madagascar, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Yemen (Fig. 3).	en	Fiaboe, Komi K. M., Fernandez-Triana, Jose, Nyamu, Faith W., Agbodzavu, Komi M. (2017): Cotesia icipe sp. n., a new Microgastrinae wasp (Hymenoptera, Braconidae) of importance in the biological control of Lepidopteran pests in Africa. Journal of Hymenoptera Research 61: 49-64, DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3897/jhr.61.21015, URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.3897/jhr.61.21015
7383FCF7C28D22A45A3A13712D5F7F8F.taxon	etymology	Etymology. We dedicate this species to the " International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology (Cotesia icipe) " for its long-term promotion of Integrated Pest Management and for building the capacity of thousands of African young scientists over the years in insect sciences.	en	Fiaboe, Komi K. M., Fernandez-Triana, Jose, Nyamu, Faith W., Agbodzavu, Komi M. (2017): Cotesia icipe sp. n., a new Microgastrinae wasp (Hymenoptera, Braconidae) of importance in the biological control of Lepidopteran pests in Africa. Journal of Hymenoptera Research 61: 49-64, DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3897/jhr.61.21015, URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.3897/jhr.61.21015
