Unraveling a complex of cryptic species near Cephalonomia hyalinipennis (Hymenoptera: Bethylidae) and their association with the coffee berry borer and other hosts

Despite the recorded presence in Hawai'i of Cephalonomia hyalinipennis, a presumed parasitoid of the coffee berry borer (Hypothenemus hampei), it has never been recovered from infested coffee berries. Here we show, using morphometric and molecular data, that what has been recorded in Hawai'i as C. hyalinipennis is actually a complex of morphologically similar species, each distinct from specimens attacking the coffee berry borer in Chiapas, and from the C. hyalinipennis types from Florida.

The taxon from Chiapas utilizing the coffee berry borer is also found to be distinct from C. hyalinipennis sensu stricto, and is here described as C. soconuscensis sp. nov. The five species found in Hawai'i are described as Cephalonomia lynnea sp. nov., a parasitoid of Hypothenemus eruditus; Cephalonomia luiji sp. nov.; Cephalonomia liula sp. nov., a parasitoid of a Leptophloeus sp. known to predate on the coffee berry borer; Cephalonomia kala sp. nov.; and Cephalonomia zander sp. nov., a parasitoid of an Ozognathus sp.

Laboratory testing showed that C. lynnea has the ability to develop on coffee berry borer larvae, but it does not appear to do so in the wild. In addition to morphological data, DNA barcoding was used to provide further support for distinguishing species in the C. hyalinipennis species complex. The large dataset of morphometric measurements showing reliability of different ratios, and degenerate PCR primers developed to permit assembly of COI barcodes even from old museum specimens, should enable more rapid discernment within such cryptic species complexes in the future.