Home sweet home: Ophioninae species-level diversity in field and forest habitats

Ichneumonidae are the most diverse family of parasitoid wasps and in this study, we examined the diversity of the subfamily Ophioninae, on the Farmingdale State College (SUNY) campus in Long Island, New York. Most Ophioninae are nocturnal and the subfamily utilizes several Lepidopteran families as hosts. Within North America, the most commonly collected specimens come from the genera Ophion and Enicospilus. While these wasps are commonly encountered in a variety of habitats, our study objective was to determine if Ophioninae prefer either open field or protected forest environments. Additionally, we wanted to examine if habitat impacted species-level diversity. To address these objectives, we collected Ophioninae from May to August 2019 using two Malaise traps (one in a forest behind campus, and another in a nearby field). After the summer collecting, the Ophioninae were separated and sorted into different morphotypes based on their anatomical features. In total, 11 different morphotypes were identified from Ophion and Enicospilus, with significant overlap in morphotype diversity between the traps. On average, the field traps contained slightly more Ophioninae than the forest traps. Of the morphotypes, M2 (genus Enicospilus) was the most prevalent (30 of the 46 Ophioninae collected). Additionally, we suspected that some of the different morphotypes of our Ophioninae were the same species, but were coded to different morphotypes due to sexual dimorphism and intraspecific variation. We used standard DNA barcoding procedures (amplification of barcoding COI gene) to match male and female conspecifics.