Apulia: Nuzzaci and Triggiani 1982

Sardinia: Luciano et al. 1988

Apanteles Förster, 1863 is a big cosmopolitan genus which - according to Mason (1981) - would include between 5,000 and 10,000 species. Yu (1997-2012) lists a little less than a thousand species. In Europe are reported 195 species (Fauna Europaea).

Apanteles is a polyphyletic complicated group, both for the high number of species and for the evident morphological convergence accompanied by the characters reduction. Mason (1981) divided this group in 26 distinct genera (see Whitfield et al. 2002).

The situation is still controversial and Mason’s opinion is not accepted by all taxonomists of the group (see note 180 in Broad et al. 2012).

Like all Microgastrinae, Apanteles spp. are koinobiont endophagous larval parasitoids of Lepidoptera Ditrysia and are undoubtedly among the most important parasitoids of this order. For more details, see Shaw and Huddleston (1991).

In Apulia, an unidentified species of Apanteles was repeatedly found in September-October; this emerged from EGVM larvae living on Daphne gnidium, with a parasitization rate of approx. 20% (Nuzzaci and Triggiani 1982). Again, on Daphne gnidiun in Sardinia, another unidentified Apanteles was obtained both from EGVM larvae of first and third generation, with parasitization rates of 6.2% and 24.1% respectively (Luciano et al. 1988).