Cryptic diversity and host specificity in giant Xenos strepsipterans parasitic in large Vespa hornets.

Xenos is a strepsipteran genus whose members are parasitic to eusocial wasps, including the hornet genus Vespa. We undertook an extensive sampling of strepsipterans in Xenos from hornets collected in East Asia and performed molecular phylogenetic analyses based on mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase subunit I gene sequences (652 bp) to investigate the cryptic diversity among 21 individuals of strepsipterans. The analyses, accompanied by morphological examination, revealed that these strepsipterans represent two distinct species, X. moutoni du Buysson, 1903 and X. oxyodontes sp. nov. The two species differed in their host-utilization pattern: the latter was almost specific to Vespa analis and V. simillima, whereas the former was associated with other species in Vespa.