Caenocholax fenyesi (Strepsiptera: Myrmecolacidae) Parasitic in Camponotus planatus (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) in Mexico: Is This the Original Host?

Themale ofCaenocholax fenyesi Pierce (Strepsiptera) is widespread in South America, but no host records are known as the specimens examinedwere free-livingmales that came into traps. In southernUSAC. fenyesiwas found toparasitize the red importedÞreant,SolenopsiswagneriSantschi (Hymenoptera: Formicidae). We found a nest of the carpenter ant, Camponotus planatus Roger, in Veracruz, Mexico to be parasitized by C. fenyesi. This is the Þrst record of a host of C. fenyesi from theNeotropics. At the same location Pierce (1909) found the type species ofC. fenyesi, but therewere no host records. As our Þndings were from the same location, we speculate whetherC. planatus is the endemichost ofC. fenyesi. If so, didC. fenyesi arrive in southernUSAparasitic onC. planatus, andmove to an exotic host, S. wagneri in an alien enviroment? We also synonomize Myrmecolax ogloblini Luna de Carvalho and Caenocholax brasiliensis Oliveira & Kogan from Brazil with C. fenyesi, based on the unique structure of the aedeagus of the latter.