Novius ruficollis (Mulsant)

(Figs 22, 23)

Rodolia ruficollis Mulsant, 1850: 903 .- Korschefsky 1931: 102.- Kapur 1949: 535.- Poorani 2002: 318.

Vedalia ruficollis: Crotch 1874: 281 .

Novius ruficollis: Pang et al. 2020: 20 .

Diagnosis. Length: 5.80–6.10 mm; width: 5.30–5.60 mm. Form (Figs 22a–c, 23a) broad oval, on a larger scale than N. fumidus; dorsum subhemispherical, strongly convex and densely pubescent. Dorsal side reddish, ventral side reddish testaceous except metaventrite and first two abdominal ventrites medially dark brown, hind femora infuscate, slightly darker; prosternum medially more distinctly raised.Abdominal postcoxal line complete, shallowly semicircular (Fig. 22d), posterior margin of ventrite 6 medially emarginate in male (Fig. 22d), apically produced and subtruncate (Fig. 23b). Male genitalia diagnostic (Fig. 22e–g), female genitalia (Fig. 23c) and spermatheca (Fig. 23d) as illustrated.

Material examined. Rodolia ruficollis Muls., A.P. Kapur det. 1947/ Assam, Patkai Mts / Doherty /Fry Coll. 1905- 100, 2 ex. (BMNH) .

Distribution. India (Assam (Patkai Mountains), Tamil Nadu (Nilgiri Hills), West Bengal); Pakistan; Thailand; Vietnam.

Prey/associated habitat. Icerya aegyptiaca (Douglas) infesting cotton, date palm, rose, mulberry and Erythrina sp. (Muzaffar 1970, Ali et al. 2018). Muzaffar (1970) recorded it on I. aegyptiaca from Karachi, Pakistan and observed that “(…) it fed voraciously on all stages of the mealybug and was found mainly at high host densities (...)” and “appeared to be either density-dependent or restricted to a comparatively mild and humid climate”.

Notes. Kapur (1949) studied only females and illustrated the spermatheca. The specimens examined in the collections of BMNH are illustrated here. It appears to be rare in Indian collections and only one female specimen matching Kapur’s description was examined from the north-eastern Indian state of Manipur (Fig. 23a). Hoàng (1983) illustrated the male genitalia of N. ruficollis from Vietnam. Ali et al. (2018) provided an illustration of R. ruficollis, which appears to be similar to the dark brown variants of N. fumidus examined from northern India.