Pseudhomalopoda, Girault, 1915

Noyes, John Stuart, 2023, ENCYRTIDAE OF COSTA RICA (HYMENOPTERA: CHALCIDOIDEA), 4 Subfamily Encyrtinae: tribes Arrhenophagini, Habrolepidini, Cerapterocerini, Cheiloneurini, Trechnitini, Cercobelini, Polaszekiini, Protyndarichoidini, Gahaniellini and Syrphophagini (part), mainly primary parasitoids and hyperparasitoids of Coccoidea and Psylloidea (Hemiptera), Taxonomic Monographs on Neotropical Hymenoptera (Oxford, England) 2 (11), pp. 1-921 : 74-75

Genus PSEUDHOMALOPODA Girault

Pseudhomalopoda Girault, 1915b: 171 . Type species: Pseudhomalopoda prima , by monotypy.

Female. Length about 0.5-1.9mm.

Body slightly dorsoventrally flattened, generally dark with a metallic sheen, head largely dark blue or dark green with a transverse purple or coppery band between eyes just above scrobes and occiput coppery or violet behind eye are on temple; antenna brown; palpi white; coxae brown; legs otherwise mostly dark brown, usually with tarsi, and often mid tibia pale yellow or white base; wings infuscate with a pattern of subtriangular or subrectangular hyaline areas, venation mostly brown; gaster largely with a coppery sheen with metallic green, blue, purple or brassy reflections.

Head triangular in profile with frontovertex moderately flat, forming an angle about 35-50° with face at top of scrobes; occipital margin rounded, a conspicuous long scale-like seta present on margin behind each posterior ocellus; posterior ocellus separated from occipital margin by about 2X its own diameter; frontovertex with relatively deep, punctiform, polygonally reticulate sculpture; top of scrobes with very shallow, poorly defined reticulate sculpture, scrobes otherwise more or less completely smooth and shiny; interantennal prominence and mouth margin with shallow, relatively fine, polygonally reticulate sculpture; scrobes shallow, indistinctly margined, broadly ∩-shaped; interantennal prominence very shallow, dorsally narrowly rounded; antenna with scape triangular, broadened and flattened, about 2.3-3.0X as long as broad; funicle 4-segmented, segments transverse, rarely very slightly longer than broad; clava at least as long as funicle, 3-segmented, sutures parallel, apically pointed or rounded, sensory area at apex only; eye reaching occipital margin, clothed with inconspicuous short setae; malar sulcus absent; head about 3.0X as wide as frontovertex; ocelli forming an angle of about 90°; mandible with a distinct ventral peg ( Fig. 155, arrowed) and one tooth and a broad truncation, truncate part often distinctly concave giving appearance of a broad rounded tooth and a short truncation; palp formula 4-3.

Thorax with pronotum hardly exposed behind head, with a strongly emarginate posterior margin medially which, if measured along mid-line, is not more than about one-eighth as long as the mesoscutum; pronotum and mesoscutum with imbricate-reticulate to polygonally reticulate sculpture; mesoscutum quite flat; scutellum convex, dorsally with a triangular flat area, this area with punctate-reticulate sculpture much deeper than sculpture on mesoscutum, side and apex broadly, completely smooth and shiny; scutellum about 1.5X as broad as long, apex with two pairs pair of erect scale-like setae; fore wing about 2.7X as long as broad; costal cell ventrally with a single complete line of setae and dorsally with 2-4 apical setae; submarginal vein with a subapical hyaline break, parastigma very slightly swollen, with a conspicuous, slightly longer, backwardly directed seta; marginal vein about 4-5X as long as broad, about 7X as long as postmarginal vein and 2X as long as stigmal vein; linea calva usually entire, very rarely interrupted; filum spinosum present as a line of 3-6 slightly stouter setae; mesopleuron posteriorly nearly reaching level with posterior margin of propodeum, falling short by about diameter of spiracle or a little more; propodeum short, at most 2 or 3 setae outside spiracle and some irregular linear sculpture in lateral one-third of dorsal part of propodeum extending posteriorly as troughs and ridges towards hind coxa.

Gaster with hypopygium reaching about half way to two-thirds towards apex, transverse, subrectangular, posterior margin with a shallow median invagination; syntergum slightly longer than mid tibia, with apex weakly angular; ovipositor at most about 1.7X as long as mid tibia and about 4X as long a gonostylus, hidden or with exserted part up to about 0.25X as long as gaster.

\ Male. Unknown.

DISTRIBUTION. Caribbean, South America (see below under prima , p. 79).

HOSTS. Recorded from a number of diaspidid ( Hemiptera : Diaspididae ) hosts as well as possible soft scale ( Hemiptera : Coccidae ) and unlikely whitefly ( Hemiptera : Aleyrodidae ) hosts (see below under prima , p. 79).

BIOCONTROL. See summary under prima below (p. 79).

COMMENTS. Pseudhomalopoda is closest to Plagiomerus and Homalopoda , but superficially most similar to Caenohomalopoda , all four genera belonging to the Habrolepidini and having a 4-segmented funicle. See comments under Caenohomalopoda (p. 81) and Homalopoda (p. 54).

IDENTIFICATION. Including two species described as new below, three species known from the Neotropical region only, all included in the key presented here. Several species remain to be described from Ecuador and Brazil.