Encarsia citrina (Craw)

Schmidt, Stefan & Polaszek, Andrew, 2007, The Australian species of Encarsia Förster (Hymenoptera, Chalcidoidea: Aphelinidae), parasitoids of whiteflies (Hemiptera, Sternorrhyncha, Aleyrodidae) and armoured scale insects (Hemiptera, Coccoidea: Diaspididae), Journal of Natural History 41 (33 - 36), pp. 2099-2265 : 2151-2153

26. Encarsia citrina (Craw)

( Figures 89–91 )

Coccophagus citrinus Craw 1891, p 26 . Syntypes ♀, USA, California, San Gabriel Valley, 1889 [ex Aspidiotus citrinus ], lost. Neotype ♀ designated by DeBach and Rose 1981, p 671, same data as syntypes (USNM, not examined).

Encarsia citrinus (Craw) : Riley and Howard 1891, p 168.

Aspidiotiphagus citrinus (Craw) : Howard 1894a, p 229 –231; 1895, p 31; 1898, p 134; Howard and Ashmead 1896, p 635; Ashmead 1904c, p 345; Mercet 1912, p 173 –175; 1930, p 69; Ayyar 1925, p 251; Compere 1936, p 296; Mani 1938, p 122; Pruthi and Mani 1940, p 27; De Santis 1948, p 225 –231; 1979, p 330; Peck 1963, p 288; Ferrière 1965, p 149; Nikol’skaya and Yasnosh 1966, p 259; Herting 1972, p 164 ff; Kaul and Saraswat 1974, p 189; Yasnosh 1978, p 497; Gordh 1979, p 900; DeBach and Rose 1981, p 671; Liao et al. 1987, p 137; Sheng 1989, p 89.

Aspidiotiphagus australiensis Girault 1913 [158], p 74. Holotype ♀, Australia, Queensland, Nelson (5Gordonvale, Cairns), 29 May 1913, 1500 feet (QMBA, type no. 1727, examined). Synonymy by Hayat 1989b, p 289.

Prospaltoides howardi Brèthes 1914, p 13 . Syntypes ♀, Argentina, ex Diaspis pentagona . Synonymy by Brèthes 1916.

Aspidiotiphagus schoeversi Smits van Burgst 1915, p 293 –295. Syntypes ♀, The Netherlands, Gouda, in greenhouse ex Chionaspis aspidistrae on Aspidistra sp. Synonymy by Mercet 1930.

Encarsia citrina (Craw) : Malenotti 1917, p 20. Change of combination.

Aspidiotiphagus severiniellus Ghesquière 1933, p 346 –348. Holotype ♀, Belgium, Anhée (Namur province), November 1933 (R. Moseray), ex Diaspis visci (Schrank) Löw (ISNB, examined). Synonymy by Ferrière 1965, p 149.

Aspidiotiphagus silwoodensis Alam 1956, p 360 –362. Holotype ♀, England, Ascot, Silwood Park, 31 May 1953, ex Lepidosaphes ulmi (Linnaeus) on Cornus sp. (BMNH, examined). Synonymy by Ferrière 1965, p 149.

Aspidiotiphagus cyanophylli Alam 1956, p 362 –363. Holotype ♀, England, London, Kew Gardens, 13 November 1953, ex Aspidiotus cyanophylli Sign on Cereus peruvianus (BMNH, examined). Synonymy by Ferrière 1965, p 149.

Encarsia citrina (Craw) : Viggiani and Mazzone 1979, p 47; Viggiani 1987b, p 136 –137; Hayat 1989a, p 27 –28; 1998, p 189–190; Ren 1988, p 396; Lu 1989, p 207; Liang and Chen 1990, p 1; Viggiani and Ren 1993, p 227; Huang 1994, p 196; Huang and Polaszek 1998, p 1858 –1860.

Diagnosis

Female. Colour: head orange-brown, lower part of head and occiput darker. Mesosoma yellow except pronotum, mesoscutellar midlobe anteriorly, axilla, mesopleuron, and propodeum darker. Metasoma predominantly brown. Antenna brown with apex darkened (sometimes faint). Fore wing hyaline with dark band behind marginal vein. Legs yellow, hind coxa brown.

Morphology: stemmaticum with transversely strigose surface sculpture. Antennal formula 1,1,3,3, apical segment conical, strongly narrowed towards apex. Pedicel longer than F1 (1.33–1.50). F1 1.57–1.80 times as long as its maximum width, subequal in length or slightly longer than F2 (1.00–1.13), and slightly shorter than or subequal to F3 (0.88–1.06), third funicular segment distinctly broader than first and slightly broader than second. F2 slightly shorter than F3 (0.83–0.94). Flagellomeres with the following numbers of sensilla: F1: 0, F2: 0, F3: 0, F4: 2, F5: 3, F6: 4. Midlobe of mesoscutum with four setae arranged symmetrically, side lobes with one seta each. Scutellar sensilla widely separated (approximately 9–10 times the maximum width of a sensillum). Distance between anterior pair of scutellar setae greater than between posterior pair. Fore wing with bare area near stigmal vein, disc sparsely setose (particularly near margin), very narrow and about 4.0 times as long as width of disc. Marginal fringe 1.15–1.19 times as long as width of disc. Basal cell with one seta. Submarginal vein with two setae, marginal vein anteriorly with four (to six) setae. Tarsal formula 5-5-5. Apical spur of midtibia longer than half the length of the corresponding basitarsus (0.72–0.73). Tergites laterally with the following numbers of setae: T1: 0, T2: 1, T3: 1, T4: 1, T5: 2, T6: 2, T7 with four setae. Ovipositor subequal in length to midtibia (0.94, 1.16 times in the holotype of E. australiensis ) and 0.94 times as long as clava (1.20 times in holotype of E. australiensis ). Third valvula 0.48–0.49 times as long as second valvifer.

Male. Unknown.

Species group placement. E. citrina group.

Distribution. Australia: Norfolk Island, Queensland. Cosmopolitan.

Host. Aleyrodidae : Aleurocanthus sp. The following additional whitefly host has been recorded ( Huang and Polaszek 1998; Polaszek et al. 1999): Aleurotrachelus micheliae Takahashi. Encarsia citrina has been recorded from a large number of hard scales ( Diaspididae , see Huang and Polaszek (1998, p 1859) for a comprehensive list of host records). Recent rearing records of E. citrina from Coccidae (M. Copland, personal communication) are being investigated.

Additional material examined

Norfolk Island: 1♀, nr Highlands Guesthouse (29 ° 029S, 167 ° 579E), 20–26 March 1984 (D. C. F. Rentz), Stop 1, pan trap ( ANIC) ; 1♀, Red Road Track, NINP (29 ° 019S, 167 ° 579E) , 14 November to 2 December 1984 (I. D. Naumann) Malaise trap /ethanol ( ANIC) .

Queensland: 2♀, Bundaberg, Tafe, 10 August 2000 (P. De Barro), ex Aleurocanthus sp. on Cupaniopsis sp. (Sapindaceae) ( ANIC, ZSMG); 1♀, Cairns, April 1999 (P. Garland) ( ANIC).

Figures

Figures 89–91. Encarsia citrina (Craw), female. (89) Mesosoma and gaster. (90) Antenna. (91) Fore wing.