Coccobius Ratzeburg 1852

Wang, Zhu-Hong, Huang, Jian & Polaszek, Andrew, 2014, Three new species of Coccobius Ratzeburg (Hymenoptera, Aphelinidae) and redescription of C. abdominis Huang and C. furviflagellatus Huang from China, Zootaxa 3774 (5), pp. 460-472 : 461

Coccobius Ratzeburg 1852

Coccobius Ratzeburg, 1852: 195 . Type-species: Coccobius annulicornis Ratzeburg , designated by Gahan & Fagan, 1923: 37. Physcus Howard, 1895: 43 . Type-species: Coccophagus varicornis Howard , by monotypy. Synonymy by Hayat, 1983: 78. Encyrtophyscus Blanchard , in De Santis, 1948: 192. Type-species: Physcus flavoflagellatus De Santis , by original designation.

Synonymy by Hayat, 1983: 78.

Physculus Jasnosh, 1977: 1115 . Type-species: Physculus danzigae Jasnosh , by original designation. Synonymy by Hayat, 1983: 78.

Diagnosis. Coccobius can be distinguished from other genera of Aphelinidae by the following features. Female with antenna 7-segmented, including 3-segmented funicle and 2-segmented clava, often with some segments pale and others brown to dark brown, thus forming a distinct colour pattern; male with antenna 8-segmented, funicle not differentiated from clava. Mid-lobe of mesoscutum large, with numerous setae; axillae small, widely separated, not advanced anteriorly of transscutal articulation, and both with a single seta; mesoscutellum usually with 2 or 3 pairs of setae, rarely more than 3 pairs. Fore wing usually hyaline, without linea calva, often with narrow (sometimes relatively broad) asetose area posterobasally; postmarginal vein absent or very short. Tarsal formula 5:5:5.

Coccobius is close to Prophyscus De Santis 1940 and Idiococcobius Hayat 2010. Prophyscus differs from Coccobius mainly in the presence of parascutella, and females having a very short ovipositor and males an enormously enlarged scape ( Hayat 1998). Idiococcobius differs from Coccobius mainly in the mid-lobe of the mesoscutum having six pairs of setae arranged in bilateral symmetry, the fore wing being long and narrow with the long marginal fringe only slightly shorter than the wing width, and the submarginal vein having 1 or 2 setae ( Hayat 2010).

Generally, characters used to separate species of Coccobius include different combinations of body colour patterns, colour pattern and relative lengths of the antennal segments, the number of setae on the mid-lobe of the mesoscutum and mesoscutellum, characteristics of the reticulate sculpture on the mesonotum, and relative length of the ovipositor.