Prionomastix Mayr

Krishnachaitanya, Tirunagaru & Manickavasagam, Sagadai, 2016, Two new species of Prionomastix Mayr (Hymenoptera: Encyrtidae) with a key to Indian species, Biodiversity Data Journal 4, pp. 7326-7326 : 7326

Prionomastix Mayr

Prionomastix Mayr 1876: 725−726. Type species Encyrtus morio Dalman, by monotypy.

Liocarus Thomson 1876: 115,121−122. Type species Encyrtus morio Dalman, by monotypy. Objective synonym of Prionomastix .

Chestomorpha Ashmead 1900: 370. Type species Chestomorpha biformis Ashmead, by original designation and monotypy. Synonymy with Prionomastix by Trjapitzin and Gordh 1978 (1978: 365).

Aprionomastix Girault 1913: 68. Type species Aprionomastix fasciatipennis Girault, by original designation and monotypy. Synonymy with Prionomastix by Annecke 1962 (1962: 504).

Prionomastix

Diagnosis

Female body measuring from 1.6−3.8mm in length, pale orange to dark brown or black, never metallic; fore wing infuscate or hyaline; hind wing hyaline; body robust. Head with occipital margin sharp; ocelli forming an angle of about 85−120°, posterior ocelli never closer to each other than to eye margin; antennal scrobes short, hardly longer than torulus, naked and meeting dorsally, inverted U or V shaped; antennal torulus relatively high on head, separated from mouth margin by at least about its own length; malar suture absent; mandible wide, widening towards apex; maxillary palpus two, three or four segmented, first and second segments sometimes partially or completely fused, labial palpus two or four segmented; scape subcylindrical; funicle six segmented; clava three segmented or entire. Mesoscutum with notaular lines absent; scutellum slightly convex; mid basitarsus with a single line of ventral pegs; postmarginal vein at least as long as stigmal, almost always much longer; stigmal vein strongly curved, uncus absent; linea calva entire and almost always closed; mesopleuron clearly separated from gaster by propodeum which more or less widely touches hind coxa; propodeum with numerous setae behind spiracle, these often extending down side to base of hind coxa. Gaster with cercal plates situated near apex of gaster; hypopygium reaching to about two-thirds along gaster or to apex; ovipositor curved upwards; ovipositor about 0.5−1.2 × as long as mid tibia, not exserted, but sometimes extending upwards past apex of syntergum; second valvifer without subapical setae; gonostylus fused to second valvifer, naked, occasionally membranous ( Noyes 2010).

Male: Body measuring from 1.0−1.9 mm in length. Generally similar to female but frontovertex slightly wider; antennal toruli relatively a little higher on head; antenna with segments wider than in female, with very prominent linear sensilla on all flagellar segments; clava solid; fore wings mostly hyaline, rarely distinctly infuscate; phallobase varying from short and stout to elongate and slender, with a short, distal, median ventral process; paramere distinct and elongate, about 3−4 × as long as wide, naked, digitus varying from shorter than paramere and straight to considerably longer and curved, up to 9 × as long as wide, without apical hooks, but with up to 5 subapical setae; aedeagus variable, from slender to very wide with simple rounded to bilobed apex, varying from 0.25−0.9 × as long as mid tibia ( Noyes 2010).

Notes

Prionomastix can be differentiated from other encyrtid genera using the keys given by Noyes and Hayat (1984) for Indo-Pacific region & Hayat 2006 for India. For other useful taxonomic discussions on this genus one can refer to Hoffer (1957), Annecke (1962), Gordh and Trjapitzin (1981), Trjapitzin (1989) and Trjapitzin and Ruiz-Cancino (1998) and Noyes (2010).