Diadiplosis smithi Felt

[Figs 13 a–j]

Diadiplosis smithi Felt, 1915: 178 .

Coccodiplosis smithi (Felt): Harris (1968: 430), new combination, redescription.

Coccodiplosis pseudococci Meijere, 1917: 239; Harris (1968: 430), junior synonym.

Types of names in this taxon. D. smithi . Reared from larvae feeding on Planococcus sp. ( Hemiptera: Coccidae) [ Pulvinaria sp. in Felt’s original description, corrected to Pseudococcus sp by Harris (1968) based on slide label] on citrus in Manila, the Philippines, on or before 1915, Felt #a2495a. Not seen, presently on loan to Netta Dorchin, Tel Aviv University, Israel. We examined Felt’s topotypes, a male and a female (Felt #a2496), reared from larvae feeding on Planococcus (as Pseudococcus) citri Risso ( Hemiptera: Pseudococcidae) presumably on citrus in Manila, the Philippines, 25-ii-1914. The specimens are mounted on separate slides as whole insects; the male is cleared, with distal flagellomeres missing, terminalia slightly misaligned; the female is uncleared, with all body parts partially shriveled. The morphology of these topotypes fits Harris’s (1968) description of Felt’s types except the cerci being strictly as long as opposed to slightly shorter than aedeagus [Fig. 13g]. We assume the slight difference in the relative length of cerci is caused by the angle of mounting, a common artifact of Cecidomyiidae slide preparation.

Coccodiplosis pseudococci . Found feeding on the coffee mealybug Planococcus lilacinus (as Pseudococcus crotonis) in Salatiga, Java (Meijere 1917). We have not seen Meijere’s types (assumedly deposited in Zoological Museum, Amsterdam, now merged into Naturalis Biodiversity Center, Leiden The Netherlands). Meijere’s description fits Harris’s except that the male cerci are slightly longer (Meijere 1917: Fig. 1d) as opposed to slightly shorter [Fig. 13g] than the aedeagus. As stated above, the relative length of the cerci is often subject to the position of the terminalia on the slide mount.

Description. Length: male 0.8 mm, female 2 mm (Felt 1915). Wing with R 5 joining C at wing apex [Fig. 13a]. Palpus 3-segmented. Occipital protuberance absent. Flagellomeres 12. Male third flagellomere [Fig. 13b]: basal node slightly longer than wide, internode half-length basal node, distal node round, slightly longer than wide, neck halflength distal node, circumfilar loops of basal node reaching node end, basal loops of distal node reaching node basal third, distal loops reaching neck midlength. Female flagellomeres [Fig. 13h]: nodes twice as long as wide, necks short, circumfila consisting of two longitudinal and two longitudinal, interconnected bands. Tarsal claws toothed on fore and simple on mid and hindlegs. Male terminalia [Figs 13f, g]: aedeagus as long as cerci and slightly longer than hypoproct, gonostylus widest at midlength, gonocoxal apodemes longer than distance between them. Female terminalia [Figs 13i, j] with cerci tapered in dorsal view, rounded in lateral view, 1.5x longer than wide at base.

Pupa unknown.

Larva. Harris (1968) tentatively (due to the presence of another species of Cecidomyiidae at collection site) described the larva as bearing on the terminal segment two pairs of dorsal and one ventral papillae, and a sternal spatula with two triangular lobes divided by deep V-shaped incision. Harris’s (1968) spatula of D. smithi [Fig. 13c] is similar to that depicted for this species by Meijere (1917) (Fig. 1f) who describes the larva as orange-red, 1.5 mm in length.

Remarks. We also examined slides of a male and a female reared by L. Kikuchi from larvae feeding on Nipaecoccus viridis (as vastator) (Newstead), likely to have been infesting the commercially used tree Leucaena leucocephala (Lam.) de Wit [see Guam Agricultural Station (1979)] at Yigo, Guam, vii-1981. The specimens are mounted on separate slides as whole, cleared insects. These specimens fit Harris’s (1968) description of Felt’s types except the hypoproct is strictly blunt as opposed to slightly concave [Fig. 13g]. We consider this slight difference part of the variability of the species.

Biology. Diadiplosis smithi is a predator of polyphagous plant-feeding mealybugs Planococcus citri and P. lilacinus ( Hemiptera: Pseudococcidae).

Geographical distribution. The Philippines (Felt 1915; Harris 1968), Papua New Guinea (New Britain) (Harris 1968) and Indonesia where it was found feeding on P. lilacinus in Java at Salatiga in or before 1917 (Meijere 1917) and at Buitenzorg 2& 12.iv.1937 (Harris 1968).