Stethorus (Stethorus) gilvifrons (Mulsant)

(Fig. 19a–f)

Scymnus (Pullus) gilvifrons Mulsant, 1850: 995 .

Stethorus gilvifrons: Weise 1885: 74.

Diagnosis. Length: 1.20–1.40 mm; width: 0.90–1.00 mm. Form elongate, narrow oval, dorsum moderately convex, with dense, greyish white pubescence (Fig. 19a, b). Dorsum mostly black, antenna, mouthparts and legs testaceous. Abdominal postcoxal lines (Fig. 19c) complete, shallowly semi-circular, not reaching middle of ventrite 1, enclosed area with punctures confined to anterior half. Posterior margin of abdominal ventrite 6 medially distinctly and widely emarginate. Male genitalia with a characteristic, very long penis guide (Fig. 19d, e), tapering towards apex and outwardly bent towards parameres in lateral view (Fig. 19e); parameres narrow and nearly two-thirds the length of penis guide, each bearing a pair of short setae at the apex; penis strongly curved, elongate (Fig. 19f) with a dark brown to black penis capsule (Fig. 19g) with an elongate inner arm.

Material examined. INDIA: Uttar Pradesh, 2021, Santosh Kedar, without other data, 3 ex. (ICAR-NRCB) .

Distribution. Widely distributed in the Oriental and Palaearctic regions; India (Delhi; Haryana; Jammu & Kashmir; Punjab; Uttar Pradesh; Uttarakhand); Pakistan; Middle East; Europe (Poorani 2002; Rafi et al. 2005; Kovář 2007; Ren et al. 2009; Hayat & Khan 2013; Ashfaque et al. 2015; Iqbal et al. 2018).

Notes. Stethorus gilvifrons is commonly found in northern and northwestern India as a predator of several mite pests on many host plants, including the species found on banana, like E. orientalis, O. indicus, T. urticae, and T. neocaledonicus (Gupta 1985) .