Arrhenophagus albitibiae Girault, 1915

Noyes, John Stuart, 2023, ENCYRTIDAE OF COSTA RICA (HYMENOPTERA: CHALCIDOIDEA), 4 Subfamily Encyrtinae: tribes Arrhenophagini, Habrolepidini, Cerapterocerini, Cheiloneurini, Trechnitini, Cercobelini, Polaszekiini, Protyndarichoidini, Gahaniellini and Syrphophagini (part), mainly primary parasitoids and hyperparasitoids of Coccoidea and Psylloidea (Hemiptera), Taxonomic Monographs on Neotropical Hymenoptera (Oxford, England) 2 (11), pp. 1-921 : 30-31

Arrhenophagus albitibiae Girault

( Figs 11-14; Hab. E 2)

Arrhenophagus albitibiae Girault, 1915c:241-242 . Syntypes E, Sri Lanka, USNM, not examined.

Arrhenophagus albipes Girault, 1915c:242 . Syntypes EG, China ( Hong Kong), USNM, not examined. Synonymy with albitibiae by Annecke & Prinsloo (1974:38).

Arrhenophagus confusus Hayat, 2010a:41-43 . Holotype E, India (Uttar Pradesh), NPC, not examined. syn.nov.

DIAGNOSIS. Female (length about 0.4-0.6mm): head in facial view ( Fig. 11) about as high as wide and about 1.8X as wide as frontovertex; scrobal area with fine sculpture, similar to that in front of anterior ocellus but a little shallower and medially conspicuously transversely elongate and composed of few cells; antenna as in Fig. 12; clava with sensory area relatively large, at least 0.8X as long as length of ventral surface of clava, and forming a strongly oblique truncation; mouth margin ( Fig. 11) hardly emarginate at base of each mandible with clypeal margin weakly convex and virtually straight medially; mandible triangular, with one acute, finger-like, apical tooth; sculpture on scutellum finer than that on mesoscutum, of smaller mesh size and distinctly longitudinally elongate; fore wing with venation and setation as in Figs 13, 14. Male: very similar to female but for antenna and genitalia; antennal funicle possibly 6-segmented (see Annecke & Prinsloo, 1974).

DISTRIBUTION. USA (Hawaii, Florida), Sri Lanka, Russia (Primorsky Kray), India, China (Henan, Hong Kong), Japan, Samoa. Recorded below also from Costa Rica (new record) and Mariana Is (new record).

HOSTS. Recorded as a parasitoid of several species of Aulacaspis Cockerell , Chionaspis Signoret , Fiorinia Targioni Tozzetti , Pseudaulacaspis MacGillivray , Pinnaspis Cockerell ( Hemiptera : Diaspididae ) and Limacoccus Bondar ( Beesoniidae ) (see Noyes, 1919). Recorded below from an unidentified diaspidid scale (possibly Pseudaulacaspis pentagona (Targioni Tozzetti)) on peach ( Prunus persica (L.) Batsch. ( Rosaceae ). Also recorded below from Aleurodicus dipersus Russell ( Hemiptera : Aleyrodidae ), but this association is unlikely.

MATERIAL EXAMINED.

Non type material. USA, 1E, 1G, Hawaii, Honolulu, ex Phenacaspis eugeniae , 12.x.1923 (D.T. Fullaway); 5E, Florida, Alachua Co., Gainesville, Pseudaulacaspis pentagona on mulberry, 30.x.1987 (F.D. Bennett); 22E, Florida, Alachua Co., Gainesville, Honey Plant, ex Peudaulacaspis pentagona on mulberry, 31.x.1987 (F.D. Bennett); 3E, Florida, Pseudaulacaspis pentagona on undet plant, ii.1990 (Hamon); 1E, Florida, Dade Co., Snapper Creek, Pseudaulacaspis cockerelli on Strelitzia nicolas , 791, 3.ii.1990 (F.D. Bennett); 9E, Florida, Raving St Gard, Pseudaulacaspis pentagona Diospyros virginiana , 971 24.x.1990 (Hamon/Rosen/ Nguyen). COSTA RICA, 2E, Guanacaste, Maritza ( ACG), 700m, MT/YPT, 20.i-24.ii.1996 (J.S. Noyes); 1E, Heredia, Est. Biol. La Selva, 10°26’N 84°01’W, iii.1996 ( INBio / OET); 1E, Heredia, Est. Biol. La Selva, 10°26’N 84°01’W, 75m, ii.2003 (J.S. Noyes); 2E, Heredia, Santo Domingo, INBio Parque, LN 217300 526200, 1100m, TM, 27.v-27.vi.2001 and vii.2001 (R. Zuñiga); 47E, Cartago, Cartago, ex diaspidid on peach, iv.1988; 4E, Puntarenas, 24km W Piedras Blancas, 8°46’N 83°24’W, 200m, ii.1992, iii.1992 and iii-iv.1993 (P. Hanson); 1E, Puntarenas, 10km W Golfo Dulce, xii.1989 - iii.1990 (P. Hanson, I.D. Gauld); 1E, Puntarenas, Pen. Osa , 5km N Puerto Jimenez, 10m, x.1990 (P. Hanson); 4E, Limón, RB Hitoy Cerere, 9°40’N 83°02’W, 100m, ii.2004 (J.S. Noyes). JAPAN, 2E, 2G, Matsuyama, ex Fiorinia vacciniae , 25.v.1962 (T. Tachikawa). MARIANA ISLANDS, 3E, Guam, ex Aleurodicus dispersus . viii.1983 (J.R. Nechols). SAMOA, 10E, Western Samoa, Upolu I., iii.1980 (V. Taefu); [SAMOA], 10E, ex scales from Gainesville, Florida, USA, 11.vii.1986 (W. Liebregts); 3E, Western Samoa, Nulu, ex P. pentagona , 5.viii.1986 (W. Liebregts). Material in MZUCR and NHMUK.

COMMENTS. The single best character for separating this species from chionaspidis is the sculpture between the transfacial suture and antennal toruli. In chionaspidis it is coarser and uniformly cellular whilst in confusus it is finer and much more transversely linear and hardly cellular. Unfortunately, this character can only be seen on very good slide-mounted material and therefore it is not used in the identification key above.

Although Hayat (2010) compared confusus only with chionaspidis it appears to be the same as albitibiae . In both albitibiae and confusus the clypeal margin is not strongly emarginate near the base of the mandible and, perhaps more significantly, the truncate part of the clava is nearly as long as the ventral margin of the clava, whereas in both chionaspidis and longicalcaratus Tan & Chen it is hardly more than half as long. Although I have not examined the type material of confusus the material listed above agrees well with the description of the species by Hayat and also with material determined as albitibiae in the collections of the Natural History Museum, London. Although there are a few minor discrepancies with the redescription of albitibiae Girault provided by Prinsloo & Annecke (1974) (in their illustration of the head of albitibiae , in facial view, it is slightly higher than broad and the clypeal margin is more or less not emarginate near the base of the mandible) I am confident that confusus is synonymous with albitibiae . It is likely that these differences are an artifact caused by the orientation of the head on the slide or perhaps the head may have been slightly distorted during slide mounting. Hayat (2010) compared the male genitalia of an unidentified species from Hawaii (Oahu) with those of confusus . He noted that the digiti of the specimen from Oahu were short and triangular, whereas those of confusus were slender and elongate. The apparent differences he noted are because the digiti in the Oahu material are directed upwards on the slide giving the appearance that they are short and triangular. I have identified this specimen as albitibiae .