Siphoninus phillyreae (Haliday), 1915

Hernández-Suárez, Estrella, Martin, Jon H., Gill, Raymond J., Bedford, Ian D., Malumphy, Christopher P., Betancort, J. Alfredo Reyes & Carnero, Aurelio, 2012, 3212, Zootaxa 3212, pp. 1-76 : 29-30

Siphoninus phillyreae (Haliday)

( Figure 35)

Aleyrodes phillyreae Haliday, 1835: 119 .

Siphoninus phillyreae (Haliday) Silvestri, 1915: 247 .

phylliceae Bouché, 1851: 110. ( Aleurodes ). [Synonymised by Frauenfeld, 1867: 796.]

dubia Heeger, 1859: 223 . ( Aleyrodes ). [Synonymised by Frauenfeld, 1867: 796.]

inaequalis Gautier, 1923: 339 . ( Trialeurodes ). [Synonymised by Mound & Halsey, 1978: 192.]

granati Priesner & Hosney, 1932:1. [Synonymised by Mound & Halsey, 1978: 192.]

Distribution in the Canary Islands: LANZAROTE: Haría. FUERTEVENTURA: Betancuria, Esquinzo, Morrojable, Pájara, Puerto del Rosario, Vega del Río Palma. TENERIFE: Bahía del Duque. GRAN CANARIA: Barranco Cernícalos, La Aldea, Los Moriscos. Elsewhere: Palaearctic Region: widespread in Europe and Mediterranean countries, except Scandinavia; Ethiopian Region: Cameroun, Sudan. Oriental Region: India, Pakistan. Australia: New South Wales, South Australia. Pacific Region: New Zealand. Neotropical Region: Mexico, Peru. Nearctic Region: USA ( California ).

Host plants in the Canary Islands: Punica granatum . Other host plants listed: This species is oligophagous and occurs most commonly on woody members of the Oleaceae ( Fraxinus , Olea , Phillyrea ), Lythraceae and Rosaceae ( Cotoneaster , Crataegus, Malus , Pyrus , etc).

Comments: The variable number of dorsal puparial siphons has been the cause of a proliferation of species names in Siphoninus , but most were proposed as synonyms of S. phillyreae by Mound & Halsey (1978). As discussed above, we now consider that S. finitimus Silvestri is a valid species with S. phillyreae multitubulatus Goux its junior synonym.

S. phillyreae is commonly known as the Ash whitefly despite its range of other hosts. It was recorded in mainland Spain, from Crataegus oxycantha in Madrid Botanic Garden by Gómez-Menor (1943), and in the Canary Islands on Punica granatum by Peña (1994). It is probably a native of Europe and the Mediterranean Basin, but was introduced into California ( USA) in the late 1980s, where it caused severe damage to shrubs and ornamental trees ( Sorensen et al., 1990), and also into Australia and New Zealand where it also became a pest ( Martin, 1999). At the end of the twentieth century, Siphoninus was discovered in Chile and Peru, South America ( Valencia, 2010).

Puparia of S. phillyreae can be distinguished by having a single area of dark submedian coloration, whereas S. finitimus has the cuticle mostly pale but with two distinct areas of infuscation in the median area of the dorsum.

Priesner & Hosny (1932) mentioned from two to three annual generations for this species. Patti & Rapisarda (1981) listed several natural enemies such as Encarsia inaron and E. siphonini ( Hymenoptera : Aphelinidae ), along with several predators like Clitostethus arcuatus (Rossi) ( Coleoptera : Coccinellidae ) and Acletoxenus formosus Loew ( Diptera : Drosophilidae ). In the Canary islands, S. phillyreae is naturally parasitized by E. inaron ( Hernández-Suárez et al., 2003) .