Disiphon, Russell

Martin, Jon H., 2005, Whiteflies of Belize (Hemiptera: Aleyrodidae) Part 2 - a review of the subfamily Aleyrodinae Westwood, Zootaxa 1098 (1), pp. 1-116 : 42

DISIPHON Russell

Disiphon Russell, 1993: 463–464 . Type species Asterochiton dubienus Bondar, 1923: 179–180 , by original designation and monotypy.

DIAGNOSIS AND COMMENTS. As interpreted here, Disiphon comprises species with the following combination of characters: cuticle pale; glands present on dorsal disc, of two distinctly different shapes ( Figs 33 , 113); with a weak submedian abdominal rhachis; longitudinal moulting suture keeled ( Fig. 34 ); confluence of longitudinal and transverse moulting sutures almost contiguous with meso­/metathoracic suture; median lengths of abdominal segments VI and VII similar; submedian pairs of cephalic, meso­ & metathoracic, eighth abdominal and caudal setae present; vasiform orifice subcircular to cordate, operculum obscuring lingula; caudal furrow absent.

The puparia of Disiphon somewhat resemble those of Siphoninus Silvestri (1915) , but Siphoninus puparia possess submedian first abdominal setae but no thoracic setae, have the longitudinal moulting suture unkeeled, and their dorsal disc glands are only in the form of elongate siphons. More similar are a very few African species currently placed in the genus Cohicaleyrodes Bink­Moenen (1983) , notably C. blanzyi (Cohic) , which was originally described in Siphoninus , and an undescribed species recently collected from coffee in Uganda.

In Belize, only one species of Disiphon has been collected, and is here described.

Figures

FIGURES 29–34. 29–32, Aleuroglandulus inanis sp. nov., puparium (see Figs 87, 139 for photographs). 29, posterior dorsal detail; 30, detail of floor of vasiform orifice; 31, legs and legbase spines; 32, cephalic setae and geminate pore/porette pairs. 33–34, Disiphon russellae sp. nov., puparium (see Fig. 113 for photograph). 33, posterior dorsal detail, showing both types of dorsal siphon­glands; 34, longitudinal moulting suture, cephalic setae, short­type of siphon­glands and geminate pore/porettes.