Peracchius, Lima & Racca-Filho

Martin, Jon H., 2005, Whiteflies of Belize (Hemiptera: Aleyrodidae) Part 2 - a review of the subfamily Aleyrodinae Westwood, Zootaxa 1098 (1), pp. 1-116 : 45

PERACCHIUS Lima & Racca­Filho

Peracchius Lima & Racca­Filho, 2005: 40 . Type species Peracchius durantae , by original designation and monotypy.

DIAGNOSIS AND COMMENTS. The major diagnostic characters for Peracchius are as follows: puparia elongate spindle­shaped, acute posteriorly, acute or indented (Fig. 137) anteriorly; always with a pair of acute and stout subapical setae at each end of puparium (Figs 137–138); anterior and posterior marginal setae considerable distances away from puparial apices, but unusually long; margin modified at thoracic and caudal tracheal openings; caudal furrow present; operculum obscuring lingula, filling vasiform orifice; with normal pair of 8 th abdominal setae close to vasiform orifice, and a second 8 th abdominal pair posterior to vasiform orifice; typically with a pair of setae on each of abdominal segments I, III–VII, pro­, meso­ and metathorax these most or all capitate; cephalic region with submedian setal pair (the normal “cephalic setae”) and at least two other pairs which are usually capitate; transverse moulting sutures reaching, or almost reaching puparial margin; many segments usually with tubercles in submedian zone, either along median line or bordering submedian zone; ventral tracheal folds marked, sometimes only subtly; legs well separated from each other.

Only five puparia from Belize belong to this genus, three identified here as belonging to the type species, P. durantae , and two that represent an undescribed species .

In addition to the Brazilian specimens of P. durantae , and the Belizean material, there are samples of puparia in BMNH that belong to Peracchius from Costa Rica, Guyana, Panamá and Tobago indicating a wide distribution for this genus.