Encarsia Förster

Schmidt, Stefan & Polaszek, Andrew, 2007, The Australian species of Encarsia Förster (Hymenoptera, Chalcidoidea: Aphelinidae), parasitoids of whiteflies (Hemiptera, Sternorrhyncha, Aleyrodidae) and armoured scale insects (Hemiptera, Coccoidea: Diaspididae), Journal of Natural History 41 (33 - 36), pp. 2099-2265 : 2102-2103

Genus Encarsia Förster

Encarsia Förster 1878, p 65 –66. Type species: Encarsia tricolor Förster , designation by monotypy.

5 Aspidiotiphagus Howard 1894a, p 229 ; Prospalta Howard 1894b, p 6 ; Prospaltella Ashmead 1904a, p 126 ; Encarsiella Hayat 1983, p 85 . For a full list of generic synonyms see Schmidt and Polaszek 2007, p 85 –86.

Revisionary studies of Encarsia for the Australian and other geographical regions: Australia: Schmidt et al. (2001); Viggiani (1985c); China: Huang and Polaszek (1998); Egypt: Polaszek et al. (1999); Europe: Ferrière (1965); India: Hayat (1989a, 1998); Israel: Rivnay and Gerling (1987); North America: Schauff et al. (1996); Russia and adjacent countries: Yasnosh (1989), Trjapitzin et al. (1996). Encarsia parasitoids of Bemisia tabaci: Polaszek et al. (1992) .

Diagnosis

For a full generic description of Encarsia and a discussion of morphological characters of Encarsia and closely related genera see Schmidt and Polaszek (2007). The presence of the following character states is required for a positive diagnosis of Encarsia (females): fore and hind tarsi five-segmented; antenna eight-segmented (excluding radicle); scutellum always with two pairs of setae; marginal vein longer than submarginal vein; postmarginal vein absent; stigmal vein very short, always less than one-quarter of the length of the marginal vein. The closely related Coccophagus differs from Encarsia primarily in having six or more setae on the scutellum. However, the generic circumscriptions of the coccophagine genera are currently being reassessed, as are their phylogenetic relationships (P. A. Pedata, A. Polaszek and S. Schmidt, in preparation).