Metaphycus insidiosus (Mercet)

Wang, Ying, Li, Cheng-De & Zhang, Yan-Zhou, 2014, A taxonomic study of Chinese species of the insidiosus group of Metaphycus (Hymenoptera, Encyrtidae), ZooKeys 378, pp. 49-81 : 66-68

Metaphycus insidiosus (Mercet) Figs 78-83

Aphycus (Metaphycus) insidiosus Mercet (1921): 218-220. Lectotype ♀ (IEEM, not examined), Spain.

Metaphycus insidiosus ; Mercet (1925): 28; Trjapitzin (1975): 9; Noyes (1981): 168; Viggiani and Guerrieri (1988): 117; Li and Li (2008): 134.

Metaphycus taxi Alam (1957): 426. Synonymy by Noyes (1981): 168.

Female.

Body length, including ovipositor, about 1.0 mm. Frontovertex yellow; gena with a brown mark extending to oral rim; mouth margin medially pale yellow below torulus; rest of head, except occiput, white; antenna (Fig. 78) with radicle brown; scape with both faces dark brown to blackish, only base, apex white and dorsal margin with a narrow stripe; pedicel dark brown in proximal half, otherwise white; F1-F2 dark brown, F3 slightly pale brown, F4-F6 yellowish; clava dark brown, becoming slightly paler towards apex, extreme apex very pale brown; occiput with a brown area above foramen, rest yellow; neck of pronotum dark, posterior margin white, lateral spots relatively large and distinct; dorsum of thorax pale orange; sides and posterior margin of mesoscutum and axillae conspicuously bordered brown; setae translucent yellow, silvery in most lights; tegula white with apex pale brown; metanotum dark brown; mesopleuron yellow; prosternum yellow and mesosternum pale brown; legs (Figs 81-83) mainly pale yellow, tibiae proximally dark brown; mid tibia and hind tibia with a pair of dark brown rings at about 0.2 × and 0.5 ×, fore tibia with one dark brown ring; fore wing (Fig. 80) hyaline, with linea calva interrupted by several line setae; venation yellow-brown; hind wing hyaline; propodeum medially dark-brown, sides pale yellow; dorsum of gaster largely blackish, sides and ventral parts whitish and gonostylus yellow.

Head about 5 × as wide as frontovertex, head with polygonally reticulate sculpture and mesh size as long as one eye facet; ocelli forming an acute angle of about 30°; eye not quite reaching occipital margin, separated by much less than diameter of a facet; frontovertex parallel; scrobes deep and U-shaped; antenna with scape about 2.3 × as long as broad; funicle with F1-F3 smallest, F4-F6 gradually increasing in size, F6 largest and slightly wider than long; linear sensilla only on F5 and F6; clava 3-segmented, its apex more or less rounded but with a short slightly oblique truncation; mandible relatively broad with three subequal, apical teeth; palpal formula 3-3, notaular lines reaching about 0.7 × across mesoscutum; fore wing venation and setation as in Fig. 80; cercal plate about in the 0.4 × of gaster; ovipositor (Fig. 79) slightly exserted, about 4 × as long as gonostylus.

Relative measurements: HW 15, FV 3, FVL 9, POL 2, AOL 3, OOL 0.5, OCL 2, POD 1, AOD 1, EL 10, EW 6, MS 5, SL 7, SW 3, FWL 54, FWW 22, OL 12, GL 3, MT 13.

Male.

Very similar to female except for antenna, genitalia and generally darker coloration with mesoscutum brownish ( Guerrieri and Noyes 2000).

Host.

Eulecanium coryli (Linnaeus), Eulecanium taxi Habib, Eulecanium tiliae (Linnaeus), Parthenolecanium corni ( Bouché), Parthenolecanium persicae (Fabricius), Parthenolecanium pomeranicum (Kawecki), Parthenolecanium rufulum (Cockerell), Pulvinaria sp., Parthenolecanium vitis (Linnaeus) and Sphaerolecanium prunastri (Fonscolombe) ( Noyes 2002).

Distribution.

China (Heilongjiang) (Fig. 85); Andorra, Armenia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Canary Islands, Caucasus, Czechia, Denmark, Finland, France, Georgia, mainland Greece, Hungary, Italy, Kazakhstan, Romania, Russia, Slovakia, Spain, Switzerland, United Kingdom ( Noyes 2002).

Material examined.

China: 3 ♀♀, Heilongjiang, Shangzhi, 15.VI.1993, Coll. C.D. Li.

Diagnosis.

Scape with both faces dark brown to blackish, only base and apex white and dorsal margin with a narrow stripe; gena with a brown mark extending to oral rim; scape about 2.3 × as long as broad (Fig. 78); mid and hind tibiae with a pair of dark brown rings at about 0.2 × and 0.5 ×, fore tibia with one dark brown ring (Figs 81-83); ovipositor slightly exserted, about 4 × as long as gonostylus (Fig. 79). According to Guerrieri and Noyes (2000), in insidious the fore wing is slightly infuscate, the head is about 4 × as wide as frontovertex, and the occiput is almost entirely blackish, whereas in Chinese specimens, the fore wing is hyaline, the head is about 5 × as wide as frontovertex, and the occiput has a brown area above the foramen.