Encarsia citrina (Craw)
Diagnosis
Female
Colour: head orange-brown, lower part of head and occiput darker. Mesosoma yellow except pronotum, mesoscutellar midlobe anteriorly, axilla, mesopleuron, and propodeum darker. Metasoma predominantly brown. Antenna brown with apex darkened (sometimes faint). Fore wing hyaline with dark band behind marginal vein. Legs yellow, hind coxa brown.
Morphology: stemmaticum with transversely strigose surface sculpture. Antennal formula 1,1,3,3, apical segment conical, strongly narrowed towards apex. Pedicel longer than F1 (1.33–1.50). F1 1.57–1.80 times as long as its maximum width, subequal in length or slightly longer than F2 (1.00–1.13), and slightly shorter than or subequal to F3 (0.88–1.06), third funicular segment distinctly broader than first and slightly broader than second. F2 slightly shorter than F3 (0.83–0.94). Flagellomeres with the following numbers of sensilla: F1: 0, F2: 0, F3: 0, F4: 2, F5: 3, F6: 4. Midlobe of mesoscutum with four setae arranged symmetrically, side lobes with one seta each. Scutellar sensilla widely separated (approximately 9–10 times the maximum width of a sensillum). Distance between anterior pair of scutellar setae greater than between posterior pair. Fore wing with bare area near stigmal vein, disc sparsely setose (particularly nearmargin), very narrow and about 4.0 times as long as width of disc.Marginal fringe 1.15–1.19 times as long as width of disc. Basal cell with one seta. Submarginal vein with two setae,marginal vein anteriorly with four (to six) setae. Tarsal formula 5-5-5. Apical spur of midtibia longer than half the length of the corresponding basitarsus (0.72–0.73). Tergites laterally with the following numbers of setae: T1: 0, T2: 1, T3: 1, T4: 1, T5: 2, T6: 2, T7 with four setae. Ovipositor subequal in length to midtibia (0.94, 1.16 times in the holotype of E. australiensis) and 0.94 times as long as clava (1.20 times in holotype of E. australiensis). Third valvula 0.48–0.49 times as long as second valvifer.
Male
Unknown
Species group placement
Encarsia citrina group.
Distribution
Cosmopolitan.
Hosts
Aleyrodidae: Aleurocanthus sp., Aleurotrachelus micheliae Takahashi. In addition to whitefly hosts the species has been recorded from a large number of hard scales (Diaspididae, see Huang and Polaszek (1998) for a comprehensive list of host records).
References
Huang, J., Polaszek, A. (1998). A revision of the Chinese species of Encarsia Förster (Hymenoptera: Aphelinidae): parasitoids of whiteflies, scale insects and aphids (Hemiptera: Aleyrodidae, Diaspididae, Aphidoidea). Journal of Natural History 32:1825–1966. doi
Schmidt, S., Polaszek, A. (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): 2099-2265. doi
External links
Wikispecies
Encyclopedia of Life
Genbank
Encarsia on Wikipedia
