Aloencyrtus angustifrons (Annecke)

Prinsloo, Rd. L., 2010, On some Afrotropical species of Aloencyrtus (Hymenoptera: Encyrtidae): parasitoids of soft scales (Hemiptera: Coccidae), Zootaxa 2716, pp. 1-28 : 8-9

Aloencyrtus angustifrons (Annecke)

( Figs 11, 30, 49, 50)

Coccidoxenus angustifrons Annecke 1964: 395 .

Trichomasthus angustifrons ; Annecke & Insley 1971: 24.

Aloencyrtus angustifrons ; Prinsloo 1978: 301.

Diagnosis. Aloencyrtus angustifrons was originally described by Annecke (1964) from only the female sex. The male is described below for the first time.

Female. Length: 2.3–2.8 mm.Colour: black, the head and base of gaster with strong metallic blue-green and dark purple reflections, the scrobes with a brilliant green and cupreous sheen; thorax with a faint purplish tinge. Protruding gonostyli yellowish. Antenna with scape and distal end of pedicel yellowish-brown, otherwise blackishbrown. Forewing ( Fig. 11) from linea calva to pale cross-band ranging from being almost completely hyaline to distinctly infuscated, the disc beyond the cross-band hyaline. Legs, including middle tibial spur, mostly blackishbrown to almost black except tarsi distinctly paler.

Head about 5.4x as wide as frontovertex in type series, 4.3–4.7x in additional material, anterior margin of the latter gently convex, without a median notch; head in frontal view ( Fig. 30) with scrobes converging but not confluent, with a clearly discernible dorsal median fovea. Entire front aspect of head except genae and temples densely covered with small, well defined setigerous pits, the diameter of each a little less than that of median ocellus. Antenna ( Fig. 49) variable: pedicel as long as to 1.2x as long as basal funicle segment; funicle segments I– III each longer than wide, I ranging from 2.1–3.0x as long as wide; IV subquadrate, V quadrate to1.3x as wide as long, and VI 1.2–1.4 as wide as long; club ranging from as long as distal two and a half to three funicle segments combined.

Thorax with sculpture of mesoscutum and axillae finely cellulate- reticulate, the cell margins not raised; scutellum a little coarser, the cells mostly longitudinally orientated (except in the middle of the disc) with a somewhat lineolate-reticulate appearance. Forewing ( Fig. 11) about 2.4x as long as broad; setae confined to crossband very fine; marginal vein a little shorter than postmarginal, the latter about 0.3x length of stigmal vein.

Gaster a little shorter that thorax; ovipositor 1.6–1.7x as long as middle tibia; gonostyli elongate, slender, about 1.2–1.3x as long as middle tibial spur, protruding prominently caudally.

Male. Colour: black, the head with frontovertex from occipital margin to upper limits of scrobes with a brilliant green and cupreous tinge; remainder of head, scutellum and dorsum of gaster with bluish-green, blue and purple reflections Antenna mostly sordid white to pale brown, upper surface of pedicel boldly marked with dark brown. Wings entirely hyaline. Legs with coxae and femora blackish-brown save distal ends of the latter whitish; fore and middle legs with tibiae whitish with uneven brownish suffusions in basal half, the tarsi whitish; hind leg with tibia blackish-brown save pale basal and distal ends, the tarsus whitish with tip dark.

Differing structurally from the female mainly as follows: head about 2.4x as wide as frontovertex; ocelli in a strongly obtuse angled triangle, lateral pair about 0.5x their own diameter from inner eye margins, slightly more than 3.5x their diameter apart; scrobes short, parallel-sided; antenna typical of the genus, as in Fig. 50, the flagellar segments with whorls of long curved setae. Forewing disc from linea calva to wing apex densely and evenly covered with fine white setae.

Remarks. The shape of the scrobes, which are not confluent above, and relatively long gonostyli, which are longer than the middle tibial spur, readily separate this species from A. obscuratus , A. ugandensis , A. delottoi and A. diaphorocerus with which it can be grouped.

Known distribution. South Africa.

Type material examined. SOUTH AFRICA. ♀ holotype, 2 ♀ paratypes with the following data: SOUTH AFRICA. Transvaal (now Limpopo Province): Zebediela, 10, 18, 21.ii.1961, H.J. Merrem, ex Ceroplastes sp. prob. brevicauda on citrus ( T 691).

Additional material. SOUTH AFRICA. Western Cape: Stellenbosch: xi.1939, ex Ceroplastes sp. (11 ♀, 3 ♂; T 3155); x.1969, H.P. Insley, ex Ceroplastes sp. on Dodonaea viscosa var. angustifolia (17 ♀, 3 ♂; T 3193); Caledon, x.1969, H.P. Insley, ex Ceroplastes sp. on Berzelia lanuginosa (3 ♀, 3 ♂; T 3247); Mossel Bay, vii, viii, xii. 1921 and ii.1922, R.E. Turner (4 ♀; in BMNH); Ceres, iii.1921, R.E. Turner (1 ♀; in BMNH); Gauteng: Rhenosterpoort Nature Reserve, nr. Bronkhorstspruit, xi. 1990, O. Neser, ex Ceroplastes sp. on Croton gratissimus (1 ♀).