Aloencyrtus alox, Prinsloo, 2010

Prinsloo, Rd. L., 2010, On some Afrotropical species of Aloencyrtus (Hymenoptera: Encyrtidae): parasitoids of soft scales (Hemiptera: Coccidae), Zootaxa 2716, pp. 1-28 : 5-8

Aloencyrtus alox sp. n.

( Figs 16, 34, 55)

Description. Female. Length: 1.9 mm. Colour: head orange except centre of occipital surface dark; body blackish, shiny, with a rather faint dark bluish metallic tinge, the following parts yellowish-orange in contrast: sides of pronotum, prepectus, mesopleuron and posterior margin of scutellum narrowly. Antenna with scape and pedicel yellowish, remainder largely blackish-brown. Forewing ( Fig. 16) strongly infuscated from base of linea calva to cross-band of refractive white setae beyond venation, the disc beyond the band hyaline with setae lending the disc a slightly darkened appearance. Legs with coxae blackish-brown, femora and tibiae paler, yellowish-brown to brown; tarsi whitish.

Head in dorsal view 4x as wide as frontovertex at median ocellus, anterior margin of the latter almost straight with a median notch formed by upper limits of scrobes; fronto-occipital margin acute; ocelli in a slightly acuteangled triangle, separated from eye margins by clearly less than half, from each other by about 2.3x and from median ocellus by 1.7x their own diameter; head in frontal view ( Fig. 34) 1.3x as wide as high; malar space about 0.5x length of eye; toruli with upper limits about level with lower eye margins; scrobes long, deep, confluent dorsally, forming a distinct inverted V-shaped impression on face, separated by a rather flat interscrobal prominence, without a dorsal median fovea. Antenna ( Fig. 55) with scape 6x as long as broad; pedicel 1.7x as long as basal funicle segment; funicle segments short, subequal in length, becoming progressively broader, I 1.6x as long as broad, II–IV each a little longer than broad, V quadrate, VI about 1.3x as wide as long; club distinctly broader than distal funicle segment, as long as distal three and a half funicle segments combined. Frontovertex and face with fine cellulate-reticulate sculpture, sparsely covered in minute, poorly defined setigerous punctations; eyes appearing naked.

Thorax typical of the genus, squat, strongly convex in profile; mesoscutum almost twice as wide as long, strongly rounded from side to side; scutellum a little wider than long, sloping strongly towards apex; sculpture of mesoscutum, axillae and scutellum of the same texture, finely reticulate, the cell margins hardly raised, the cells on mesoscutum and axillae transversely orientated, those on scutellum longitudinally, the integument appearing rather smooth under low magnification; mesoscutum evenly and fairly densely covered with decumbent white setae, the scutellum a little less densely so. Middle leg with tibial spur slightly shorter than basal tarsal segment.

Forewing ( Fig.16) 2.3x as long as wide; marginal and postmarginal veins about equal in length, the latter 0.6x as long as stigmal vein; setation as in Fig. 16, the setae confined to the cross-band very fine, barely discernible, the band appearing asetose under low magnification.

Gaster heart-shaped, noticeably shorter than thorax and propodeum combined; gonostyli protruding slightly caudally.

Male. Unknown.

Remarks. This distinctive species does not seem to be closely allied to any of it known congeners in particular. It is grouped with those species in which the wing disc beyond the pale cross-band is hyaline and is readily separated by its characteristic bicolorous orange and black body in addition to a combination of characters which include the V-shaped scrobes, sculpture of the head, which is covered with minute, poorly defined punctations and shape of the forewing venation in which the marginal and postmarginal veins are equal in length.

Known distribution. South Africa.

Material examined. SOUTH AFRICA: KwaZulu-Natal: Lake St. Lucia, viii.1971, H.P. Insley ex. Ceroplastes sp. on Pterocelastrus echinatus (♀ holotype; mounted on a card point with one forewing and one antenna separately on a slide; T 3890).