Aloencyrtus distinguendus (Waterston)

Prinsloo, Rd. L., 2010, On some Afrotropical species of Aloencyrtus (Hymenoptera: Encyrtidae): parasitoids of soft scales (Hemiptera: Coccidae), Zootaxa 2716, pp. 1-28 : 14-15

Aloencyrtus distinguendus (Waterston)

( Figs 2, 21, 39)

Coccidoxenus distinguendus Waterston 1917b: 311 .

Trichomasthus distinguendus ; Annecke & Insley 1971: 25.

Aloencyrtus distinguendus ; Prinsloo 1978: 301.

Diagnosis. A detailed original description of this species, which is known only from the female, was provided by Waterston (1917). It is distinguished from its congeners as follows:

Female. Length: 1.5–1.6 mm. Colour: black; face, including scrobes, with a fairly strong metallic green to blue-green lustre; frontovertex and thoracic dorsum with a brilliant blue-green, blue and purple sheen. Antenna with scape, pedicel and funicle largely brownish-yellow, club dark brown. Forewing strongly infuscated from linea calva to hyaline cross-band, the disc beyond the band less strongly darkened, as in Fig. 2. Legs with coxae and femora blackish-brown, remainder brownish-yellow, the middle and hind tibiae with brown suffusions in their basal half or so or hind tibia almost completely dark.

Head in dorsal view 5.0–5.3x as wide as frontovertex, anterior margin of the latter broadly notched; head in frontal view ( Fig. 21) with scrobes distinctly V-shaped with a small dorsal interscrobal fovea; frontovertex from occipital margin to upper limits of scrobes with small, scattered, setigerous punctations, the diameter of each clearly less than that of median ocellus, the face and genae devoid of any punctations. Antenna ( Fig. 39) with pedicel subequal in length to basal funicle segment; basal funicle segment about 2.25x as long as wide, II–VI becoming progressively broader and shorter, VI subquadrate; club a little shorter than distal three funicle segments combined.

Mesoscutum with fine transverse cellulate-reticulate sculpture, that of scutellum a little coarser, distinctly lineolate-reticulate. Forewing ( Fig. 2) about 2.3x as long as wide, the fine, white setae confined to the hyaline cross-band barely discernible; marginal vein subequal in length to postmarginal, the latter less than half the length of stigmal. Gaster a little shorter than thorax; gonostyli not protruding caudally.

Male. Unknown.

Remarks. Aloencyrtus distinguendus resembles A. nativus closely, but can be separated from that species by subtle colour differences, head that is 5.0–5.3x as wide as frontovertex, presence of an interscrobal fovea, more slender antenna (cf Figs 38 and 39) and somewhat less coarsely sculptured scutellum, as indicated in the descriptions and key.

Known distribution. Cameroun, Ghana, Nigeria.

Type material examined. Card-mounted ♀ holotype (in BMNH) with the following label data: “Type; ex Lecanium sp. on coffee, 19.xii.15, Aburi, Gold Coast, M.H. Patterson; Waterston det. Coccidoxenus distinguendus Waterst. (1917) ; B.M TYPE HYM. 5.1,129” .

Additional material. CAMEROUN: Nkumvon , viii.1979, D. Jackson (1 ♀) ; NIGERIA: Ile-Ife , v.1973, J. T. Medler (1 ♀) ; GHANA: (hand written label data illegible) (2 ♀) ; all specimens in BMNH.