Aphelinus mali (Haldeman, 1851)

Japoshvili, George & Hansen, Lars Ove, 2014, Revision of the genus Aphelinus Dalman (Hymenoptera: Chalcidoidea: Aphelinidae) in Norway with descriptions of 3 new species, Turkish Journal of Zoology 38 (5), pp. 552-558 : 554-555

Aphelinus mali (Haldeman, 1851)

Material examined [ NORWAY]: ØSTFOLD [Ø], Aremark: Aremark [N59.2394°, E11.6983° ± 1000 m], 8♀♀ ex. 28 August 1978 [emerged from rowan berries ( Sorbus aucuparia ) in laboratory 24 April 1979; ref 63/78], leg. Torgeir Edland ; AKERSHUS [AK], Oslo: Ekebergskråningen [SE] [N59.88779°, E10.76754° ± 25 m], 1♀ 8 July–19 August 2008, Malaise trap/westfacing slope, leg. Anders EndrestØl ; Oslo: BleikØya N [N59.88921°, E10.74241° ± 100 m], 1♀ 15 July–29 August 2008, Malaise trap/forest edge, leg. Anders EndrestØl ; Oslo: Röa [N59.9467° E10.6436° ± 1000 m], 1♀ 22 June 1953, leg. Alf Bakke; Asker: Konglungen, Spirabukta [N59.83404°, E10.49598° ± 50 m], 1♀ 28 June 2008, leg. Ove SØrlibråten ; Oppegård: SØndre Oppegård, Svartskog [N59.7814° E10.7375° ± 1000 m], 4♀♀ 29 August 1954, leg. Alf Bakke; OPPLAND northern [ON], Vestre Slidre : Vaset senter, [N60.9967°, E08.9892° ± 500 m], 1♀ September 1999, ex. Circium heterophyllum, leg. Ove SØrlibråten ; BUSKERUD eastern [BØ], Nedre-Eiker: Hagatjern, Ryggsetra [N59.7333° E10.0458° ± 25 m], 1♀ 1–31 July 1994, Malaise trap A/hay-meadow, leg. Yngvar Berg & Lars Ove Hansen ; BUSKERUD western [BV], Rollag: Tråen saga [N60.0222°, E09.2806° ± 50 m], 1♀ 1–30 June 1994, Malaise trap/sawmill, leg. BjØrn A. Sagvolden ; Ål: Hallingdal, Ål [N60.6292°, E08.5592° ± 2500 m], 4♀♀ ex. 28 August 1978 [emerged from rowan berries ( Sorbus aucuparia ) in laboratory 24 April–3 May 1979 ; ref. 121/78], leg. Torgeir Edland; Ål: Hallingdal, Ål [N60.6292°, E08.5592° ± 2500 m], 1♀ ex. 15 February 1979, [missing data, but probably emerged from rowan berries ( Sorbus aucuparia ) ; ref. 121/78], leg. Torgeir Edland; Ål: Hallingdal, Vats [N60.6894°, E08.3611° ± 250 m], 2♀♀ ex. 28 August 1978 [emerged from rowan berries ( Sorbus aucuparia ) in laboratory 26 April and 10 August 1979 ; ref. 121/78], leg. Torgeir Edland, TELEMARK coastal [TEY], Drangedal: Henseide, Djupedal, [N59.08874°, E9.22265° ± 500 m], 1♀ 2 July 2011, oak canopy fogging/tree #11, leg. Karl H. Thunes ; TELEMARK interior [TEI], Sauherad: Kåsin, Roligheten [N59.4278°, E09.2808° ± 250 m], 2♀♀ ex. 11 August 1978 [emerged from rowan berries ( Sorbus aucuparia ) in laboratory 27 July 1979], leg. Torgeir Edland ; ROGALAND coastal [RY], Bjerkreim: Vikeså [N58.6397°, E06.0881°], 1♀ ex. 10 August 1978 [emerged from rowan berries ( Sorbus aucuparia ) in laboratory 24 April 1979; ref. 63/78], leg. Torgeir Edland.

Distribution: Argentina, Australia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Belgium, Bolivia, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, Canary Islands, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, France, Georgia, Germany, India, Indonesia, Java (+ Bali), Iraq, Israel, Italy, Japan, Korea, Lebanon, Malta, Mexico, Moldova, Morocco, Netherlands, New Zealand, Pakistan, Paraguay, People’s Republic of China, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Puerto Rico, Romania, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Slovakia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Tajikistan, Trinidad and Tobago, Turkey, Ukraine, United Kingdom, United States of America, Uruguay, Uzbekistan, Venezuela, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. New record for Norway.

Comments: A. mali is very close to A. chaonia , and some overlapping morphological features can be found in series of these species. The taxonomic status of these 2 species should be queried. A. mali was first known as a monophagous parasitoid of Eriosoma lanigera (Nokolskaja and Yasnosh, 1966) ; however, it was later found parasitizing many different aphids ( Hayat, 1998). A. chaonia is discussed as closely related to A. mali ( Hopper et al., 2012) , but for unclear reasons it was not included in the mali complex in the same paper. Future DNA studies on long series from different museum materials of these species may solve this taxonomic problem.