Bemisia medinae Gómez-Menor

Hernández-Suárez, Estrella, Martin, Jon H., Gill, Raymond J., Bedford, Ian D., Malumphy, Christopher P., Betancort, J. Alfredo Reyes & Carnero, Aurelio, 2012, 3212, Zootaxa 3212, pp. 1-76 : 23

Bemisia medinae Gómez-Menor

( Figures 18, 61, 65, 72, 73)

Bemisia (Roucasia) medinae Gómez-Menor, 1954: 369 .

Bemisia medinae (Gómez-Menor) Danzig, 1964: 326 .

Distribution in the Canary Islands: TENERIFE: Barranco del Agua, Barranco Badajoz, Barranco de los Cochinos, Barranco de las Moradas, Erjos, Las Mercedes. LA GOMERA: El Cedro. Elsewhere: known only from the Canarian archipelago.

Host plants in the Canary Islands: Ageratina adenophora , Hypericum canariense and Hypericum grandifolium .

Comments: This species clearly belongs to the Bemisia afer complex. The puparia possess a distinctive pigmentation pattern ( Fig. 61) that Gómez-Menor regarded as an important character. Also, in contrast to other Bemisia afer - group morphs that are usually scattered widely, B. medinae usually occurs in crowded colonies under leaves of the host plant. If it had not already been formally described by Gómez-Menor we would have treated this as another morphological form of B. afer here. Male and female adult body colour and pigmentation are shown in Figs 72 and 73, respectively.

Gómez-Menor described Bemisia medinae from the laurel forest in Tenerife, from an “unknown plant amongst trees of Laurus canariensis [now L. novocanariensis ]”. Type material deposited at MNCN has been studied, as well as duplicate dry plant material. Hypericum grandifolium Choisy (Fam. Hypericaceae ) is endemic in the Canary Islands and Madeira. It is a plant with a very wide altitudinal range (up to 2000 metres) and usually is present in open habitats and the edges of humid juniper-olive woodlands, the evergreen laurisilva and the pine forest. Examination of the original dry plant material suggests that H. grandifolium is the “unknown plant” stated by Gómez-Menor to be the host of B. medinae .