Aleurotrachelus, Quaintance & Baker

Martin, Jon H., 2005, Whiteflies of Belize (Hemiptera: Aleyrodidae) Part 2 - a review of the subfamily Aleyrodinae Westwood, Zootaxa 1098 (1), pp. 1-116 : 22-23

ALEUROTRACHELUS Quaintance & Baker

Aleurotrachelus Quaintance & Baker, 1914: 103 . Type species Aleurodes tracheifer Quaintance, 1900: 38–39 , by original designation.

Luederwaltiana Hempel, 1922: 1185–1186. Type species Luederwaltiana eriosemae by original designation and monotypy syn. nov.

DIAGNOSIS AND COMMENTS. As interpreted here, Aleurotrachelus comprises species whose puparia ( Figs 16 , 17 , 98–100, 141) share the following combination of characters: margin regularly toothed, the teeth not, or hardly, modified at caudal and thoracic tracheal openings at margin, but the teeth have glands at their bases, often appearing double­ranked as a result ( Fig. 17 , enlarged detail); dorsal disc loosely defined by a pair of longitudinal cephalothoracic folds, usually overlying the legs and often extending into abdomen; shallow rhachis present, often without lateral arms; cephalic setae usually absent, metathoracic, eighth abdominal and caudal submedian setae present; first abdominal setae absent in New World species; subdorsum without setae, but submargin sometimes with tiny setae whose bases are almost indistinguishable from row of submarginal pores; vasiform orifice subcircular to subcordate, situated on posterior end of rhachis, usually longer than wide, operculum occupies most of the orifice; lingula often rather large and may be either excluded ( Fig. 17 , enlarged detail) or folded into vasiform orifice; puparia of most species with cuticle dark brown to black, but some species with pale puparia.

Examination of puparial type material of Luederwaltiana eriosemae Hempel (1922) , kindly loaned by MZUSP, revealed it to be clearly congeneric with the type species of Aleurotrachelus , A. tracheifer (Quaintance) , whereas numbers of other species currently placed in Aleurotrachelus are unlikely to be congeners (see below). The specimens on the examined Hempel syntype slide of L. eriosemae were poorly cleared, and the mountant is imperfect, but there are 15 specimens present and, between them, all the major characters are visible, leading to the conclusion that Luederwaltiana is a junior synonym of Aleurotrachelus , with L. eriosemae transferred to Aleurotrachelus comb. nov..

This genus has always been very flexibly interpreted, with the result that Aleurotrachelus is now one of the largest assemblages of whitefly species, is certainly polyphyletic, and is in great need of revision. There are currently over 85 described species included, but it is certain that many of these (especially in the Old World) will prove not to be congeners. With some of the species discovered in Belize, perhaps the greatest difficulty has been in deciding which are better placed in Aleurotrachelus , rather than Aleurothrixus or Aleurotulus (q.v.). Inevitably, Aleurotrachelus has been used here to receive several species of rather doubtful identity.

The particularly imprecise definition of Aleurotrachelus sensu lato has resulted in 13 species from Belize being assigned to the genus, only three of them described.

Figures

FIGURES 13–16. 13–15, Aleurothrixus spp. 13, A. chivelensis (Sampson & Drews), vacated pupal case, dorsal, simplified drawing; 14, A. myrtacei Bondar, puparium, dorsum, simplified drawing (see Fig. 97 for photograph); 15, A. floccosus (Maskell), puparium, dorsum (see Fig. 96 for photograph); 16, Aleurotrachelus tracheifer (Quaintance), puparium, dorsum, simplified drawing (see Figs 99, 141 for photographs).

FIGURES 17–18. 17, Aleurotrachelus trachoides (Back), puparium, dorsum, with enlarged detail of margin & submargin, and vasiform orifice (see Fig. 100 for photograph); 18, Singhiella citrifolii (Morgan), puparium, simplified drawing with enlarged detail of thoracic tracheal pore area, and vasiform orifice & caudal furrow with displaced submarginal setal pair 15 (of Jensen, 2001) arrowed (see Fig. 115 for photograph).