Crenidorsum, Russell

Martin, Jon H., 2005, Whiteflies of Belize (Hemiptera: Aleyrodidae) Part 2 - a review of the subfamily Aleyrodinae Westwood, Zootaxa 1098 (1), pp. 1-116 : 37-38

CRENIDORSUM Russell

Crenidorsum Russell, 1945: 55–57 . Type species Crenidorsum tuberculatum , by original designation.

DIAGNOSIS AND COMMENTS. As interpreted here, Crenidorsum comprises species whose puparia (Figs 44, 110) display the following combination of characters: puparia flat; margin distinctly and regularly toothed, usually not modified at tracheal openings at margin, the teeth with or without basal glands; submargin not separated from dorsal disc by a fold concentric with curve of margin; a pair of longitudinal subdorsal folds present in cephalothorax and anterior abdomen, these folds approximately overlying legs and may be lined by scallop­like patterning; first abdominal setae absent; cephalic, meso­ and metathoracic submedian setal pairs variably present; abdominal segment VII not, or very slightly, reduced medially; caudal furrow absent; vasiform orifice almost fully occupied by operculum, lingula usually included within orifice by virtue of folding but extends beyond orifice if unfolded; ventrally, thoracic tracheal folds absent or little evident; cuticle brown or pale.

Crenidorsum comprises species similar in several respects to Aleurotrachelus and Aleurotulus , but the combination of characters listed above define Crenidorsum relatively well, even though any future studies are likely to result in redefinition of the Aleurotrachelus group. Described by Russell (1945) to accommodate 12 new neotropical species, Crenidorsum now includes 21 described species, eight of them from the Old World. Future appraisal of this genus may show the Old and New World species not to be congeners.

In Belize, seven species of Crenidorsum have been collected, only one of them described, but all of these species are only represented by very small numbers of specimens. A further, eighth, species from Belize is tentatively included in Crenidorsum , despite the dorsal disc being almost completely separated from the submargin by a fold, because the outer edge of this fold is lined by scallop­like markings which are very common in species of Crenidorsum .