Ceraleurodicus hempeli, Costa Lima, 1928

Canty, Roy J., Martini, Biancamaria & Wanke, Dominic, 2023, Three new species of Neotropical Ceraleurodicus Hempel (Hemiptera: Aleyrodidae) found in the Natural History Museum (London) collection, with notes and a puparial key to species, Zootaxa 5277 (2), pp. 313-338 : 324

Ceraleurodicus hempeli Costa Lima, 1928

NOMENCLATURE:

Ceraleurodicus hempeli Costa Lima, 1928: 138.

Distribution. Neotropical region— Brazil ( Dooley 2022; Ouvrard & Martin 2022).

Host. Lauraceae : Nectandra sp. ( Dooley 2022; Ouvrard & Martin 2022).

Material examined. No specimens available for study; only the original description, and associated photograph and illustrations.

Redescription

Puparium: No puparia were available for this study. The following is modified from the original description and associated images by Costa Lima (1928).

Body ( Fig. 6a ) ovoid in shape (approximately 2.40 mm long). Although difficult to tell from the original photo, with the posterior end of the photo being very faded, it appears that there are 9 pairs of lateral rays running mesad from the puparial margin.

Only one pair of very small compound pores on the sub-mesial plane of the dorsum. These pores are found on the anterior edge of abdominal segment III. Just in front of these pores, and still on abdominal segment III, are some very small simple pores ( Fig. 6b ). Ventrally, on the same segment, are a pair of short appendages terminating in a robust apical hook. The appendages are closer to the lateral margin than the compound pores, and are located behind the apex of the posterior tarsi.

Upon the dorsum are thin bristles that dilate slightly towards the apex. These are arranged thusly: 4 pairs in the middle of the body (1 cephalic pair, and 1 pair on each thoracic segment), and 15 pairs each side of the longitudinal axis, along the marginal zone, either on, or in the gaps between the rays.

The puparial margin is finely jagged and thickened with a row of teeth. Within these teeth are small compound pores, forming a submarginal row around the body.

VO ( Fig. 6c ) is elongate-subdeltoid, approximately 1.4 times longer than wide; operculum is oblong-rectangular; lingula is inserted and elongate-subdeltoid. On the lingula are two pairs of subapical setae.

Adults. Unknown.

Comments. As no specimens of this species were available, this study could only rely on the original, limited description, illustrations of the VO and a compound pore, and a low-quality dorsal habitus photograph of one specimen. This makes the determination of some aspects of the morphology difficult to ascertain, especially regarding the number of pairs of rays. The number of rays is not mentioned in the description by Costa Lima (1928), and the posterior end of the specimen photographed, or the photograph itself, is faded, meaning that only the anterior 5 pairs of rays are obvious and can be confirmed. The potential posterior 4 pairs of rays appear to be extremely faded, therefore the conclusion of 9 pairs of rays is based upon the fact that other puparia within Ceraleurodicus have 9 pairs of rays (except for C. assymmetrus with 11 pairs, and C. neivai with 8 pairs), and an interpretation of the faded section of the photograph.

Figures

FIGURE 6. Ceraleurodicus hempeli Costa Lima line drawings showing: (a) dorsal habitus, (b) compound pore with miniscule pores, and (c) vasiform orifice.