Metaphycus stephaniae, Guerrieri, 2006

Guerrieri, Emilio, 2006, Description of Metaphycus stephaniae sp. nov. (Hymenoptera, Chlacidoidea, Encyrtidae), a parasitoid of Stotzia ephedrae (Newstead) (Hemiptera, Coccoidea, Coccidae), Journal of Natural History 40 (13 - 14), pp. 863-865 : 863-865

Metaphycus stephaniae sp. nov.

( Figures 1–8 )

Description

Female. Holotype: length 1.6 mm.

Head dark orange; antenna ( Figure 1 ) brown except part of scape, apex of pedicel, apex of F5 and F6 yellow, clava black except paler apex; mesoscutum and scutellum yellow with brown suffusion; base of tegula yellow, the apex brown; metanotum and propodeum brown; forewing slightly and uniformly infuscate, venation brown; legs yellow, all femora brown, all tibiae with base and apex brown, and each with two dark rings, tarsi brown; gaster brown.

Head about 3.3X as wide as frontovertex; ocelli forming an acute angle of about 30 °; antenna ( Figure 1 ) with scape about 3X as long as broad, F1 subquadrate and about 0.35X as long as pedicel; clava slightly truncate at apex. Relative measurements: HW 40, FV 14, OOL 2, OCL 5, OD 2, SL 24, SW 8.

Thorax with notaular lines complete, almost reaching the posterior part of mesoscutum; forewing about 2.2X as long as broad, venation as in Figures 2, 3 .

Gaster with ovipositor ( Figure 4 ) not exserted.

Paratype: hypopygium as in Figure 5 . Relative measurements: MT 75 , OL 66, GL 14 .

Male. Length 1.2 mm. Similar to female except antenna ( Figure 6 ) and genitalia ( Figure 8 ). Torulus ( Figure 7 ) with a single row of tiny pores along the inner margin.

Variation

Very little in the material at hand. One female has the mesothorax pale yellow, not suffused with brown. Length ranges from 1.0 to 1.6 mm.

Hosts

Metaphycus stephaniae is recorded below from Stotzia ephedrae on Ephedra alte and on Asparagus aphyllis .

Distribution

Israel.

Material examined

Holotype: ♀, Israel, Nes Ziyona, 26 February 2005, ex Stotzia ephedrae on Ephedra alte (Y. Ben Dov) . Paratypes: 15♀, 4 „, same data as holotype; 3♀, Israel, Sha’ar Hagay, 1 May 1978, ex Stotzia ephedrae on Asparagus aphyllis (Y. Ben Dov) . Holotype deposited in DEZA, Portici (Naples), Italy; 2♀, 2 „ paratypes deposited in the Natural History Museum, London, UK.

Comments

Metaphycus stephaniae is extremely similar to M. hodzheυanishυilii ( Yasnosh 1972) and to M. zebratus (see Guerrieri and Noyes 2000), the females of all three species having the scape about 3X as long as broad, almost complete notaular lines and legs with dark rings. In particular, M. stephaniae shares a similar host with M. hodzheυanishυilii (recorded from Stotzia maxima ) but females of the two can be readily separated by the number of linear sensilla on the funicle: in M. stephaniae linear sensilla are present only on F5 and F6 while in M. hodzheυanishυilii they are present on F3–F6. Females of M. stephaniae can be separated with difficulty from those of M. zebratus . Indeed, just a darker F 5 in the former can help. However, males of the two species can be separated easily because there is a row of tiny pores associated to the torulus of M. stephaniae whilst that of M. zebratus has none ( Guerrieri and Noyes 2000). The species is named after my wife.

Figures

Figures 1–8. Metaphycus stephaniae. (1–5) ♀. (1) Antenna. (2) Base of fore wing. (3) Apex of venation. (4) Ovipositor. (5) Hypopygium. (6–8) „. (6) Antenna. (7) Left torulus. (8) Genitalia.