Aleuropleurocelus Drews and Sampson

Polaszek, Andrew & Gill, Raymond, 2011, A new species of whitefly (Hemiptera: Aleyrodidae) and its parasitoid (Hymenoptera: Aphelinidae) from desert lavender in California, Zootaxa 2750, pp. 51-59 : 51

Aleuropleurocelus Drews and Sampson

Martin & Mound (2007) listed 12 described species in the genus, mostly endemic to California and the American southwestern deserts but also known from Mexico, Florida and Brazil. Dooley (2010) recently described another species, Aleuropleurocelus nevadiensis from the U.S. Several undescribed species are known from California and Nevada in the U.S.A., and Martin (2005) listed 10 undescribed species from Belize. Eight of the thirteen described species, from California and Mexico, were described in works by Sampson (1945), Drews & Sampson (1956, 1958) and Sampson & Drews (1941). Four of the twelve species were originally assigned to the European genus Tetralicia , but these have been placed now in Aleuropleurocelus . The similarities between these two genera are based primarily on the position of the true margin of the puparia (4th instar), which is rolled down and inwards, and is not visible in dorsal view. Martin (2005) discussed current ideas on the relationship between Aleuropleurocelus and Tetralicia . The new species described here was found in southern California at several desert localities, all within a few miles of each other, but probably will be found in other U.S. States and Mexico, wherever the host plant occurs. All known species of Aleuropleurocelus are melanic in the puparial stage, requiring bleaching of specimens before slide mounting for study.