Synonyms
Illeis Mulsant, 1850: 1026. TS: Psyllobora galbula Mulsant, 1850.
Leptothea Weise, 1898: 227. TS: Psyllobora galbula Mulsant, 1850.
Diagnosis
Illeis is distinguished from all genera of Australian Coccinellini by its strongly expanded terminal segment of maxillary palps, relatively flat pronotum with anterior margin almost straight and head unusually narrowed anteriorly in front of antennal insertions. The structure of mandible bearing several teeth along incisor edge is also diagnostic for this genus.
Description
Length 3.6-5.5 mm; elytra very weakly convex; winged, glabrous. Elytral colour pattern, variable. Head with anterior clypeal border straight between weak lateral projections. Antenna 11-segmented; slightly longer than head capsule with very loose 3-segmented club. Terminal maxillary palpomere very strongly securiform. Pronotal disc weakly convex transversely to narrowly upturned but not thickened external borders. Prothoracic hypomeron without fovea near anterior angles; prosternal process with distinct carinae extending anteriorly. Anterior margin of mesoventrite weakly emarginate medially. Elytral margin distinctly explanate with very narrow thickened or upturned external border; epipleuron not foveate. Tibial spurs absent. Abdominal postcoxal line not recurved and distinctly incomplete laterally without oblique additional line. Male terminalia. Parameres and phallobase symmetrical; penis guide symmetrical. Parameres articulated with phallobase. Penis stout, consisting of single sclerite; basal capsule weak. Apodeme of male sternum 9 very narrow and rod-like. Female terminalia. Coxities club-handle like, or broad plates; styli strongly reduced and hardly visible; infundibulum tube-like, enclosing the sperm duct; sperm duct simple, uniform in diameter. Spermatheca distinctly curved with cornu and basal ramus and nodulus; spermathecal accessory gland adjacent to sperm duct.
Distribution and Biology
There are about 15 species in this genus distributed from India, China and Japan to New Guinea and Australia. Two species are found in Australia,. Anderson (1981) discussed larval morphology and biology of I. galbula and found it to be strictly micophagous, feeding on powdery mildew of the genus Oidium sp. (Erysiphaceae) infecting various plants, including cucurbits, crepe myrtle (Lagerstromia sp.) and Lonicera fragrantissima.
Genus References
Anderson, J M E. 1981. Biology and distribution of Scymnodes lividigaster (Mulsant) and Leptothea galbula (Mulsant) Australian ladybirds (Coleoptera: Coccinellidae). Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales, 105 (1980), (1): 1-15.
Iablokoff-Khnzorian, S.M. 1982. Les coccinelles. Coleoptères-Coccinellidae. Société nouvelle des editions Boubée, Paris. 568 pp.
Mulsant, M E. 1850. Species des Coléoptères Trimcres Sécuripalpes. Annales des Sciencies Physiques et Naturelles, d'Agriculture et d'Industrie, publiées par la Société nationale d'Agriculture, etc., de Lyon, Deuxicme Série, 2: xv + 1-1104 (part 1 pp. 1-450; part 2 pp. 451-1104).
Pope, R. D. 1989. A revision of the Australian Coccinellidae (Coleoptera). Part 1. Subfamily Coccinellinae. Invertebrate Taxonomy, 2 (1988): 663-735.
Slipinski, S.A. 2007. Australian Ladybird Beetles (Coleoptera: Coccinellidae) their biology and classification. ABRS, Canberra. 286 pp.
Weise, J. 1898. Ueber bekannte und neue Coccinelliden. Archiv für Naturgeschichte, 64/1, (2): 225-238.
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