Encarsia protransvena Viggiani

Encarsia protransvena Viggiani, 1985: 89. Holotype female, USA, Florida, Broward C[ounty]. F[or]t. Lauderdale, ix.1984 (C.R.R. Thompson) ex Dialeurodes kirkaldyi (IEUN).

Encarsia protransvena: Nguyen & Hamon, 1989: 2, Polaszek et al., 1999: 158-160.

Encarsia strenua: Polaszek et al., 1992: 388 (misidentification, in part of E. protransvena), Schauff et al., 1996: 29 (misidentification of E. protransvena).

Diagnosis

Female

Colour

Head and body yellow. Fore wing hyaline. Antenna yellow. Head, including stemmaticum, with reticulate surface sculpture.

Morphology

Clava 3-segmented. Pedicel subequal in length to F1 (0.91-1.10). F1 shorter than or equal to F2 (0.85-1.00) and slightly shorter than F3 (0.80-0.90). Mid lobe of mesoscutum with 8-10 setae. Scutellar sensilla close together, separated by a distance of about their own width or less. Tergite 7 with 4 setae between cercal plates. Distance between anterior pair of scutellar setae smaller than between posterior pair. Fore wing about 2.7 x as long as wide. Marginal fringe 0.28-0.37 x as long as wing width. Tarsus of middle leg 5-segmented. Apical spur of middle tibia longer than half the length of the basal tarsal segment (0.77-0.79). Ovipositor 1.40-1.43 x the length of middle tibia and 2.19-2.33 x as long as clava. Third valvula 0.29-0.30 x as long as second valvifer.

Male

Head and body predominantly brown, mid lobe of mesoscutum, scutellum and legs lighter.

Species
group

Placed in E. strenua-group by Hayat (1989).

Distribution
in the
Australian and
Pacific regions

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Host

B. tabaci (Gennadius), T. vaporariorum (Westwood), Aleurocanthus sp., Aleurolobus sp. The following additional hosts have been recorded (Huang & Polaszek, 1998): Dialeurodes citri (Ashmead), D. citrifolii (Morgan), D. kirkaldyi (Kotinsky), Trialeurodes packardi (Morill).

Comments

The identification of E. protransvena is difficult and the species has in the past been confused with E. strenua (Silvestri) and E. citri (Ishii) (Polaszek et al., 1992; Schauff et al., 1996). Encarsia strenua has not been found in the Australian region and can be separated by its longer ovipositor, which is more than 1.6 x the length of the middle tibia in E. strenua and 1.3-1.5 x in E. protransvena (with few exceptions, see Heraty & Polaszek, 2000). All these species belong to a group of cryptic species within the E. strenua-group (Huang & Polaszek, 1998; Heraty & Polaszek, 2000).