Encarsia floralis Wang, Huang & Polaszek, sp. nov.
Creators: name: Wang, Zhu-Hong
name: Huang, Jian
name: Polaszek, Andrew
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2014
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Hymenoptera
Aphelinidae
Encarsia
Encarsia floralis

description: Encarsia floralis Wang, Huang & Polaszek, sp. nov.
(Figs 1–8)
Type material. Holotype, ♀ (on slide). China: Fujian, Minhou, Zhuqi, 19 September 2013 (coll. Zhu-Hong Wang), ex unidentified whitefly on Ficus microcarpa Linn. (FAFU).
Description. Female. Holotype. Body length: 0.9 mm.
Colour. Head with frontovertex brown-yellow, anterior margin brown; eyes and ocelli brown-red, ocellar space dark brown and vertex with a triangular dark brown patch behind each lateral ocellus, together forming flowershaped dark brown patches (Fig. 1); face and occiput brown to dark brown (Figs 3, 4). Mandible dark brown. Antenna with flagellum pale yellow, scape and distal flagellar segment pale brown; longitudinal sensilla on each flagellar segment brown (Fig. 5). Pronotum dark brown; mid-lobe of mesoscutum brown with a longitudinal dark brown stripe medially; side-lobe of mesoscutum yellow-brown, anteriorly brown; axillae dark brown; scutellum yellow, anterior margin dark brown; metanotum and propodeum with sides brown to dark brown, medially yellow; mesopleuron dark brown; thoracic sterna dark brown, except mesosternum and metasternum yellow (Figs 1, 2). Wings hyaline except fore wing faintly infuscate behind marginal vein (Fig. 6). Legs white except fore tarsus pale yellow, mid and hind coxae dark brown, hind femur mostly dark brown except basally and apically white. Petiole brown; gastral tergites dark brown except T7 distally yellow; gastral sternites dark brown; base of ovipositor brown-yellow and third valvula brown to dark brown (Figs 1, 2).
Head. Frontovertex, face and occiput with distinct sculpture. Maxillary and labial palps 1-segmented. Mandibles with three teeth. Antennal formula 1:1:4:2; scape 4.2× as long as wide; pedicel longer than F1 (17: 14), but pedicel and F1 shorter than each of F2–F6 (26: 25: 24: 22: 23), respectively; flagellum with following numbers of longitudinal sensilla: F1: 0, F2: 2, F3: 3, F4: 3, F5: 3, F6: 3 (Fig. 5).
Mesosoma. Mid-lobe of mesoscutum with distinctly irregularly hexagonal cells or reticulation, and with 4+1+2+2+2 setae; each side-lobe of mesoscutum with 3 setae; axilla reticulate, each with 1 seta; scutellum reticulate and with 2 pairs of setae, fore pair of setae about 0.5× as long as hind pair and distance between fore pair approximately as long as between hind pair; placoid sensilla moderately distantly placed, closer to fore pair than to hind pair of setae (Fig. 7). Fore wing 2.98× as long as maximum width of wing disc; marginal fringe 0.24× as long as maximum width of disc; submarginal vein with 2 setae, anterior margin of marginal vein with 8 or 9 setae, basal cell with 5 or 6 setae, wing disc densely setose (Fig. 6). Tarsal formula 5: 5: 5.
Metasoma. Metasoma 1.48× as long as mesosoma; petiole anteromedially reticulate; tergites 1–7 with setae as follows: T1, 0+0; T2–T4, 1+1 each; T5, 6; T6, 4 between cercal plates; T 7, 4 in one row. Ovipositor basally located at apex of T3, not projecting beyond apex of metasoma, 1.27× as long as mid tibia and shorter than mid tibia and basitarsus combined (114: 120); third valvula about 0.27× as long as second valvifer, and 0.80× as long as mid basitarsus (Fig. 8).
Male. Unknown.
Species-group placement. Encarsia elegans -group.
Host. An unidentified whitefly (Hemiptera: Aleyrodidae) on Ficus microcarpa Linn. (Figs 9, 10).
Distribution. China (Fujian).
Etymology. The species name is derived from the Latin, floralis = flowery, referring to the flower-shaped dark brown patches on the frontovertex of the head.
Diagnosis. Encarsia floralis sp. nov. is placed in the elegans group because of the following characters: antennal formula 1:1:4:2, with longitudinal brown sensilla on flagellar segments except F1, F1 short; mid-lobe of mesoscutum with 4+1+2+2+2 setae, mesoscutellum with placoid sensilla moderately distantly placed. In the key to Chinese Encarsia species given by Huang & Polaszek (1998) E. floralis keys to couplet 47, but differs from all the other species of elegans group by the features given above in the modified key couplet.
description: Published as part of Wang, Zhu-Hong, Huang, Jian & Polaszek, Andrew, 2014, Two new species of Encarsia Förster (Hymenoptera, Aphelinidae) and first description of the male E. plana Viggiani & Ren from China, pp. 574-588 in Zootaxa 3889 (4) on page 576, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.3889.4.5, http://zenodo.org/record/251497