Proleurocerus litoralis Hayat and Kazmi 1996
Creators: name: Binoy, C.
name: Hiremath, Sangamesh R.
name: Prathapan, K. D.
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2024
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Hymenoptera
Encyrtidae
Proleurocerus
Proleurocerus litoralis

description: Proleurocerus litoralis Hayat and Kazmi, 1996
Proleurocerus litoralis Hayat and Kazmi 1996, p. 19. India: Kerala [BMNH]
(Figures 12–30)
Material examined
67 ♀, 20 ♂, All from India: Kerala, Kozhikode district by C. Binoy. Elathur (11.325°N, 75.741° E, 23 m), Zoological Survey of India, Kozhikode Campus (11.263°N, 75.786°E, 28 m), Malabar Christian College Campus (11.263°N and 75.779°E, 27 m), collected during the months of January, August, September and November, 2018–2021 (see ‘Material and methods’ for deposition).
Diagnosis
Scape medially expanded, at most 2× as long as broad; scape apically, fu 4 partly, fu 5 and fu 6 completely white; first valvifer long, about 0.4× second valvifer and relatively longer than first valvula; head greenish with frontovertex conspicuously punctate, vertex rugose reticulate; forewing infuscate with basal third subhyaline, disc with two distinct streaks, one adjacent to PMV-STV junction and another oblique transverse strip in medio-posterior third.
Redescription
Female. (Figures 12–23) Body length 1.39–1.71 mm; length of forewing 1.07–1.19 mm.
Colour. Body: metallic greenish blue with the following varying shades of green and blue on surface: frontovertex, lower face and clypeus with bright metallic green with slight golden lustre, vertex, pronotum and mesoscutum metallic bluish green, scutellum with deep bluish lustre; metanotum and propodeum brown, pleura brown with slight greenish lustre, metasoma deep brown with slight bronzy lustre. Antenna: brown except tip of scape, fu4 apically, fu5 and fu6 entirely white (Figures 13, 14). Legs: All coxae deep brown with slight metallic lustre, all trochanters, femora and tibiae brown with mesotibia apically paler; all tarsi testaceous. Wings: forewing infumate in posterior two-thirds, anteriorly subhyaline, veins testaceous, hindwing hyaline (Figure 21).
Setation. Eyes minutely setose, white; frontovertex with thick white bristle-like setae arising from puncture, remainder on vertex with scattered longer thin setae; mesosoma with moderately dense, linearly arranged brown setae, laterally tending to be white; propodeal setae near spiracles white; metasomal terga with moderately dense brown adpressed setae, lateral margins with long white setae; legs with moderately dense adpressed brown setae.
Head. In frontal view 1.17× as wide as long, eyes large, oval reaching posterior margin of head; frontovertex distinctly punctate, interstices raised, finely reticulate (Figure 15); mandible tridentate; gena with conspicuous longitudinal reticulation; antenna inserted at lower margin of face, on either side of clypeus (Figure 16); in dorsal view 1.87× as wide as long, rugose reticulate; anterior ocellus forming slightly obtuse angle (97°) with apex of lateral ocelli; OOL 1.3× AOL (Figure 17); scape medially expanded, 1.7× as long as maximum width, surface transversely reticulate; clava 2.1× as long as maximum width; relative length of scape, pedicel, funiculars and clava = 12.6:2.6:0.9:1.2:1.4:1.5:1.5:8.4 (Figure 13).
Mesosoma. Pronotum 8.8× as long as wide, posterior margin distinctly convex onto mesoscutum, distinctly reticulate with two rows of setigerous pits; mesoscutum 1.6× as wide as long, distinctly reticulate with 6–7 rows of linear setigerous pits; scutellum as long as mesoscutum with less dense setigerous pits, surface conspicuously rugose reticulate; scutellum apically blunt (Figure 18); meso- and metapleura conspicuously reticulate (Figure 19); metanotum finely reticulate; propodeum coarsely reticulate; propodeal spiracles large, round, peritreme exposed as rim (Figure 20).
Metasoma. Longer than mesosoma in profile (1.2×); all terga and sterna with distinct linear reticulations; all terga beyond Gt3 with deeply emarginate margin; ovipositor 2.8× metatibia, protruding well beyond apex of last tergum (Figures 22, 23).
Male. (Figures 24–30)
Body length 1.19–1.29 mm; length of forewing 1.12–1.16 mm. Diagnosis and description of males as recorded by Singh (2010).
Other hosts
Egg parasitoids of Eurybrachys tomentosa (Fabricius) (Singh 2010), Platybrachys leucostigma (Walker) (both Hemiptera, Eurybrachidae) (Shylesha 2013).
Distribution
India: Andhra Pradesh; Karnataka; Kerala; Puducherry; Tamil Nadu; Uttarakhand (Singh 2010; Shylesha 2013; Hayat et al. 2015; Noyes 2019).
description: Published as part of Binoy, C., Hiremath, Sangamesh R. & Prathapan, K. D., 2024, The Fergusson squathopper, Messena sinuata Atkinson (Hemiptera: Eurybrachidae) and its egg parasitoids from Southern India, pp. 1069-1087 in Journal of Natural History 58 (29 - 32) on pages 1074-1078, DOI: 10.1080/00222933.2024.2381275, http://zenodo.org/record/13758107