Coccobius Ratzeburg 1852
Creators: name: Kresslein, Robert L.
name: Polaszek, Andrew
name: Burks, Roger A.
name: Mottern, Jason L.
name: Lahey, Zachary
name: Heraty, John M.
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2025
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Hymenoptera
Aphelinidae
Coccobius

description: Coccobius Ratzeburg (Figures 8–9)
Coccobius Ratzeburg, 1852: 195. Type species: Coccobius annulicornis Ratzeburg, 1852 by subsequent designation in Gahan and Fagan 1923: 37. Official List of Generic Names in Zoological Nomenclature in ICZN 1991: 183–184.
Physcus Howard, 1895b: 43. Type species: Coccophagus varicornis Howard, 1881 by original monotypy.
Prophyscus De Santis, 1940, 24 syn. n. [in De Santis 1940b]. Type species: Prophyscus latiscapus De Santis, 1940 by original monotypy in De Santis 1940b.
Encyrtophyscus Blanchard, 1948 in De Santis 1948: 192. Type species: Physcus flaviflagellatus De Santis, 1940 by original monotypy [in De Santis 1940a]. Nomen nudum in De Santis 1948: 192; subjective synonym of Coccobius Ratzeburg, 1852 in Hayat 1983: 78–81.
Physculus Yasnosh, 1977: 1115–1116. Type species: Physculus danzigae Yasnosh, 1977 by original monotypy. Subjective synonym of Coccobius Ratzeburg, 1852 in Hayat 1983: 78–80.
Idiococcobius Hayat, 2010: 13. Type species: Idiococcobius encarsoides Hayat, 2010 by original monotypy. Subjective synonym of Coccobius Ratzeburg, 1852 in Geng et al. 2020: 33.
Diagnosis
Macropterous, rarely brachypterous. Female flagellum 5-segmented, formula 1,1,3,2 (Figure 8B); male flagellum 6-segmented with no clear differentiation between funicle and clava (Figure 8C); male scape sometimes laterally compressed and enlarged, with sensory plaque (scps) on ventral surface (Figures 8C, 9A). Mesosoma with pronotum (no1) undivided (Figure 8D,E); mesoscutellum (mss) usually shield-shaped with rounded apex and 4–6 stout setae (Figure 8D); axilla small relative to other Coccophaginae, slightly advanced, each with no more than 1 seta, separated by approximately 3× length of an axilla (ax) (Figure 8D,E); mesopleuron convex and undivided when viewed laterally, consisting of a greatly enlarged and posteriorly-expanded acropleuron (acr) (Figure 8E). Fore wing with stigmal vein elongate with 4 sensilla (svs) in characteristic pattern: three large sensilla in a row, with a fourth smaller sensillum positioned between, and anterior to the distal two larger sensilla (Figure 8F). Cerci (cer) typically advanced anteriorly, as far as posterior margin of Gt5 (Figure 8G).
Comments
Coccobius contains 113 species that target Diaspididae. Hayat (1983) presented a brief taxonomic history of Coccobius that we summarise below. Physcus Howard, 1895b was initially established for specimens similar to Coccophagus, but with a 7-segmented antenna in females, narrow axilla, and distinctly elongate stigmal vein. In the same publication, Howard examined species descriptions of Coccobius. Of the four species described by Ratzeburg, three of them were determined to belong to previously established genera of Aphelinidae. Howard indicated that the fourth species, Coccobius annulicornis Ratzeburg,1852, is likely a member of Physcus. Coccobius annulicornis was subsequently designated as the type species of Coccobius (Gahan and Fagan 1923). In a personal communication with Graham (1976), Nowicky asserted that Coccobius annulicornis belongs in Physcus. Unfortunately, the type material of Coccobius was destroyed during the Second World War. However, Hayat (1983) examined specimens from Nowicky’s collection that were identified as Coccobius annulicornis, which are clearly aligned with Physcus. This led Hayat to conclude that Coccobius is the valid genus name and Physcus is a junior subjective synonym. ICZN (1991) maintained the seniority of Coccobius over Physcus. Encyrtophyscus Blanchard, 1948 and Physculus Yasnosh, 1977 were synonymised due to the absence of diagnostic characteristics to diagnose the genera (Compere and Annecke 1961; Hayat 1983). While Idiococcobius Hayat, 2010 exhibited a suite of character states suggesting the establishment of a new genus, it was synonymised after molecular analyses placed the type species (Coccobius encarsoides (Hayat, 2010) and a closely related species (Coccobius islandicus Geng and Polaszek, 2020) within Coccobius (Geng et al. 2020).
Prophyscus De Santis syn. n. (Figure 9) was established with a single species, Prophyscus latiscapus De Santis, 1940, from a single male specimen considered near Coccobius but with an enlarged and laterally flattened scape (Figure 8A) and relatively smaller axilla (De Santis 1940b). Hayat (1985a) later rediagnosed the genus, stating that the axilla were identical to that of Coccobius, and noting that the mesoscutellum possessed lateral extensions, that he called parascutella [= axillula (axl)] (Figure 9E). He provided a description for females which included an unmodified scape and a relatively short ovipositor (Hayat 1985b, figs 83–88). Lastly, Hayat moved Physcus latiscapus Girault, 1929 to Prophyscus. The resulting homonym was resolved by moving Prophyscus latiscapus De Santis to Prophyscus desantisi Hayat, 1985.
Based on our examination of the type material, we place Prophyscus as a junior synonym of Coccobius. The expanded scape is a common feature of males of Coccobius. We disagree with Hayat’s assertion that the mesoscutellum possesses axillulae. The lateral portion of the mesoscutellum is variable in curvature among species of Coccobius. In the type species, it appears that the mesoscutellar sculpture is compressed laterally, it does not constitute a separate sclerite. In Coccobius desantisi (Hayat, 1985), it appears that what Hayat describes as axillulae are the lateral portions of the mesoscutellum that have been torn longitudinally during slide mounting of the specimen. Finally, as it is presently described, Prophyscus possesses all the key diagnostic characteristics of Coccobius.
description: Published as part of Kresslein, Robert L., Polaszek, Andrew, Burks, Roger A., Mottern, Jason L., Lahey, Zachary & Heraty, John M., 2025, Nomenclatural spring cleaning: tidying Aphelinidae of taxa that do not spark joy, and a new species of Prococcobius Hayat (Aphelinidae: Coccophaginae), pp. 609-653 in Journal of Natural History 59 (9 - 12) on pages 629-632, DOI: 10.1080/00222933.2024.2436124, http://zenodo.org/record/14970885