Annotated Checklist of California Encyrtidae (Hymenoptera)
Author
Zuparko, Robert L.
text
Zootaxa
2015
4017
1
1
126
journal article
10.11646/zootaxa.4017.1.1
086efdb4-44cf-4c0b-a796-1eb81f2cdd24
1175-5326
245475
BBFC3D93-6A7E-4862-84EF-021ADE2F4B3A
Metablastothrix
Sugonjaev 1964
Hosts.
Hemiptera
:
Coccidae
claripennis
(Compere 1928: 216) (
Microterys
)
Type
.
USNM
Distribution.
N (Alameda, Contra Costa, El Dorado, Kern, Lassen, Los Angeles, Modoc, Monterey, Napa, Riverside, San Bernardino, San Luis Obispo, Santa Clara, Shasta, Stanislaus, Yolo)
Host/habitat.
Eulecanium tiliae
,
Parthenolecanium corni
,
P
.
fletcheri,
P
.
quercifex
Remarks.
This species has a Nearctic distribution, and is only reliably recorded from
Coccidae (
Noyes 2001
)
. There is a single record of it from
Brazil
(de
Santis 1980
: 195), which appears to be based on an earlier Brazilian catalog by Araújo e
Silva
et al.
(1968)
. However, in the earlier work
M
.
claripennis
was not recorded from Brazilunder
Encyrtidae
(pp. 599–600) they
list
only 5 described species, three of which are now placed under
Tanaostigmatidae
. Instead this species is simply cited (page 100, as
Microterys claripennis
) as a parasitoid of
Aetalion reticulatum
(Linnaeus)
(
Hemiptera
:
Aetalionidae
). In my opinion, this is a dubious host record (no other encyrtids have been recorded parasitizing this family, and only
Prionomastix
has been recorded as attacking the closely related
Membracidae
).
Sugonjaev & Trjapitzin (1988)
opine that
M
.
claripennis
is actually a secondary parasitoid via
Encyrtus fuscus
, based on two lines of thought. The first is the incidence of hyperparasitism in closely related species, including the congeneric
M
.
truncatipennis
(Ferrière)
; however, the latter species has since been placed in the genus
Blastothrix
. The second is Compere’s unpublished notes from
1911–1912
, although they note that Compere (1928) later stated nothing was known of the status (i.e.: a primary or secondary parasitoid) of
M
.
claripennis
. Thus its status remains unknown. Undetermined specimens of this genus have also been collected from Lassen, Marin and Yolo counties (CSCA, EMEC).