3212
Author
Hernández-Suárez, Estrella
Author
Martin, Jon H.
Author
Gill, Raymond J.
Author
Bedford, Ian D.
Author
Malumphy, Christopher P.
Author
Betancort, J. Alfredo Reyes
Author
Carnero, Aurelio
text
Zootaxa
2012
2012-02-29
3212
1
76
journal article
11755334
Bemisia medinae
Gómez-Menor
(
Figures 18
,
61
,
65
,
72, 73
)
Bemisia
(
Roucasia
)
medinae
Gómez-Menor, 1954: 369
.
Bemisia medinae
(Gómez-Menor)
Danzig, 1964: 326
.
Distribution in the
Canary Islands
:
TENERIFE: Barranco del Agua, Barranco Badajoz, Barranco de los Cochinos, Barranco de las Moradas, Erjos, Las Mercedes. LA GOMERA: El Cedro.
Elsewhere:
known only from the Canarian archipelago.
Host plants in the
Canary Islands
:
Ageratina adenophora
,
Hypericum canariense
and
Hypericum grandifolium
.
Comments:
This species clearly belongs to the
Bemisia afer
complex
. The puparia possess a distinctive pigmentation pattern (
Fig. 61
) that Gómez-Menor regarded as an important character. Also, in contrast to other
Bemisia afer
- group morphs that are usually scattered widely,
B. medinae
usually occurs in crowded colonies under leaves of the host plant. If it had not already been formally described by Gómez-Menor we would have treated this as another morphological form of
B. afer
here.
Male
and female adult body colour and pigmentation are shown in
Figs 72 and 73
, respectively.
Gómez-Menor described
Bemisia medinae
from the laurel forest in Tenerife, from an “unknown plant amongst trees of
Laurus canariensis
[now
L. novocanariensis
]”.
Type
material deposited at MNCN has been studied, as well as duplicate dry plant material.
Hypericum grandifolium
Choisy
(Fam.
Hypericaceae
) is endemic in the
Canary Islands
and
Madeira
. It is a plant with a very wide altitudinal range (up to 2000 metres) and usually is present in open habitats and the edges of humid juniper-olive woodlands, the evergreen laurisilva and the pine forest. Examination of the original dry plant material suggests that
H. grandifolium
is the “unknown plant” stated by Gómez-Menor to be the host of
B. medinae
.