Eretmocerus Haldeman, 1850

Lahey, Zachary & Stansly, Philip, 2015, An updated list of parasitoid Hymenoptera reared from the Bemisia tabaci species complex (Hemiptera: Aleyrodidae), Florida Entomologist 98 (2), pp. 456-456 : 456-

Eretmocerus Haldeman (Chalcidoidea: Aphelinidae )

The genus Eretmocerus contains 78 nominal species all of which are solitary, obligate, primary ecto-endoparasitoids of the whitefly subfamily Aleyrodinae . Myriad undescribed species exist including several that have been reared from Bemisia ( Zolnerowich & Rose 2008) . Twentythree of the 78 described species have reportedly been reared from the B. tabaci species complex. In our list, we exclude 3 species that continue to be, or have been, commonly recorded as parasitizing B. tabaci , namely Eretmocerus californicus Howard , Eretmocerus corni Haldeman , and Eretmocerus haldemani Howard. We follow the convention of Zolnerowich & Rose (2008) that these taxa, or their host whitefly, are being misidentified ( Rose et al. 1996; Rose & Zolnerowich 1997a).

Recent efforts have been made to utilize Eretmocerus in biological control programs against B. tabaci MEAM 1 at the international level. Five exotic species were released in the United States for control of MEAM 1 in Florida, Texas, Arizona, and California ( Nguyen & Bennett 1995; Gould et al. 2008). Following the success of one of these species, Eretmocerus hayati Zolnerowich & Rose , importation for evaluation and/or releases have been made in Australia ( De Barro & Coombs 2009), Egypt ( Abd-Rabou 2004), the People’s Republic of China ( Yang & Wan 2011), and Tanzania ( Guastella et al. 2014). Eretmocerus hayati appears to display a precise level of host specificity limited to the genus Bemisia ( De Barro & Coombs 2009) , a trait possibly shared by other Eretmocerus from the Old World that have been reported only from this genus (e.g., Er. emiratus Zolnerowich & Rose, Er. sp. nr. emiratus [ Ethiopia and Sudan], Er. melanoscutus Zolnerowich & Rose ) ( Zolnerowich & Rose 1998). Castillo & Stansly (2011) created a nomen nudem for Er. sp. nr. emiratus ( Sudan) when they published its bionomics un- der the name Eretmocerus sudanensis Zolnerowich & Rose. This species is excluded from the list because it currently is not a valid species, despite being the dominant Eretmocerus parasitoid of B. tabaci in Florida (Z. Lahey, unpublished data).

Accurate identification of Eretmocerus depends, in large part, on the examination of properly curated material ( Rose & Zolnerowich 1997a). Keys to species have been produced for the following world regions: Australia ( De Barro et al. 2000), China ( Wu et al. 2009), Egypt ( Abd-Rabou & Evans 2002), India ( Hayat 1972, 1998), Iran ( Abd-Rabou et al. 2005), Italy ( Viggiani & Battaglia 1983), Mexico ( Myartseva 2006a), and the United States ( Rose & Zolnerowich 1997a,b; Zolnerowich & Rose 1998).