Psyllaephagus garuga S. Singh

Hayat, Mohammad, 2012, On some Encyrtidae (Hymenoptera: Chalcidoidea) associated with gall-inducing psylloids, Phacopteron and Trioza species (Hemiptera: Phacopteronidae, Triozidae) in southern India, Zootaxa 3566, pp. 14-22 : 20-21

Psyllaephagus garuga S. Singh

(Figs 18, 19)

Psyllaephagus garuga S. Singh , in S. Singh & K.P. Singh, 2011: 38 –42, female, male. Holotype female, India, Dehra Dun (FRI).

Material examined. Paratypes, 1 female, parts of 2 males, on a single card, bearing printed labels: ‘ INDIA: UK [Uttarakhand]: Dehradun: Karvapani, nr. FRH [Forest Rest House]; 20.xii.2009, Sudhir’, ‘Ex. Phacopteron lentiginosum leaf gall on Garuga pinnata ’ and ‘ Psyllaephagus garuga Singh PARATYPE [in green]’. The paratypes are now partly dissected and mounted on 3 slides (slide Nos. EH. 1457–1459), and retained in ZDAMU collection. They now bear ZDAMU registration No. HYM. CH.654.

INDIA: KERALA: Malappuram, Kottakkal, 7 females (5 on 3 cards, gaster of one specimen on slide No. EH.1446; 2 females on two slides, each under 5 coverslips, slide Nos EH.1446 and EH.1455), 4 males (3 on one card; one on slide No. EH.1447), 1.x.2011, Coll. U.A. Saleem. Ex. Phacopteron lentiginosum Buckton from leaf galls of Garuga pinnata Roxb. ( ZDAMU)

Comments. This species is recorded here from Malappuram (Kerala) from the same psylloid host and plant species from which it was described from Dehra Dun (Uttarakhand). The Kerala specimens agree fairly well with the original description and figures, and the paratypes examined, except for the relatively negligible variations in the dimensions of the antennal segments and the relative lengths of the ovipositor and mid tibia. In the figure of the antenna given by Singh & Singh (2011: fig. 12) the scape measures 2.13× as long as broad, and in one paratype examined by us, it is 2.32× as long as broad. In the Kerala specimens it varies from 2.16–2.25× as long as broad.

Similarly, the pedicel, F1 and F2 are subequal in length in the paratype (35:35:35), whereas in one specimen from Kerala, the pedicel is longer than F1 (32:29.5) and shorter than F2 (32:34). The left antenna of a second specimen from Kerala has these segments subequal in length (34:34:35), but the right antenna has the pedicel longer than F1 (35:33.5) and shorter than F2 (35:36.5). The relative lengths of ovipositor and mid tibia are not given by the authors, but in the paratype examined, the ovipositor is 1.23× as long as the mid tibia. In the two Kerala specimens the ovipositor lengths are 1.3× and 1.43× length of the mid tibia.

The males of P. garuga are extremely similar to those of P. phacopteron , especially in the relative dimensions of antennal segments, in the shape of the scape and in the presence of a brown streak on the scape. However, males of P. garuga have the gaster shorter than mesosoma, TVII of the gaster broadly U-shaped as in the female (c.f. Fig. 18), and the last sternite is about 2.3× as broad as median length (Fig. 19). In P. phacopteron , the gaster is slightly longer than mesosoma, TVII is shaped as in Fig. 17, and the last sternite is about 1.4× as broad as median length (Fig. 20).

Singh & Singh (2011) incorrectly placed P. garuga in the key to species along with species having an elongatetriangular and apically pointed gaster, with TVII V-shaped, whereas P. garuga has the gaster more or less rounded apically and TVII (mounted flat on slide) open U-shaped (Fig. 17). This species runs to couplet number 10 in the key to species given by Hayat (2006: 149–151), but differs from the two species included there ( P. tekeddyensis Singh & Agarwal and P. mesohomotomae Singh & Agarwal ) by its flattened and expanded antennal scape, which is at most 2.36× as long as broad. In the other two species the scape is not less than 3.5× as long as broad.