Acletoxenus indicus Malloch (=Acletoxenus indica)

Diptera: Drosophilidae

Adult about 2 mm long. Head bright luteous yellow to creamy white, ocellar triangle darker, blackish; eyes bright red; antenna three-segmented, third segment orange, with brownish arista. Mesoscutum with three fuscous to blackish longitudinal bands / stripes, median one broadest, appearing to be somewhat divided posteriorly, two sublateral stripes on either side, often anteriorly broadly fused. Scutellum bright creamy white, posteriorly somewhat pale greenish to yellowish. Mesopleura and sternopleura with a large dull black marking. Abdomen pale green to yellowish, with black fasciae, often reduced. Abdominal tergites 1-3 with a fuscous to black basal fascia, occasionally reduced to only lateral spots; fourth visible abdominal tergite with a triangular, median black marking; fifth tergite with a similar, smaller spot. Legs whitish. Wings hyaline. Halteres yellowish white.

Pupa pale greenish, commonly collected in mealybug / whitefly colonies.

     
         Adult fly, dorsal and lateral view

India, widely distributed in the Oriental region.

Predatory on Hemiptera, particularly commonly associated with mealybugs and whiteflies. Recorded as feeding on citrus blackfly, Aleurocanthus spiniferus (Quaintance), Aleurocanthus woglumi Ashby, spiralling whitefly, Aleurodicus dispersus Russell; Aleurocanthus citriperdus Quaintance & Baker and Siphoninus phillyreae (Haliday).