Coccophagus ceroplastae (Howard)

Hymenoptera: Chalcidoidea: Aphelinidae

Female: Length: 0.75-1.35 mm. Body dark brown to nearly black, thorax including scutellum, dark with a distinct metallic violet tinge, gaster dark; vertex with an orange to yellow spot at each posterolateral corner between posterior ocellus, occipital margin and eye margin; antenna brown to dark brown, scape variable, nearly completely white to as dark as pedicel. Antennal formula 1133, flagellum somewhat flattened. Fore wing hyaline, strongly infuscate behind marginal and stigmal veins, infuscation distally convex; basal cell with few setae; hind wing hyaline. Legs dark brown including coxae, with apices narrowly of fore and mid femora, largely fore tibiae, distal one-third to two-thirds of mid tibiae and tarsal segments 1-4 of all legs whitish yellow.

Male: Similar to female except posterior ocellus about one diameter to eye margin. Antenna with flagellar segments quadrate to very slightly longer than broad, but occasionally all distinctly longer than broad and without a distinct club (slightly modified from Hayat, 1998).

  Antenna
  Fore wing venation

 Adult female, dorsal view

Cosmopolitan in the Old World tropics. Widely distributed in India, including Andaman & Nicobar islands (Hayat, 1998).

A parasitoid of scales (Hemiptera: Coccoidea), mainly soft scales such as Coccus viridis, C. hesperidum, Saissetia coffeae, Ceroplastes spp., Pulvinaria psidii, P. polygonata (Coccidae), etc. Other scales and mealybugs belonging to Diaspididae and Pseudococcidae have also been recorded as hosts (Hayat, 1998).