Scientific name

Diversinervus elegans Silvestri

Taxonomic position

Hymenoptera: Chalcidoidea: Encyrtidae: Encyrtinae

Diagnosis

Female: Length 1.3mm. Head yellow, facial margin reddish brown; frontovertex slightly shining; scape yellow, ventral margin chocolate brown, apex ventrally with a whitish area; pedicel dorsal half brownish, ventral half white; first four funicle segments brownish, fifth basally brown, apically yellow, sixth segment and first club segment yellow; distal two club segments dusky brown suffused with yellow; mesoscutum with two oval brownish patches at anterior third, posterior fourth with a metallic bluish-green transverse band bearing silvery hairs, rest of mesoscutum, scutellum and axillae orange yellow; sutures reddish brown; propodeum faintly shining on sides; mesopleura rusty, reddish brown behind; legs whitish to pallid with brownish suffusions; dorsum of metasoma shining greenish blue; appearing coppery in some lights, sides and venter paler; dorsum of head 1.5x wider than long; frontovertex flat, 4x as long as wide; ocelli triangle with apical angle acute; scape about 2.25x as long as broad; funicle segments 1-4 subquadrate; 5 and 6 large; clava at most as long as preceding four segments combined; mesoscutal brush composed of 10 setae arranged in a single row almost in the middle of the plate; scutellum slightly longer than wide with rounded apex; scutellar brush composed of 18 setae arranged in two rows, the apical pair of setae longer; submarginal vein of fore wing with 7 long setae; marginal and postmarginal veins with 5 setae; marginal and stigmal vein subequal in length, each longer than postmarginal; metasoma slightly longer than mesosoma; cercal plates situated at about middle; ovipositor concealed (Hayat et al., 1975).

Image

 Adult

Distribution

India: Karnataka, Meghalaya, Pudhucherry (Hayat, 2006).

Hosts / Biology

Chloropulvinaria psidii (Hayat et al., 1975); Drepanococcus chiton on Zizyphus mauritiana and Psidium guajava (Mani, 1995); Saissetia coffeae on Citrus (Sankaran & Pattar, 1977).

References

  • Hayat, M. 2006. Indian Encyrtidae (Hymenoptera: Chalcidoidea). viii +496pp. Published by M. Hayat, Department of Zoology, Aligarh Muslim University, India.
  • Hayat, M., Alam, S. M. and Agarwal, M. M. 1975. Taxonomic survey of encyrtid parasites (Hymenoptera: Encyrtidae) in India. Aligarh Muslim University Publications (Zoological Series) on Indian Insect Types, 9 (i-iii): 1-112.
  • Mani, M. 1995. Studies on the natural enemies of the wax scale, Drepanococcus chiton (Green) on Ber and Guva (sic). Entomon, 20: 55-58.
  • Sankaran, T. and Pattar, G. L. 1977. Some parasites of Parasaissetia nigra and Saissetia spp. (Homoptera: Coccidae) from South India. Commonwealth Institute of Biological Control, Technical Bulletin, No.18: 145-150.

Credits

Factsheet prepared by Dr. A. Rameshkumar, Research associate, NPIB, NBAII.