Scientific name

Encarsia dispersa Polaszek

Taxonomic position

Insecta: Hymenoptera: Chalcidoidea: Aphelinidae

Diagnosis

Body orange yellow except scuto-scutellar transverse suture distinctly pigmented dark brown-black; antennal scape testaceous, pedicel yellow, flagellum pale yellowish brown, F6 usually darker than rest of flagellar segments. Wings hyaline. Legs, including coxae, yellowish except tarsal apices pale brown. Antennal formula 1133, F1 shorter than pedicel and F2, F2 subequal to F3.

Images

image  Adult, lateral view
Encarsia dispersa 1   Encarsia dispersa 2 Adult, dorsal view

Distribution

India (Karnataka)

Biology

Encarsia guadeloupae and E. dispersa were recorded as potential parasitoids of many whiteflies including RSW and spiraling whitefly (Ramani et al., 2002; Evans, 2008: Taravati et al., 2013; Francis et al., 2016; Selvaraj et al., 2017).

Reference

  • Aravati S, Mannion C, Glenn H, Osborne L. 2013. Natural enemies of rugose spiraling whitefly, Aleurodicus rugioperculatus Martin (Insecta: Hemiptera: Aleyrodidae) in the south Florida landscape. ENY-870. University of Florida, IFAS Extension, http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/pdffiles/IN/IN100400.pdf. (Accessed 4 March, 2017).
  • Evans GA. 2008. The whiteflies (Hemiptera: Aleyrodidae) of the world and their host plants and natural enemies, Available from: http://keys.lucidcentral.org/keys/v3/ whitefly/ PDF_PwP% 20ETC/ world-whitefly- catalog- Evans. pdf (Accessed 6 March, 2017).
  • Francis AW, Stocks IC, Smith TR, Boughton AJ, Mannion CM, Osborne LS. 2016. Host plants and natural enemies of rugose spiraling whitefly (Hemiptera: Aleyrodidae) in Florida. Florida Entomol. 99(1):150-153. https://doi.org/10.1653/024.099.0134
  • Ramani S, Poorani J, Bhumannavar BS. 2002. Spiraling whitefly, Aleurodicus dispersus Russell (Homoptera: Aleurodidae) in India. Biocontrol News and Information 23(2): 55-62.
  • Selvaraj, K., A. Gupta, T. Venkatesan, S. K. Jalali, R. Sundararaj, C. R. Ballal. 2017. First record of invasive rugose spiraling whitefly Aleurodicus rugioperculatus Martin (Hemiptera: Aleyrodidae) along with parasitoids in Karnataka. Journal of Biological Control, 31(2): 74-78, 2017, DOI: 10.18311/jbc/2017/16015

Credits

Images and factsheet prepared by Dr. Ankita Gupta, Scientist, NBAIR. Web content added by Lavanya, 26-02-2018.