Scientific name

Tassonia gloriae Girault

Taxonomic position

Insecta: Hymenoptera: Chalcidoidea: Encyrtidae: Encyrtinae

Diagnosis

Female: Length 0.87 mm. Head dark with metallic green reflections; antenna with radicle, basal three-fourth of scape, dorsal portion of pedicel dark brown; F6 and clava brownish; distal one-fourth of scape, ventral portion of pedicel and basal five funicle segments white; mesosoma dark; apex of scutellum and mesopleura with metallic green reflections; wings hyaline; legs with coxae, basal three-fourth of fore femora, distal half of mid femora, basal one-third of mid tibia, hind femora and hind tibia except apex brownish; remaining parts of leg whitish; metasoma dark; frontovertex slightly longer than wide, with minute scattered depressions; ocelli arranged in obtuse angled triangle; malar space shorter than transverse diameter of eye; scrobes deep and inverted U-shaped; mandibles tridentate; scape 5x longer than wide; pedicel as long as following four funicle segments combined; funicle segments 1-6 transverse, more than one and a half times wider than long; clava slightly more than 2x longer than wide, distinctly longer than funicle; posterior margin of pronotum with 7 pairs of setae; scutum 2x wider than long; fore wing slightly more than 2x longer than wide; costal cell broad; marginal vein 3x longer than wide; marginal fringe short; metasoma longer than mesosoma; ovipositor distinctly exserted (Hayat et al., 1975).

Image

 Adult - dorsal view

Distribution

India: Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Goa, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Kerala, Punjab, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Uttarkhand, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal (Hayat, 2006).

Hosts / Biology

Parasitic on aphids. Known hosts include Hysteroneura setariae on Cynodon dactylon (Hayat, 1979b); Saccharicoccus (=Longiunguis) sacchari on Saccharum officinarum (Shafee et al., 1975) and Sorghum vulgare (Hayat, 1979b); Myzus persicae (Hayat, 1979b).

References

  • Fatima, A. and Shafee, S. A. 1994. Studies on the taxonomy of the Indian encyrtids (Hymenoptera: Encyrtidae). Aligarh Muslim University Publications (Zoological Series) on Indian Insect Types, 15: 141pp.
  • Hayat, M. 1979. Taxonomic notes on Indian Encyrtidae (Hymenoptera: Chalcidoidea). I. Journal of Natural History, 13: 315-326.
  • 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.
  • Shafee, S. A., 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, 10: iii+ 1-125.

Credits

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