Description of Metaphycus stephaniae sp. nov. (Hymenoptera, Chlacidoidea, Encyrtidae), a parasitoid of Stotzia ephedrae (Newstead) (Hemiptera, Coccoidea, Coccidae)

A new species belonging to the genus Metaphycus is described. M. stephaniae sp. nov. has been reared from Stotzia ephedrae (Newstead) collected in Israel on Ephedra alte C. A. Mey and on Asparagus aphyllus L. The new species is compared with its closest relatives, M. hodzhevanishvilii and M. zebratus.


Introduction
More than 400 species are currently included in the genus Metaphycus (Noyes 2005). Apart from several Neotropical records from whiteflies, the species belonging to this genus are typically parasitic in soft and armoured scales. A major contribution to the knowledge of this genus has been recently provided with a review of European species (Guerrieri and Noyes 2000) and by a survey of species from Costa Rica (Noyes 2004). The aim of this paper is to describe Metaphycus stephaniae sp. nov., a parasitoid of Stotzia ephedrae (Newstead), and to separate it from the very close species M. hodzhevanishvilii and M. zebratus. The former is reported as a parasitoid of Stotzia maxima (Borchsenius) whilst M. zebratus is reported as a common parasitoid of Eriopeltis festucae (Fonscolombe). Stotzia spp. are potential pests of Asparagus and Tamarix spp.
Head dark orange; antenna (Figure 1) brown except part of scape, apex of pedicel, apex of F5 and F6 yellow, clava black except paler apex; mesoscutum and scutellum yellow with brown suffusion; base of tegula yellow, the apex brown; metanotum and propodeum brown; forewing slightly and uniformly infuscate, venation brown; legs yellow, all femora brown, all tibiae with base and apex brown, and each with two dark rings, tarsi brown; gaster brown.
Thorax with notaular lines complete, almost reaching the posterior part of mesoscutum; forewing about 2.26 as long as broad, venation as in Figures 2, 3.
Male. Length 1.2 mm. Similar to female except antenna ( Figure 6) and genitalia ( Figure 8). Torulus (Figure 7) with a single row of tiny pores along the inner margin.

Variation
Very little in the material at hand. One female has the mesothorax pale yellow, not suffused with brown. Length ranges from 1.0 to 1.6 mm.

Hosts
Metaphycus stephaniae is recorded below from Stotzia ephedrae on Ephedra alte and on Asparagus aphyllis.

Distribution
Israel.

Comments
Metaphycus stephaniae is extremely similar to M. hodzhevanishvilii (Yasnosh 1972) and to M. zebratus (see Guerrieri and Noyes 2000), the females of all three species having the scape about 36 as long as broad, almost complete notaular lines and legs with dark rings. In particular, M. stephaniae shares a similar host with M. hodzhevanishvilii (recorded from Stotzia maxima) but females of the two can be readily separated by the number of linear sensilla on the funicle: in M. stephaniae linear sensilla are present only on F5 and F6 while in M. hodzhevanishvilii they are present on F3-F6. Females of M. stephaniae can be separated with difficulty from those of M. zebratus. Indeed, just a darker F5 in the former can help. However, males of the two species can be separated easily because there is a row of tiny pores associated to the torulus of M. stephaniae whilst that of M. zebratus has none (Guerrieri and Noyes 2000). The species is named after my wife.