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Partnerships
for Enhancing Expertise in Taxonomy
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Partnerships
for Enhancing Expertise in Taxonomy
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INTRODUCTION
Aphytis are external parasites of Diaspidid scales (Armored scale insects). Aphytis are very effective biological control agents and many studies have been done on their biology and ecology. Adults of Aphytis are small (<1mm) and usually yellowish or grayish, sometimes mottled. They are recognized by the combination of characters: funicles usually three-segmented (Figure 1), clava one-segmented (Figure 1), divided pronotum (Figure 2), relatively long propodeum bearing crenulae (Figure3), and forewing with well-defined linea calva (Figure 4). The systematic study of Aphytis is problematic. The problems were due to the indistinct morphology of the Aphytis species, their minute size, and the cryptic differences among them. Aphelinid fauna of 1,120 species in 40 genera and Aphytis of 116 species (Noyes, 1998) may be underestimated, when one compared that to the 1,700 known species and 7,083 estimated species of Diaspididae. New discovery of species in Aphytis is a important apsect of this study.
