Additions to the fauna of parasitic wasps (Hymenoptera: Chalcidoidea) and coccoids (Hemiptera: Coccoidea) from the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, India, with illustrations and diagnosis

Acknowledgements: We gratefully acknowledge Dr. B.S. Bhumannavar, Director, National Bureau of Agriculturally Important Insects (ICAR), Bengaluru, India for encouraging us for research work. We are thankful to the Indian Council of Agricultural Research for providing financial support for the survey and research work. The first author is extremely thankful to Dr. P. Vishwakannan, D.F.O., Middle Andamans for the permission granted to survey and also for the kindness and generosity offered during the stay at Andamans. We also thank the Director, Central Agricultural Research Institute, Head, Division of Plant Protection and Dr. Ajanta Birah, former Sr. Scientist, CARI for facilitating our stay at CARI, Port Blair. Abstract: An illustrated account with diagnostic details of the reared and collected species of insect parasitoids along with scale insects and mealybugs from the Andaman and Nicobar Islands is presented. Twenty eight species of insect pests and parasitoids under two major orders Hemiptera and Hymenoptera are documented, of which 16 species are reported for the first time from these islands specifically from South and Middle Andamans. The parasitic wasps reared and collected belong to six families—Encyrtidae, Eulophidae, Chalcididae, Eucharitidae, Aphelinidae, and Pteromalidae, including 16 species under 12 genera. The majority of the species are primary or secondary parasitoids attacking many insect groups. The scale insects and mealybugs documented belong to four families— Coccidae, Pseudococcidae, Diaspididae, and Cerococcidae, including 12 species under 11 genera. Information on the species distribution, host association, and brief taxonomical description of each species along with illustrations is provided for easy identification. Illustrations include habitus photographs of 16 species of parasitic wasps and 12 species of scales and mealybugs.

The Andaman and Nicobar Islands consist of 349 islands situated in the Bay of Bengal in the northern Indian Ocean between 60-140 0 N and 920-940 0 E. The insect fauna of the Andamans and Nicobar Islands is relatively less known in comparison with the explored and documented diverse fauna from the Indian mainland.
A compilation of abstracts covering 320 research publications dealing with agricultural research during the period 1978-1990 from the bay islands and a list of natural enemies of insect pests was documented (Bhumannavar et al. 1991a,b).A total of 41 species of parasitic wasps from the superfamily Chacidoidea of the order Hymenoptera were listed from the Andaman and Nicobar Islands (Noyes 2012).Insect herbivores and the natural enemies associated with mangroves of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands were also documented (Veenakumari et al. 1997).
Parasitic wasps play a key role in targeting insect pests of economic importance.To document parasitoids associated with scales and mealybugs, recent surveys were undertaken in two batches from the National Bureau of Agriculturally Important Insects, Bengaluru, India, to the Andaman and Nicobar Islands during the months of February and March, 2012.The islands surveyed were South and Middle Andamans covering Port Blair, Sipighat, Blooms Dale, Wandoor, Havelock Island, Neil Island, Lakshmanpur, Rangat, Jirkatang, Baratong, Mount Harriet, Kadamtala and Yerata.We documented 28 species of insects and parasitoids under the two major orders Hemiptera and Hymenoptera.Out of these, 16 species of parasitic wasps belong to the order Hymenoptera under the super family Chalcidoidea, of which many are associated with mealybugs and scale insects and amongst them nine species of wasps are reported for the first time from these islands and two species are documented with new host records.Of the total 12 species of scales and mealybugs from the order Hemiptera, seven species are reported for the first time.The insects collected were reared to adult stage on the associated hosts.The parasitoids that emerged during the rearings were collected and documented.

Material and Methods
Sampling: This work is based on studies of nearly 160 specimens collected from South and Middle Andamans.The wasp specimens were collected using sweep nets, yellow pan traps, malaise traps, and the collection of parasitized hosts was followed by subsequent laboratory rearing.Malaise traps and yellow pan traps were set in 20 different locations.Parasitized hosts were collected and kept in the laboratory for parasitoid emergence.Wasp specimens were processed using Hexamethyldisilazane (Brown 1993) and card mounted and identified consulting (Hayat 1986(Hayat , 1998(Hayat , 2006;;Mani 1989;Narendran 1989;Noyes & Hayat 1994;Narendran & Mini 2000;Xiao & Huang 2001;Verma et al. 2002).The scale insects and mealybugs were collected from the infested host plants and preserved in 70% alcohol.Specimens were later mounted on slides following standard devised techniques (Sandlant 1978).Scale insects were identified following identification manual of family Coccidae (Hodgson 1994) and mealybugs were identified based on the keys for South Asia (Williams 2004).The wasp and coccid images were taken using Leica M 205 A stereozoom microscope with Leica DC 420 inbuilt camera using automontage software (version 3.8) Brief diagnosis: Female.Head yellowish, mandible orange with base yellowish; pedicel and flagellum brown; scape yellowish with dorsal margin brown; mesosoma orange; mid coxae brown, rest legs yellow; metasoma orange; F1 shorter than clava, 0.7x clava; F6 almost 2x as long as wide; fore wing with linea clava interrupted not more than two lines of setae; marginal vein 0.8x post marginal vein and 1.16x stigma vein.
Hosts: Coccidohystrix insolita (Sankaran) and Phenacoccus sp.(Noyes & Hayat 1994).Brief diagnosis: Female blackish-brown; forewings mostly dark brown with hyaline areas, normally hyaline at base, two hyaline spots below submarginal vein, one on anterior wing margin at apex of venation and one opposite on posterior wing margin, one distad of this in disc of wing and apex narrowly hyaline.
Brief diagnosis: Head and mesosoma dark orange; mid and hind tibia without brownish bands; funicle segments quadrate to slightly longer than broad, F1-F3 brownish, broader than long; F4-F6 whitish, clava dark brown; metasoma dark brown and metallic.Scutellum in apical third with scale like dark brown setae, the apical pair much longer.
Distribution: India: Andaman Islands (new record), Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu (Hayat 2006) Brief diagnosis: Body black with greenish-blue shine, intense on fronto vertex, pronotum, mesosoma, propodeum, dorsal sides of hind coxae.Scape pale brown with dark brown infuscations dorsally, flagellum dark brown.Scutellum with a yellowish longitudinal narrow band on each side.Coxae almost black.Wings hyaline.Hind tibia with diamond shaped patterns.Metasoma reddish-brown basally, reddish-brown colouration more conspicuous laterally; apex black.Fore femora yellowish except brown infuscation at base on dorsal margin.Mid and hind femora dark brown, yellowish at apex and base.
Hosts: Unknown.Brief diagnosis: Female black; legs rufous.Antennae largely black (except F1 and F2 dark brown).Hind femur reddish; metasoma longer than mesosoma; post marginal vein subequal to marginal.Propodeum with distinct lateral teeth.First tergite of metasoma smooth and shiny.Hind femur with inner basal tooth; scutellum with two teeth at apical margin and median fovea.
Brief diagnosis: Scape and first three funicular segments yellowish brown; tegulae yellowish-brown; Hind coxa black; hind femur balck with apex and base reddish-brown hind tibia reddish-brown with middle ventral margin black also extending to dorsal region.Hind trasi reddish-brown.First metasomal tergite with small basal carinae, inclined laterally on both sides; present in basal 1/3 rd of first tergite.
Hosts: Unknown.Brief diagnosis: Body dark metallic green; scape and pedicel yellowish-brown; coxae concolorous with mesosoma.Scutellum with a median furrow.Legs light brown.Scape 2.7x as long as wide; head 1.4 x as wide as long.First flagellar segment with a branch; branches of flagellar segments only slightly flattened and cylindrical.Petiole longer than coxa in male.Scutellar processes 1.17x longer in male than in female; almost of same width throughout except at extreme apex.Tines of the scutellar fork slightly convergent; bending in curve towards each other; carinae clearer in male than in female.
Brief diagnosis: Body 0.8-0.9mm, pale coloured, with a beautiful pattern of dark bands or spots on head, mesosoma, metasoma and legs.Antenna six-segmented in female and five-segmented in male.Fore wing conspicuously maculated with a dark and light pattern of setae; marginal vein about 1.25x as long as submarginal vein, postmarginal absent, stigmal vein punctiform.
Distribution: Throughout India including Andaman and Nicobar Islands and the Oriental region (Noyes 2012).
Hosts: Commonly recorded as a hyperparasitoid associated with mealybugs and scales.Complete host details mentioned in Hayat 1998.
Brief diagnosis: Body dark brown to black, mesosoma including scutellum, dark with a distinct metallic violet tinge, metasoma dark; antenna brown to dark brown.Flagellum somewhat flattened.Fore wing hyaline, strongly infuscate behind marginal and stigmal veins, infuscation distally convex; basal cell with few setae; hind wing hyaline.
Distribution: India: Well distributed throughout India.
Remarks: In our study the parasitoid Coccophagus ceroplastae (Howard)  Brief diagnosis: Body broadly oval to round; flat to slightly convex in lateral view; body yellowish-green to yellowish-brown, usually with small brown flecks scattered on dorsum.Mounted specimen with enlarged dorsal setae having acute or slightly rounded apices; ventral tubular ducts between middle legs, with a few (2-3) near base of hind legs; dorsal submarginal tubular ducts present around body margin.
Distribution: Andaman (new record), Bihar, Goa, Gujarat, Jammu and Kashmir, Kerala, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Tripura, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal (Varshney, 1992).Brief diagnosis: Circulus hour-glass shaped; small discoidal pores surrounding hind coxae; cerarii restricted to anal lobes; multilocular pores present on dorsum and venter.Antennae usually seven segmented.Anterior and posterior pairs of ostiole present.Anal ring located at the apex of abdomen bearing six setae.Multilocular disc pores present mainly on the anterior and posterior margins of all the abdominal segments.Oral collar tubular ducts minute and are present in transverse rows on the abdomen.
Abgrallaspis cyanophylli; Balachowsky, 1948: 308.Brief diagnosis: Body of slide-mounted adult female membranous and pyriform, with a well-developed eye spine present on each side, pygidium with large median lobes, quite small but well-developed, rounded second lobes and small (often pointed) third lobes; anal opening-large, situated near the posterior margin of the pygidium; paraphyses shorter than the lobes.
Remarks: The species that resembles to the species collected in present study is Paralecanium mancum Green.Diagnostic characters of this species are as follows.Colour dark castaneous, with a narrow hyaline border and with hyaline canals extending inwards from each stigmatic cleft.Dorsum with more or less well defined, thin, colourless, polygonal, waxy plates.Eye spots conscious; at some distance from the margin.Antennae relatively short, articulation obscure.Limbs entirely wanting.Anal operculum sub-quadrate, the base of each valve slightly shorter than its outer edge.Stigmatic spines three, blunt, the median spine usually shorter than the other two.Marginal flabellae subtriangular in form, the outer edge flatly curved, the converging slides approximately straight.
. All the specimens are deposited in the National Bureau of Agriculturally Important Insects, Bengaluru, India.

Walker (Image 11)
Body black, antennae dark brown.Legs including coxae black except for faint brown apices of tibiae.Head and mesosoma distinctly punctuate and setose.Scutellum entire.Propodeum with distinctly carinae, faint transverse carinae present inside the areola of propodeum.Metasoma sessile, smooth and shiny.Basal 1/3 rd of first tergum rugose with small carinae; lateral sides of second tergum with fine punctures.