Cybocephalus nipponicus Endrödy-Younga, 1971

Serri, Sayeh, Rafiei, Bahareh, Gholamzadeh Chitgar, Molood, Manzari, Shahab, Farrokhi, Shahram & Audisio, Paolo, 2024, New record of a biological control agent, Cybocephalus nipponicus Endrödy-Younga, 1971 (Coleoptera: Cybocephalidae) from Iran, Journal of Insect Biodiversity and Systematics 10 (3), pp. 581-587 : 582-583

Cybocephalus nipponicus Endrödy-Younga, 1971 ( Figs 1–2)

Material examined. 11♂♂ 10♀♀ (HMIM), IRAN, Gilan province, Rasht, Pasikhan , 37°16'52"N, 49°27'10"E, 23.VII.2023, Mulberry Garden, leg. B. Rafiei ; 1♂ 1♀ (HMIM), IRAN, Mazandaran province, Salman- Shahr , 36°42'9"N, 51°11'42"E, VII.2023 ; 1♂ 2♀♀ Nashtarud , 36°45'5"N, 51°1'30"E, XII.2023, leg.: Chitgar.

Diagnostic characters. Length 1.0– 12 mm. Male with yellow to orange head, pronotum, prosternum, mesosternum and legs. Females black with brownish legs. Dorsum glabrous with fine punctation, which is more visible on elytra. Antennal club truncate. Aedeagus with parallel sides basally, triangular apically ( Fig. 2). According to Kirejtshuk and Fallahzadeh (2010), it differs from Cybocephalus aonidiellae Kirejtshuk & Fallahzadeh by lighter head and pronotum of males, coarser punctation and apically triangular tegmen.

Biological note. The beetles were reared with a colony of white peach scale, Pseudaulacaspis pentagona , kept in the laboratory of Gilan Agricultural and Natural Resources Research and Education Center, and the Biological Control Research Department, Iranian Research Institute of Plant Protection , Tehran. In the laboratory, C. nipponicus actively fed on the colonies of white peach scale, that were reared on Kiwifruit (Actinida delicious C.F. Liang & A. R. Ferguson) and pumpkin species ( Cucurbita moschata Duchesne and Cucurbita maxima Duchesne ) under controlled conditions of 25 ± 1°C and 70 ± 5% relative humidity in Gilan. In Tehran, it was active for about two weeks feeding on white peach scale at room temperature.