The Prospaltella Of Florida

Prospaltella Ashmead is a worldwide genus of about 50 species of parasitic wasps which attack coccids and whiteflies (Nikolskaya, 1952). With the increased use of Prospaltella as biological control agents in Florida (e.g., in campaigns against the citrus blackfly and citrus whitefly), it has become necessary to establish methods of identifying previously recorded as well as introduced species. The most recent key to Nearctic species is by Howard ( 1908), but his paper includes only 3 of the 7 species now known to occur in Florida. It is fairly certain that some of the Prospaltella now thought to be native to Florida are adventive, having been introduced accidentally with their hosts. This is especially true for cosmopolitan species associated with citrus. Since little active collecting has been done for parasitic wasps in Florida it is safe to say that the number of species of Prospaltella will increase as more effort is made to survey the naturally occurring parasitoids before new release programs are undertaken. The purpose of this circular is to provide a means of identifying Florida Prospaltella as they are known at this time. Unfortunately this genus is composed of very small wasps ( 1 mm or less) which are neither well studied nor easily identified. When this genus is better known biologically and taxonomically, it may well be found to have complexes of morphologically indistinguishable “species” much as in the related genus Aphytis (for a brief resume of such work see Rosen and DeBach, 1976). Until such time we will be able to recognize morphologically distinct taxa (morphospecies) only with difficulty and some uncertainty.