''Baeoentedon bouceki'' is a species of wasp, one of the first three members of the genus ''

Baeoentedon ''Baeoentedon'' is a genus of hymenopteran insects of the family Eulophidae, they are parasitoids of whitefly from the family Aleyrodidae which are found on trees of the genus ''Ficus''. They have been recorded from Australia, China, India, Ind ...

'' to be discovered in China. It is less than a millimetre in length, with a head slightly wider than the middle portion of the body. Only one specimen has been studied, collected from

Hainan Hainan (, ; ) is the smallest and southernmost province of the People's Republic of China (PRC), consisting of various islands in the South China Sea. , the largest and most populous island in China,The island of Taiwan, which is slightly l ...

in 1983. As that specimen is female, the appearance of males is unknown.

Taxonomy

The

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus com ...

that ''Baeoentedon bouceki'' belongs to, ''

'', was erected in 1915 by

Alexandre Arsène Girault Alexandre Arsène Girault ( ; 9 January 1884 – 2 May 1941) was an American entomologist specializing in the study of chalcid wasps. An eccentric and controversial figure, Girault was also a prolific and dedicated entomologist. He published mor ...

. It contained a single species, '' B. peculicornis'', known only from a single female from Queensland, Australia. No further biological information or additional species were identified until 2014, when Zhu-Hong Wang, Jian Huang, and Andrew Polaszek published

descriptions Description is the pattern of narrative development that aims to make vivid a place, object, character, or group. Description is one of four rhetorical modes (also known as ''modes of discourse''), along with exposition, argumentation, and narra ...

of three new Chinese species, including ''B. bouceki''. The

holotype A holotype is a single physical example (or illustration) of an organism, known to have been used when the species (or lower-ranked taxon) was formally described. It is either the single such physical example (or illustration) or one of several ...

of ''B. bouceki'' was originally collected from the Jian Feng Mountains in

Hainan, China Hainan (, ; ) is the smallest and southernmost province of the People's Republic of China (PRC), consisting of various islands in the South China Sea. , the largest and most populous island in China,The island of Taiwan, which is slightly l ...

in 1983, by Zdeněk Bouček, in honour of whom the species is named.

Description

Only one specimen of ''Baeoentedon bouceki'' has been studied, a female (the appearance of the male is still unknown). The individual is long, with a metallic blue-black head and

mesosoma The mesosoma is the middle part of the body, or tagma, of arthropods whose body is composed of three parts, the other two being the prosoma and the metasoma. It bears the legs, and, in the case of winged insects, the wings. In hymenopterans of t ...

(middle part of the body). The head is slightly wider than the mesosoma. The belly is mostly dark to black, except for the first and second

terga A ''tergum'' (Latin for "the back"; plural ''terga'', associated adjective tergal) is the dorsal ('upper') portion of an arthropod segment other than the head. The anterior edge is called the 'base' and posterior edge is called the 'apex' or 'ma ...

(the upper portions of their segments), which are yellow-brown to dark brown. The base of the antenatal scape (the first part of the

antenna Antenna ( antennas or antennae) may refer to: Science and engineering * Antenna (radio), also known as an aerial, a transducer designed to transmit or receive electromagnetic (e.g., TV or radio) waves * Antennae Galaxies, the name of two collid ...

), is pale brown, while the upper part is pale white. The pedicel (the second part of the antenna) is mostly white, with a dark brown spot towards the bottom. There are two annuli (ring-shaped components above the pedicel), which are dark brown and wider than they are long. The clava and funicle (the topmost parts of the antenna) are brown to dark brown. The forewings are broad, but longer than they are wide. The

ovipositor The ovipositor is a tube-like organ used by some animals, especially insects, for the laying of eggs. In insects, an ovipositor consists of a maximum of three pairs of appendages. The details and morphology of the ovipositor vary, but typical ...

(a tool used by certain species to deposit eggs) does not extend beyond the end of the mesosoma.

Ecology

The

subfamily In biological classification, a subfamily (Latin: ', plural ') is an auxiliary (intermediate) taxonomic rank, next below family but more inclusive than genus. Standard nomenclature rules end subfamily botanical names with "-oideae", and zoologi ...

that ''Baeoentedon bouceki'' belongs to,

Entedoninae Entedoninae is a subfamily of wasps in the family Eulophidae which includes over 90 genera. Genera The genera included in Entendoninae are: *'' Acanthala'' Hansson, 2000 *'' Achrysocharoides'' Girault, 1913 *'' Afrotroppopsis'' Gumovsky, 200 ...

, contains multiple species known for parasitising members of the family

Aleyrodidae Whiteflies are Hemipterans that typically feed on the undersides of plant leaves. They comprise the family Aleyrodidae, the only family in the superfamily Aleyrodoidea. More than 1550 species have been described. Description and taxonomy The A ...

, referred to as whiteflies. The host of ''B. bouceki'' itself is presently unknown.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q115409794 Eulophidae Hymenoptera of Asia Insects of China Endemic fauna of Hainan Insects described in 2014