Homalotylus quaylei Timberlake, 1919

Homalotylus quaylei Timberlake, 1919 View in CoL

Fig. 8

Material examined. 43 ♀♀: IRAN, West-Azarbaijan Province , Naqadeh, Solduz Wetland, 37º02′ N, 45º35′ E, 1277 m a.s.l., 21 July 2020, 29 April 2021, M. Razmi leg., ex Calamagrostis epigejos GoogleMaps .

Diagnosis (abstracted from Mercet 1921). Female ( Fig. 8A): coloration combines brown, yellow and metallic highlights, with head light brown to testaceous and large eyes silver-gray; lower facial area covered with scattered whitish setae; frons finely reticulate ( Fig. 8B,C,E); antenna with Fu 6 partly whitish and clava entirely white ( Fig. 8F); tegula predominantly white, but distinctly darkened apically; mesoscutum and scutellum distinctly reticulate ( Fig. 8D,E); fore wing with two conspicuous fuscous regions (a large median region and a smaller basal one) and two bare hyaline areas (one in distal half of basal third of the wing, another joining outer side of the median fuscous region) ( Fig. 8H,I); legs predominantly whitish to pale yellow, mesotibial spur large, pointed, as long as metatarsus; metatarsus nearly equal in length to the following four tarsal segments combined ( Fig. 8A); gaster slightly longer than mesosoma, fuscous with weak metallic luster; ovipositor sheath slightly more than half length of gaster ( Fig. 8G).

We did not rear any males we identify as H. quaylei .

Distribution. IRAN: East Azarbaijan, Fars, Hamadan, Khuzestan, Mazandaran and Razavi Khorasan Provinces ( Ameri et al. 2007; Lotfalizadeh 2010; Fallahzadeh and Japoshvili 2010). EXTRALIMITAL: former USSR, Egypt, Europe, Gabon, India, Israel, Jordan, Mauritania, South America, Transcaucasia, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, ( UCD Community 2023).

Biological association. Various genera of predaceous coccinellids including Nephus , Pharoscymnus Bedel, 1906 and Scymnus Kugelann, 1794 in association with plants from Arecaceae , Cupressaceae , Euphorbiaceae , Rosaceae and Rutaceae ( UCD Community 2023) . Given the notable abundance of a ladybug species ( Nephus ) among the sampled insects—alongside its established host association patterns—these ladybugs could be potential hosts for this species.