Cephalonomia peregrina Westwood 1881

Cephalonomia peregrina Westwood, 1881

Cephalonomia ?peregrina Westwood. 1881:127–128, pl. 6: figs. 5, 6 [, : Ceylon; syntypes in OXFORD].—Dalla Torre, 1898:557 [listed].—Kieffer, 1908:40 [listed]; 1914:248 [translated original description into German].—Swezey, 1933:226 [introduced into Hawaii and apparently established].—Fouts, 1936:7 [listed].—Kurian, 1954a:263 [listed]; 1955:76 [in key; misspelled perigrina].—Gordh, 1990:79 [listed].

Westwood's brief description was made from a pair mounted on slides in balsam. They were collected in Ceylon by D. Staniforth Green. C. O'Toole was unable to find the syntypes in the slide collection at the Oxford University Museum, and the species cannot be recognized from the original description. If the specimens were collected in Colombo, where Green resided, it is possible that they belong to one of the fully winged species of Cephalonomia having a worldwide distribution that are parasites of coleopterous larvae in stored grains or other food products. The following is based on Westwood's Latin description and his figures.

FEMALE.—Length 1.5 mm, forewing 1.2 mm; body not depressed as in C. waterstoni Gahan. Body pale pitch black, antennae and legs yellowish.

Head length 1.88 × depth of head in lateral view; eye small, rounded, on side of head; EV 2.47 × HE; clypeus not mentioned; ocelli distinct; antennae short, subclavate toward apex.

Fully winged, forewing not extending beyond abdomen, with oblong, oval stigma, margin before stigma thickened (i.e., prostigma?), median vein absent.

MALE.—Length 2.25 mm, forewing 1.69 mm (these lengths assume that figs. 5, 6 in Westwood (1881) are drawn to same scale). Entirely pale fulvous (teneral?).

Head subquadrate, sides behind eyes converging slightly toward vertex; WH 0.82 × LH; WF 2.25 × HE; EV 1.75 × HE; apex of mandible acutely curved, armed with 3 small teeth above large acute apical tooth; median lobe of clypeus produced into an acute, minutely bifid apex; ocelli present, OOL 1.2 × WOT; antennae filiform, longer than in female.

Forewing with subcosta short, bearing setae, stigma oval, median vein lacking.