OF THE GENUS CHAITOPHORUS KOCH , 1854 ( APHIDIDAE , CHAITOPHORINAE , CHAITOPHORINI ) WITH NEW RECORD SPECIES FOR IRAQ APHID FAUNA

A faunistic review of the genus Chaitophorus Koch, 1854, including four species in Iraq is given; the distribution data of each species and their hosts have been recorded. In this investigation the poplar leaf aphid Ch. populialbae (Boyer de Fonscolombe, 1841) is recorded here for the first time in Iraq on popular trees Populus euphratica Oliv. during the period from November 2016 to April 2017 in Baghdad province. A brief description for apterous viviparous female of this species is given; and a key to the species of the genus Chaitophorus is constricted.

Most of the species of the tribe Chaitophorini are monoecious holocyclic and infest plant families which belong to Salicaceae (Populus and Salix) and Aceraceae (Blackman and Eastop, 1994), there is a difficulty to distinguish between species of Chaitophorinae based on their morphological characteristics, although the tribe Chaitophorini has clear morphological differences between genera; separating between Chaitophorus species using morphology has always been problematic because of the fact that the morphological differences between species within these genera are relatively slight (Hille Ris Lambers, 1960;Pintera, 1987;Zhu et al., 2017).
Chaitophorus is a typical genus of the Chaitophorinae: it is the largest genus in the subfamily and is well known from Europe and Asia (Pintera, 1987); This genus consists of about 109 valid species (Zhu et al., 2017) and distribution in the Palaearctic and Nearctic zoogeographical regions; in addition to the species of plant family Salicaceae as a host some Chaitophorus species infest limited host belongs to Vitaceae, Daucaceae and Compositae (Pintera, 1987).http://dx.doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2018.15.2.0145 Very little attention had been given to the study of this group in Iraq; a total of four species are now known from the genus Chaitophorus in Iraq, these species are Ch.euphraticus Hodjat, Ch. leucomelas Koch and Ch.nigritus Hille Ris Lambers (Kaddou, 1966;Daoud and El-Haidari, 1968;Al-Ali, 1977); in addition to Ch. populialbae (Boyer de Fonscolombe, 1841) which recorded here as new record species to aphid fauna of Iraq which are listed in the present study.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
Aphid specimens infested Euphratic -Poplar Populus euphratica Oliv.; the trees were collected from various locations of Baghdad province, over a period from November 2016 to April 2017.
Aphids were collected from their host plants with a fine brush and put in a tube which contained 70% alcohol, the collecting and preserving technique was based mainly on van Emden (1972) method.
The aphids were systematically classified according to the catalog of Remaudiére and Remaudiére (1997); all measurements of the aphid are with millimeter (mm),the parameters measured are as in Ilharco and van Harten (1987), except for body length (BL) which is always measured to the base of the Cauda and does not include any projecting cauda.
Aphid specimens were deposited in the collection of Iraq Natural History Research Center and Museum, University of Baghdad.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
During the current investigation, four species of the genus Chaitophorus Koch have been recorded to Iraq aphid fauna; the records information for these species is compared with previous checklists as above in addition to our collection; the key to the species of this genus is designed as follows: Chaitophorus populialbae (Boyer de Fonscolombe, 1841) Diagnostic characters: Apterous viviparous female: color in life pale green to yellowish white, often with small green spots, head and tips of antennal segments and tarsi light brown (Pl.1).Body 1.2-2.4mm long (Pl.2A); antennae pale 0.80-1.0mm long with six segment, 0.50-0.85X as long as the body, third antennal segment (ANT III) 0.18-0.30mm long with blunt or acuminate at apices hairs longest one 0.03-0.05mm long.

Comments:
As far as in diagnostic characters between our description of this study and previous literature related to this species, there are many differences, with respect to measurement of body length, Ghosh (1980) determined smaller size than our specimens, as for the length of the antenna, Pintera (1987) described longer antenna, while Ghosh (1980) recorded shorter antenna, and other differences as length of second segment of hind tarsus (HT) that our specimens are significantly longer than that determined by Ghosh (1980) and less clearly by Hodjat (1981).The other characteristic, such as the length of siphunculi and cauda showed minor differences that do not count importantly in taxonomy, and perhaps they are due to geographical variation between different populations of this species.
Global Distribution: Palaearctic region, parts of Africa, and are introduced and widespread in North America (Blackman and Eastop, 1994), this species is new for the Iraqi aphid fauna.Hodjat, 1981 Global Distribution: Iran (Hodjat, 1981), in Iraq Daoud and El-Haidari (1968) recorded this species feed on Euphrates poplar at Baghdad province during April and July.