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Scale insects are small insects of the order Hemiptera, suborder Sternorrhyncha. Of dramatically variable appearance and extreme sexual dimorphism, they comprise the infraorder Coccomorpha which is considered a more convenient grouping than the superfamily Coccoidea due to taxonomic uncertainties. Adult females typically have soft bodies and no limbs, and are concealed underneath domed scales, extruding quantities of wax for protection. Some species are hermaphroditic, with a combined ovotestis instead of separate ovaries and testes. Males, in the species where they occur, have legs and sometimes wings, and resemble small flies. Scale insects are herbivores, piercing plant tissues with their mouthparts and remaining in one place, feeding on sap. The excess fluid they imbibe is secreted as honeydew on which sooty mold tends to grow. The insects often have a mutualistic relationship with ants, which feed on the honeydew and protect them from predators. There are about 8,000 described species.
The Sternorrhyncha suborder of the Hemiptera contains the aphids, whiteflies, and scale insects, groups which were traditionally included in the now-obsolete order "Homoptera". "Sternorrhyncha" refers to the rearward position of the mouthparts relative to the head.
Paratachardina pseudolobata, the lobate lac scale, is a polyphagous and pestiferous lac scale insect, which damages trees and woody shrubs in Cuba, Florida, the Bahamas and the Australian territory of Christmas Island. It was mistakenly identified as Paratachardina lobata (Chamberlin), an insect native to India and Sri Lanka, but was in 2007 recognized and named as a distinct species based on material from Florida; its native distribution is as yet unknown. The new lac insect was described based on all stages of the female, during the revision of the genus Paratachardina, wherein all its known species were redescribed.
Diaspididae is the largest family of scale insects with over 2650 described species in around 400 genera. As with all scale insects, the female produces a waxy protective scale beneath which it feeds on its host plant. Diaspidid scales are far more substantial than those of most other families, incorporating the exuviae from the first two nymphal instars and sometimes faecal matter and fragments of the host plant. These can be complex and extremely waterproof structures rather resembling a suit of armor. For this reason these insects are commonly referred to as armored scale insects. As it is so robust and firmly attached to the host plant, the scale often persists long after the insect has died.
Kuwanaspis is a genus of scale insects belonging to the family Diaspididae. They feed on bamboo.
Conchaspididae is a small family of scale insects known as false armoured scales because of their resemblance to Diaspididae.
Halimococcidae is a family of scale insects in the order Hemiptera. Members of the family are commonly known as pupillarial palm scales or halimococcids. Most species are found on the leaves of palm trees where they suck sap, but some species occur on Pandanus. The family was named by Brown and McKenzie in 1962 and includes five known genera and twenty one species.
Beesoniidae is a family of scale insects commonly known as beesoniids. They typically cause galls on their plant hosts. Members of this family mostly come from southern Asia. The family name comes from the type genus Beesonia which is named after the entomologist C.F.C. Beeson who obtained the specimens from which they were described and named.
Lecanodiaspididae is a family of scale insects commonly known as false pit scales or lecanodiaspidids. Members of this family come from all parts of the world but are most numerous in the Far East.
Putoidae is a family of scale insects commonly known as giant mealybugs or putoids. There is probably a single genus, Puto, containing about sixty species. The genus name Macrocerococcus has also been used but it is now considered to be a synonym of Puto. The genus Puto was formerly classified as a member of the Pseudococcidae; however, it so significantly differed from the rest of the Pseudococcidae that it was accorded its own family Putoidae.
Pinnaspis, first described by Theodore Dru Alison Cockerell in 1892, is a genus of scale insects belonging to the family Diaspididae, or armored scale insects. There are currently 42 species within the genus Pinnaspis.
Parlatoriini is a tribe of armored scale insects. Takagi (2002) indicated that the Parlatoriini appear to be phylogenetically related to the Smilacicola and the Odonaspidini. Takagi went on to say about the tropical east Asian Parlatoriini that, The current classification of their genera may be largely tentative because the adult females are simple-featured and much modified owing to the pupillarial mode of life, and also because the second instar nymphs are generally similar among parlatoriines, whether the adult females are pupillarial or not. Andersen found that separating out pupillarial forms into a separate subtribe, Gymnaspidina, was counterproductive, as being non-dispositive.
Furcaspidina is a subtribe of armored scale insects, traditionally regarded as part of the Aspidiotini. While the subtribe Furcaspidina was not mentioned in Takagi's 2002 study, the Aspidiotini were not deemed as problematical as the Diaspidini and Lepidosaphidini. In 2006, Williams reduced the Furcaspidina to a single genus, with about twenty-eight species. Andersen in 2009 suggested that the Furcaspidina belonged in an expanded subfamily of Diaspidinae; however, additional analysis suggests that the furcaspids are better placed in a distinct, but laterally equivalent subfamily to the Diaspidinae, possibly together with the gymnaspids which Borchsenius placed in the Aspidiotinae subfamily.
Augulaspidina is a subtribe of armored scale insects. It was not confirmed by Takagi's 2002 study.
Chionaspidina is a subtribe of armored scale insects established by Borchenius. But unlike many of the subtribes recognized by Borchenius, this one was found to be morphologically valid by Takagi. Similarly, in molecular analysis, Andersen et al. found a clade roughly corresponding to the subtribe Chionaspidina.
Diaspidina is a subtribe of armored scale insects. It occurs mostly in the Americas and Africa, with a few species in tropical Asia. In the Americas Pseudoparlatoria is the largest genus, with Diaspis second; in Africa Diaspis is the largest genus. The grouping identified by Balachowsky in 1954 as the subtribe Diaspidina, are now the tribe Diaspidini.
Rugaspidiotina is an obsolete subtribe of armored scale insects. It was established by Balachowsky in 1949 to accept those Diaspidinae which had rugaspidiotine characteristics as exemplified by genus Rugaspidiotus MacGillivray, species Rugaspidiotus arizonicus, and was moved from the Odonaspidini to the Diaspidini by Borchsenius. It was raised to tribe status as Rugaspidiotini. However, close examination of species assigned to the Rugaspidiotini showed that the rugaspidiotine characteristics convergently evolved in different groups of diaspidids. Rugaspidiotini and Rugaspidiotina are now regarded as obsolete groupings.
Cylindrococcus is a genus of scale insects that induces galls on plants of the genus Allocasuarina. There are two described species of Cylindrococcus, both of which occur only in Australia. The galls of adult females look somewhat similar to the cone-like "fruit" of the host plant and might be mistaken for such.
Callococcus is a genus of Australian scale insect that feeds on species of Leptospermum, Hypocalymma, Kunzea and some other members of the tribes Chamelaucieae and Leptospermeae in the myrtle family Myrtaceae. Callococcus leptospermi induces stem-swelling galls on some species of Leptospermum, and it is considered to be a potential biological control agent of Leptospermum laevigatum in South Africa. The other described species of Callococcus do not induce galls.
Trabutina is a genus of "blue-green" mealybugs, containing five species: T. crassispinosa, T. elastica, T. mannipara, T. serpentina, and T. tenax. This genus of scale insects feeds solely on plants of the genus Tamarix. Its type species is T. mannipara.
References
- 1 2 3 4 5 Kosztarab, M. 1963. The Armored Scale Insects of Ohio (Homoptera: Coccoidea: Diaspididae). Bulletin of the Ohio Biological Survey 2 (n.s.): 120 pp.
- ↑ Global Biodiversity Information Facility: Aonidomytilus crookiae (Ferris, 1954), https://www.gbif-uat.org/species/110091227, accessed 15 Dec 2017.
- ↑ Ferris, G.F. 1954. New species of Diaspididae from Florida and the Caribbean Islands (Homoptera; Coccoidea). Contribution No. 88. Microentomology 19: 41-50.
- ↑ Muse, B.J. Williams, M.L. 1984. Effects of temperature, host plant and aridity on taxonomic characters of armored scale insects (Homoptera: Diaspididae). Proceedings of the 10th International Symposium of Central European Entomofaunistics, Budapest, 15–20 August 1983, 375-377.
- ↑ Barbara J. Muse. 1979. A Taxonomic Revision of the Armored Scale Insect Genus Aonidomytilus Leonardi (Homoptera: Diaspididae). Ph.D. dissertation, Auburn University, 221 pp.; Auburn University Library, http://catalog.lib.auburn.edu/vufind/Record/190595.
- 1 2 ScaleNet: Valid Names Results, Aonidomytilus crookiae (Ferris) 1954 (Diaspididae: Aonidomytilus), http://scalenet.info/catalogue/Aonidomytilus%20crookiae/, accessed 15 Dec 2017.
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