Brevennia rehi (Lindinger)

Family

Pseudococcidae

Common name

Tuttle mealybug

Field characters

Body elongate; pink; dorsum lightly dusted with white wax, allowing body color to come through; without bare areas; venter and infested leaf sheaths with fluffy white wax; 1 pair of inconspicuous wax filaments; poorly developed ovisac present ventrally and behind female. Usually present in leaf sheaths of grass host. Oviparous, eggs pink.

Validation characters

Quinquelocular pores present on dorsum and venter; circulus absent; cerarii absent, reduced to anal-lobe pair, or with up to 4 pairs (anterior pairs represented by single conical seta); multilocular pores on dorsum and venter; trilocular pores rare, present ventrally near spiracles and on dorsal thorax; antennae 6- or 7-segmented; translucent pores on hind femur and tibia.

Comparison

Brevennia rehi is most similar to B. nigeriensis (Williams) but differs by having 6- or 7-segmented antennae (8- or 9-segmented in B. nigeriensis) and no dorsal oral-collar tubular ducts (present posteriorly in B. nigeriensis). This species could be confused with species in the genus Heterococcus because both have quinquelocular pores abundant over the dorsum and venter, but species of Brevennia have at least a few trilocular pores which are lacking in Heterococcus species.

U.S. quarantine notes

This species was not intercepted at U.S. ports-of-entry between 1995 and 2012, but it is included because it is common on a number of grass hosts that are commonly imported into the U.S. It is a pest of rice in some areas of the world (Willia1970DJ). ScaleNet distribution records for B. rehi include, Nearctic, Neotropical, Oriental, and it is the only species of Brevennia that has been taken at U.S. ports-of-entry.

Important references

Borchs1949; Miller1975DR; Willia1970DJ; Willia2004.

Scalenet catalog and citation list

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