Nipaecoccus viridis (Newstead)

Family

Pseudococcidae

Common name

Lebbeck mealybug

Field characters

Body round or broadly oval; somewhat flattened dorsoventally; purple or blue green; covered by thick white, creamy, or pale yellow wax, without bare areas on dorsum; ovisac covering dorsum; probably with 5 or 6 pairs of lateral wax filaments. Primarily occurring on foliage and fruit of host. Apparently oviparous, eggs purple. Dorsum probably with waxy filaments. Specimens turning black in 70% alcohol.

Validation characters

Dorsal setae conical, often with conical setae in medial area of posterior abdominal segments as large as lateral cerarian setae; with numerous dorsal oral-collar tubular ducts; abdominal cerarii each with 2 closely spaced conical setae and associated trilocular pores; anterior thoracic and head cerarii indefinite; with fewer than 17 pairs of cerarii; ventral multilocular pores usually on all abdominal segments and on head; ventral abdominal multiloculars usually arranged in row on anterior and posterior margin of each segment, with pores near lateral margin; with clusters of ventral oral-collar tubular ducts near body margin.

Comparison

Nipaecoccus viridis is similar to N. zapotlanus (Cockerell) by having dorsal oral collars, 2 setae in abdominal cerarii; and more than 6 pairs of cerarii. They differ by N. viridis having many ventral multilocular pores in lateral areas of the abdomen; these are absent in N. zapotlanus.

U.S. quarantine notes

This species was intercepted 37 times at U. S. ports-of-entry between 1995 and 2012, with specimens originating from Bangladesh, Cambodia, China, Costa Rica, India, Indonesia, Italy, Laos, Pakistan, The Philippines, Puerto Rico, South Africa, Taiwan, Thailand, and Vietnam. It is polyphagous; therefore, we have not recorded older quarantine records.ScaleNet lists the species from more than 45 families of host plants, and distribution records include all zoogeographical regions except the Nearctic region. Several species of Nipeaecoccus other than N. annonae Williams & Granara de Willink, N. jonmartini Williams & Granara de Willink, N. nipae (Maskell) and N. viridis have been taken at U. S. ports-of-entry including: N. ericicola (Maskell) (Australia, on Callistemon); N. filamentosus (Cockerell) (Puerto Rico, on Bucida); N. filicis Williams & Granara De Willink (Mexico, on unidentified plant); and N. gilli Williams and Granara de Willink (Costa Rica, on Areca; Mexico, on Dieffenbachia).

Important references

WilliaGr1992; Willia2004.

Scalenet catalog and citation list

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