Palmicultor browni (Williams)

Family

Pseudococcidae

Field characters

Body oval; white; body covered by layer of powdery wax. Occurring on nearly all parts of palm host including roots, leaves, axils, flowers, and fruit.

Validation characters

Cluster of small pores on derm surrounding hind coxa; multilocular pores on dorsum usually present in small numbers on head, thorax, and anterior abdomen; 17 pairs of cerarii, anal lobe pair usually with 2 conical setae; circulus normally quadrate, not divided by intersegmental line; translucent pores present on hind coxa and tibia; ventral multilocular pores on head, thorax, and abdomen, present near body margin on abdomen.

Comparison

Palmicultor browni is very similar to P. guamensis Beardsley (it is possible that they are synonyms) by having small pores on derm surrounding hind coxa; multilocular pores on dorsum; 17 pairs of cerarii, anal lobe pair usually with 2 conical setae; circulus present; translucent pores present on hind coxa and tibia; ventral multilocular pores present near body margin on abdomen. Palmicultor browni can be distinguished (characters for P. guamensis given in parentheses) by having cerarii on abdomen normally with 2, rarely 3 conical setae (up to 5), short-wide oral collars rare or absent from head (3-7 on head); posterior abdominal cerarii each with 0-3 associated short-wide oral collars (3-9).

U.S. quarantine notes

This species was intercepted at U. S. ports-of-entry 15 times between 1995 and 2012, with specimens originating from Australia, the Bahamas, Colombia, and Puerto Rico. We also have examined specimens taken in quarantine from Tahiti (palm). ScaleNet lists hosts in the palm family (Arecaceae). It is most commonly intercepted on coconuts. Palmicultor browni is most likely native to the Australasian zoogeographic region where coconuts grow, and has been introduced in the Caribbean and Bahamas. No species of Palmicultor other than P. browni and P. palmarum (Maskell) have been taken in quarantine at U. S. ports-of-entry.

Important references

WilliaWa1988a; Tang1992.

Scalenet catalog and citation list

Click here for a Catalog.