Paraputo guatemalensis (Ferris)

Family

Pseudococcidae

Common name

Largeduct mealybug

Field characters

We have been unable to locate a description of the field characteristics of this species in the literature. Based on characteristics of slide-mounted adult female: body round; ovisac absent from dorsum and poorly developed or absent on venter; 17 pairs of thick lateral filaments, possibly coalescing, posterior pair only sightly longer than others, surrounding body margin; body covered by thick white mealy secretion. On all parts of orchid host including roots.

Validation characters

Oral-collar tubular ducts short, wider than long; hind legs without translucent pores; anal-lobe cerarius with more than 5 conical setae; circulus absent; dorsal setae conspicuously longer on abdominal segments VI, VII, and VIII than on remainder of surface.

Comparison

The above combination of characters separates P. guatemalensis from all other species of Paraputo.

U.S. quarantine notes

This species was not intercepted at U. S. ports-of-entry between 1995 and 2012. It was commonly intercepted on field collected orchids from Mexico, and Central and South America before such collecting techniques were illegal. We also have examined quarantine specimens from Belize (Epidendrum, Oncidium); Bolivia (orchid); Brazil (Cattleya, Epidendrum); Colombia (Cattleya); Costa Rica (Brassia, Zygopetalum); Domincan Republic (Epidendrum); El Salvador (orchid); Guatemala (Cattleya, Oncidium); Honduras (Brassavola); Mexico (Encyclia, Epidendrum, Laelia, Stanhopea); Jamaica (Oncidium); Panama (Brassavola, Cycnoches, Laelia, Monstera, Oncidium, Peristeria, Vanilla); Suriname (Oncidium); Venezuela (bromeliad); ScaleNet lists bromeliads and particularly orchids as hosts, and distribution records include Mexico in the Nearctic region, and several countries in the Neotropical region. Several other species of Paraputo (formerly Cataenococcus) other than P. guatemalensis, P. odontomachi (Takahashi) and P. olivaceus (Cockerell) have been taken at U. S. ports-of-entry including: P. carnosae (Takahashi) (Malaysia, on ferns); P. ingrandi Balachowsky (Mexico, Guatemala, Colombia, El Salvador, on several hosts); P. larai Williams (Costa Rica and Colombia, on Cecropia); P. leveri (Green) (Fiji, on Calocasia); P. pandanicola Williams (Indonesia, on Pandanus fruit); P. malaccensis (Takahashi); and P. theaecola (Green) (India, on Cucurma, Hedychium, and Zantesdechia).

Important references

Ferris1953a; MillerMc1973; Tang1992; WilliaGr1992.

Scalenet catalog and citation list

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