Planococcus kraunhiae (Kuwana)

Family

Pseudococcidae

Common name

Japanese mealybug

Field characters

Body oval or rotund; slightly rounded in lateral view; dark purple or red; mealy wax covering body, not thick enough to hide purple body color; dorsomedial bare area either absent or inobvious; ovisac not described in literature; 18 lateral wax filaments, most relatively short, straight, posterior pair slightly longer, filaments anterior of posterior pair small, broader than on P. citri, posterior pair about 1/8 length of body. Primarily occurring on foliage or fruit of host. Surface of lateral filaments rough.

Validation characters

Dorsal oral-collar tubular ducts in submarginal areas of abdomen, usually with more than 1 associated with each abdominal cerarius; translucent pores on hind coxa and tibia, absent from femur; usually with 1 or more dorsolateral tubular ducts that often appear as oral rims; usually without multilocular pores posterior of front coxa; anal bar present; 18 pairs of cerarii; no auxiliary setae.

Comparison

Planococcus kraunhiae can be distinguished from other species in the genus by having dorsosubmarginal oral-collar tubular ducts in clusters near at least some abdominal cerarii.

U.S. quarantine notes

This species was intercepted 131 times at U. S. ports-of-entry between 1995 and 2012, with specimens originating from Brazil, China, France, India, Japan, Singapore, South Korea, Togo, and Vietnam. It is most often taken in quarantine on Citrus and Diospyros from Japan. We also have examined quarantine specimens from China (Diospyros); Eritrea (Oleae); Jamiaca (croton); Japan (oranges, Platanus, Punica, Wisteria); Korea (Diospyros); The Philippines (Diospyros); Singapore (Eriobotrya). ScaleNet lists the species from more than 20 families of host plants, and distribution records include the Nearctic, Oriental and Palaearctic zoogeographic regions. Several species of Planococcus other than P. citri (Risso), P. ficus (Signoret), P. halli Ezzat & McConnell, P. kraunhiae, P. lilacinus (Cockerell), P. litchi Cox and P. minor (Maskell) have been taken at U. S. ports-of-entry including: P. angkorensis (Takahashi) (China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, The Philippines, Taiwan, Thailand, and Vietnam, on many tropical plants); P. dendrobi Ezzat and McConnell (India, The Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand, on Cypripedium, Dendrobium, Phalaenopsis, Saccolobium and Vanda); P. hosnyi Ezzat and McConnell (South Africa, on orchid); P. hospitus De Lotto (Uganda, on Cyrtorchis); P. japonicus Cox (Japan and The Philippines, on Carpinus, Fatsia, Lansium, Malus, Rhododendron and Vitis); P. kenyae (LePelley) (Nigeria, Sierra Leone, on Ficus and Cola); P. mali Ezzat and McConnell (New Zealand, on Malus and Olearia); P. orchidi Cox (Liberia, on orchids); and P. philippinensis Ezzat and McConnell (The Philippines, on Aerides, Cymbidium, Dendrobium, Eria, Phalaenopsis, Spathoglottis and Vanda).

Important references

Cox1989; Kawai1980; Willia2004.

Scalenet catalog and citation list

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