Pseudococcus maritimus (Ehrhorn)

Family

Pseudococcidae

Common name

Grape mealybug

Field characters

Body oval; slightly rounded in lateral view; body dark orange or pink; body contents crushed dark orange; ostiole secretion light orange; mealy wax covering thin enough so that body color shows through; sometimes with faint, wide medial longitudinal line on dorsum; ovisac encloses all but head of female; with 17 lateral wax filaments, becoming progressively longer posteriorly, anterior pair about 1/8 width of body, straight, unusually thin, posterior pair longest, varying from 1/4 to 1/2 length of body. Occurring on most parts of host including main roots, fruit, leaves, stems, and under bark. Oviparous, eggs orange. Surface of lateral filaments smooth.

Validation characters

Oral-rim tubular duct present on dorsum between cerarius 15 and 16; usually with at least 1 discoidal pore associated with eye on at least 1 side of head, no more than 3 near any eye, not set in sclerotized rim; translucent pores on hind femur and tibia; with many dorsal oral-rim tubular ducts on abdomen (with an average of 27 and a range of 19-35 such ducts); ventral oral-collar tubular ducts in clusters between antennae and laterad of front and middle coxae.

Comparison

Pseudococcus maritimus has been confused with P. viburni (Maskell) by having discoidal pores near the eye, translucent pores on the hind femur and tibia, and ventral multilocular pore on most abdominal segments. Pseudococcus maritimus differs by having an oral-rim tubular duct between cerarii 15 and 16; an average of 27 and range of 19 to 35 dorsal oral-rim tubular ducts on abdomen; an average of 14 and range of 6 to 20 ventral oral collars laterad of middle coxa. Pseudococcus viburni lacks an oral-rim tubular duct between cerarii 15 and 16; has an average of 13 and range of 10 to 18 dorsal oral-rim tubular ducts on abdomen; an average of 1 and range of 0 to 2 ventral oral collars laterad of middle coxa.

U.S. quarantine notes

This species was intercepted 29 times at U. S. ports-of-entry between 1995 and 2012, with specimens originating from Antigua and Barbuda, Ecuador, Guyana, Hawaii, Honduras, Jamaica, Mexico, Peru, Thailand and The United States of America. ScaleNet lists the species from more than 40 families of host plants. It is considered to be polyphagous. We have not included a list of older quarantine records because the species is cosmopolitan. It was often cited in earlier literature as occurring worldwide, but these determinations were usually misidentifications of other species in the maritimus complex. It ocurrs in the Nearctic, Neotropical, Oriental and Palaearctic region; being most abundant in the first two. Several species of Pseudococcus other than P. aurantiacus Williams, P. baliteus Lit, P. calceolariae (Maskell), P. comstocki (Kuwana), P. cryptus Hempel , P. dendrobiorum Williams, P. elisae Borchsenius, P. jackbeardsleyi Gimpel & Miller, P. landoi (Balachowsky), P. longispinus (Targioni Tozzetti), P. lycopodii Beardsley, P. maritimus, P. microcirculus McKenzie, P. nakaharai Gimpel & Miller , P. odermatti Miller & Williams, P. philippinicus Williams, P. pithecellobii Gimpel & Miller, P. soleneydos Miller & Gimpel and P. viburni (Signoret) have been taken at U. S. ports-of-entry including: P. agavis MacGregor (Mexico, on Agave); P. apodemus Williams (The Philippines, on Fortunella and Mangifera); P. apomicrocirculus Gimpel and Miller (Mexico, on orchids); P. apoplanus Williams (India, on orchids); P. chenopodii Williams (Australia, on Brunia); P. concavocerarii James (Somalia, on Euphorbia); P. donrileyi Gimpel and Miller (Mexico, on Citrus; Puerto Rico, on Melicoccus); P. eucalypticus Williams (Australia, on Eucalyptus and Chamelaucium); P. gilbertensis Beardsley (Guam, on Dracaena; The Philippines, on Citrus); P. importatus McKenzie (Australia, Brazil, Britain, Canada, Colombia, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Jamaica, Madagascar, Mexico, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, The Philippines, South Africa, Trinidad, and Venezuela, on orchids); P. neomaritimus Beardsley (Mexico, on Citrus, Psidium, and Punica); P. neomicrocirculus Gimpel and Miller (Costa Rica, Guatemala and Venezuela, on orchids); P. orchidicola Takahashi (Kwajalein, Marshall, Samoa, and Tonga, on Alocasia, Dendrobium and Pandanus); P. peregrinabundus Borchsenius (Ecuador, on Musa); P. saccharicola Takahashi (Vietnam, on Saccharum); P. sociabilis (Brazil, on Annona, Cattleya, Carica, Hedera, Hippeastrum, Dahlia, Oncidium, Solanum and Zygopetalum); and P. solomonensis Williams (Micronesia and Palau, on Musa and Piper).

Important references

GimpelMi1996, MillerGiWi1984, WilliaGr1992.

Scalenet catalog and citation list

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