Bambusaspis miliaris (Boisduval)

Family

Asterolecaniidae

Common name

Miliaris pit scale

Field characters

Test pear-shaped; flat or slightly convex in lateral view; test green, brown, or translucent pale yellow; body covered by translucent test with faint medial carina and transverse striations. Marginal areas with white or salmon wax filaments. Mature tests with shriveled body of female at anterior end. Occurring on stems and both leaf surfaces.

Validation characters

Incomplete row of submarginal quinquelocular pores; about 10 quinquelocular pores in each spiracular furrow; 8-shaped pores present or absent in dorsosubmarginal areas; without multilocular pores in vulvar area; submarginal discoidal pores present near marginal 8-shaped pores; dorsal tube present anterior of anal ring; labium without setae. Other characters: Legs absent; antennae 1-segmented; without a pygidium; 8-shaped pores prevalent.

Comparison

Bambusaspis miliaris is similar to B. mimicum (Russell) by having an incomplete row of marginal quinquelocular pores primarily restricted to spiracular area, no multilocular pores near the vulva, a dorsal tube, and no setae on the labium. Bambusaspis miliaris differs by lacking quinquelocular pores in spiracular atria (1 or 2 quinquelocular pores in atria of spiracles in B. mimicum).

U.S. quarantine notes

This species was intercepted 5 times at U. S. ports-of-entry between 1995 and 2012. We have examined specimens taken in quarantine from Antigua and Barbuda (Bambusa); Australia (bamboo); Barbados (bamboo); Bermuda (bamboo); China (Bambusa); Cuba (bamboo, Dendrocalmus); Dominica (BVI)(Cymbopogon); Dominican Republic (Bambusa); Guatemala (Bambusa); Guyana (bamboo); Haiti (Bambusa); Jamaica (bamboo); Mexico (bamboo); Montserrat (bamboo); Panama (bamboo); Puerto Rico (bamboo); St. Kitts and Nevis (bamboo); St. Lucia (Bambusa); St. Thomas (USVI) (Bambusa); St. Vincent and Grenadines (bamboo); Trinidad and Tobago (Bambusa); Zambia (bamboo). ScaleNet lists it from Poaceae only including 14 genera of bamboo, on which it is most commonly intercepted. It occurs in all zoogeographic regions. No species of Bambusaspis other than B. bambusae (Boisduval) and B. miliaris have been intercepted at a U. S. port-of-entry.

Important references

Russel1941; Stumpf2000; StumpfLa2001

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