Conchaspis angraeci Cockerell

Family

Conchaspididae

Common name

Angraecum scale

Field characters

Scale cover almost circular, white, 6 to 8 ridges radiating from central cone, without exuviae; volcano shaped in lateral view; body purple with yellowish brown pygidium; eggs light yellow. On leaves, stems, and bark of host.

Validation characters

Antennae 4-segmented; multilocular pores absent from thorax, normally absent from abdominal segments 2 and 3, rarely with 1 or 2 on each side of segment 3, never in cluster of 2 to 5, present in rows from submarginal areas to submedial areas; without tubular ducts on abdomen. Other characters: legs reduced, tibia and tarsus fused, trochanter and femur fused; metasternal sclerotization present; ocellar spot present; pygidium present.

Comparison

Conchaspis angraeci is similar to C. newsteadi Cockerell by having less than 5 antennal segments and no tubular ducts. Conchaspis angraeci differs by lacking ventral multilocular pores on abdominal segment 3 or rarely having only 1 near body margin (C. newsteadi has a cluster of 2-5 pores in this position).

U.S. quarantine notes

This species was intercepted 9 times at U. S. ports-of-entry between 1995 and 2012, with specimens originating from Belize, Malaysia, Peru, The Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan and Thailand. We also have examined specimens taken in quarantine from Antigua (Epidendrum); Aruba (Encylia); Bahamas (orchid); Barbados (Codiaeum, orchid); Belize (orchid); Bermuda (Hibiscus); Brazil (Cattleya, Oncidium); British West Indies (Rodriguezia); Cayman Islands (unknown host); Colombia (Oncidium); Costa Rica (Laelia, Oncidium); Cuba (Codaeium); Dominican Republic (Cereus, Euphorbia, Oncidium, orchid); Ecuador (Oncidium, Vanilla); El Salvador (Hoya, orchid); Guadaloupe (Hibiscus); Guatemala (Oncidium); Guyana (orchid); Haiti (Euphorbia); Honduras (Brassavola, Vanilla); Ivory Coast (orchid); Jamaica (orchid); Malaysia (Pomatocalpa); Mexico (Acalypha, cactus, Codiaeum, Epidendrum, Laelia, Oncidium, Plumeria); Nicaragua (Epidendrum); Nigeria (Plumeria); Panama (Catasetum, Epidendrum, Laelia, Oncidium, Peristeria); Peru (Plumeria); Senegal (Plumeria); Singapore (Plumeria); Puerto Rico (Agave); Trinidad (Caularthron, Epidendrum, Gongora); The U. S. Virgin Islands (Hibiscus); Venezuela (Cattleya); Zaire (orchid). ScaleNet includes hosts in over 25 plant families from 30+ countries worldwide in all zoogeographic regions. It is commonly intercepted on Plumeria (Apocynaceae). Three species of Conchaspis other than C. angraeci, C. capensis (Linnaeus) and C. orchidarum Mamet have been intercepted at a U. S. ports-of-entry: C. cordiae Mamet (Puerto Rico, on Rauwolfia; Haiti, on unknown host); C. newsteadi Cockerell (Mexico, on Acer and Plumeria); and C. phylicae Mamet (South Africa, on Phylica).

Important references

Gill1993; Hamon1979; Mamet1954b; WilliaWa1990.

Scalenet catalog and citation list

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