Delottococcus aberiae (De Lotto)

Family

Pseudococcidae

Field characters

Body elongate oval; gray; body covered by layer of gray mealy wax but allowing body segmentation to be visible; cottony ovisac covers body and is longer than body of female; with 5 or 6 pairs of short lateral filaments, becoming progressively longer posteriorly, caudal pair slightly longer than antennae. Occurring on roots during winter; also collected on foliage or fruit when taken at U. S. ports-of-entry.

Validation characters

Translucent pores present on hind femur and tibia (often inconspicuous); oral-collar tubular ducts usually present (rarely absent) laterad of anterior spiracle; hind femur with 12-18 setae; oral-rim tubular ducts present on dorsum; inconspicuous anal bar on anal lobe; 17 or 18 pairs of cerarii.

Comparison

Delottococcus aberiae is similar to D. elisabethae (Brain) (often has been confused with it) by having an anal bar, dorsal oral-rim tubular ducts, 16-18 pairs of cerarii, and no submarginal multilocular pores. Delottococcus aberiae can be distinguished (characters of D. elisabethae given in parentheses) by having translucent pores on the hind femur (absent), oral-collar tubular ducts usually present (rarely absent) laterad of anterior spiracle (absent), hind femur with 12-18 setae (19-23), and antennae usually more than 450μ long (less than).

U.S. quarantine notes

This species was intercepted at U. S. ports-of-entry 2 times between 1995 and 2012, with specimens originating from South Africa. However, because D. aberiae was often misidentified as D. elisabethae in the past, this may be an underestimate of the number of actual interceptions.We have examined specimens taken in quarantine from Africa (safari flower). ScaleNet lists hosts in 25 plant families. This seems to be a highly polyphagous species that can be potentially intercepted on a variety of plants. ScaleNet distribution records for D. aberiae include several African countries in the Afrotropical region and Spain in the Palaearctic zoogeographic region. According to our current records, no other species of Delottococcus other than D. aberiae and D. confusus (De Lotto) have been taken in quarantine at U. S. ports-of-entry.

Important references

DeLott1961; DeLott1977; MillerGi2011.

Scalenet catalog and citation list

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