Formicococcus polysperes Williams

Family

Pseudococcidae

Field characters

Field characters not reported. Based on characteristics of slide-mounted adult female, with body oval; body covered by white mealy secretion; ovisac ventral only or absent entirely; lateral filaments short and thick, surrounding body margin. Present on roots and tubers.

Validation characters

Multiple conical setae in most abdominal cerarii including anal lobe cerarii; 18 pairs of cerarii; anal bar present; ventral oral-collar tubular ducts laterad of front coxa and on head; dorsal setae conical; translucent pores on hind coxa and tibia; ventral multilocular disk pores in medial areas of segments IV to VIII.

Comparison

Formicococcus polysperes is similar to F. schimae (Takahashi) and F. mangiferacola Williams by having short dorsal setae, ventral multilocular pores on abdomen only, translucent pores on hind coxa and tibia, and clusters of ventral oral-collar tubular ducts laterad of front coxa. Formicococcus polysperes differs from F. schimae by having all cerarian setae clustered together and about same size and by having ventrolateral oral-collar tubular ducts on abdomen about same size as diameter of trilocular pore. Formicococcus schimae has 2 cerarian setae clustered together and separate from other anal lobe cerarian setae and has ventrolateral oral-collar tubular ducts on abdomen about twice as large as diameter of trilocular pore. Formicococcus polysperes differs from F. mangiferacola by having dorsal setae with base as wide as trilocular pore or wider and lacking ventral oral-collar tubular ducts between eye and antennal base, whereas, F. mangiferacola has dorsal setae with base less than diameter of trilocular pore and has ventral oral-collar tubular ducts between eye and antennal base.

U.S. quarantine notes

This species was not intercepted at U. S. ports-of-entry between 1995 and 2012, but it was reported by Williams (2004) to have been taken at U. S. ports-of-entry. We also have examined specimens taken in quarantine from The Philippines (Zingiber); Thailand (Zingiber); Vietnam (Lansium). ScaleNet lists the species from 6 families of host plants, and distribution records include countries in the Oriental region only. Three species of Formicococcus besides F. njalensis (Laing), F. polysperes and F. robustus (Ezzat & McConnell) have been taken at U. S. ports-of-entry including: F. acerneus Williams; F. erythrinae Williams (India, on mango); and F. mangiferacola Williams (India, on mango).

Important references

Willia2004.

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