Pseudococcus calceolariae (Maskell)

Family

Pseudococcidae

Common name

Citrophilus mealybug

Field characters

Body oval; slightly rounded in lateral view; dark in color, red when crushed; ostiole fluid red; mealy wax covering body, usually thick enough to hide body color except on intersegmental lines; with longitudinal lines on dorsum formed by bare areas occurring in submedial and submarginal areas; ovisac ventral only; with 17 lateral wax filaments, most relatively short, straight except posterior pair which may be slightly curved, posterior pair longest, about 1/4 length of body. Primarily occurring on foliage, stems, and fruit of host. Oviparous, eggs yellow or orange. Surface of lateral filaments rough.

Validation characters

Without dorsal oral-rim tubular duct near frontal cerarius; oral-rim tubular ducts scattered over dorsum; dorsal setae about same length or shorter than conical cerarian setae (except on segment VIII where long); translucent pores on hind femur and tibia; without discoidals near eye; without clusters of ventral oral-collar tubular ducts laterad of front or middle legs.

Comparison

Pseudococcus calceolariae can be distinguished from other species in the genus by lacking an oral-rim tubular duct near the frontal cerarius and by having short dorsal setae.

U.S. quarantine notes

This species was intercepted 125 times at U. S. ports-of-entry between 1995 and 2012, with specimens originating from Australia, Chile, Colombia, Guatemala, Italy, Mexico, New Zealand, Portugal, South Africa, The United States of America, and Vietnam. It is commonly taken on a wide variety of plants and is cosmopolitan; therefore, we have not recorded older quarantine records. ScaleNet lists the species from more than 45 families of host plants in all zoogeographic regions. It is intercepted at U. S. ports-of-entry from nearly any warm area of the world and is reported in all zoogeographic regions. Several species of Pseudococcus other than P. aurantiacus Williams, P. baliteus Lit, P. calceolariae, 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 (Ehrhorn), 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

McKenz1967; WilliaGr1992.

Scalenet catalog and citation list

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