Coccus capparidis (Green)

Family

Coccidae

Common name

Cappardis wax scale

Field characters

Field characters not recorded. Based on characteristics of slide-mounted adult female, with body broadly oval; body covered by white mealy secretion; ovisac ventral only or absent entirely, absent from dorsum; 17 pairs of thin wax filaments around perimeter of body. Present on fruit, stems, and leaves of host.

Validation characters

Dorsal setae clavate or capitate; ventral tubular ducts submarginal, restricted to abdomen, with 4 to 13 on body; dorsal submarginal tubular ducts absent; claw with small denticle. Other characters: Claw digitules equal in size; 1 or 2 pairs of prevulvar setae (posterior pair often obscured by anal plates); 10 to 16 submarginal tubercles around body margin; marginal setae slender, apices pointed, bifurcate, or slightly fringed; anal plates with posterior margin slightly longer than anterior margin; each anal plate with 3 apical setae, without a subdiscal seta; with 2 or 3 subapical setae on each plate; anal fold with 4 fringe setae; without tibio-tarsal sclerosis; antennae 6- or 7-segmented; stigmatic setae differentiated from other marginal setae, middle seta conspicuously longer than lateral setae; multilocular pores with 6-8 loculi; multiloculars present from segments 3 or 4 to segment 8; preopercular pores in small numbers, inconspicuous.

Comparison

Coccus capparidis is similar to C. viridis (Green) and C. hesperidum Linnaeus by having dorsal setae that are enlarged. They can be separated as follows: C. capparidis has tubular ducts restricted to the submarginal areas of the abdomen (C. viridis and C. hesperidum have them on the medial areas of the thorax); and tibio-tarsal sclerosis absent (C. viridis and C. hesperidum usually have a tibio-tarsal sclerosis).

U.S. quarantine notes

This species was intercepted 10 times on a variety of hosts at U. S. ports-of-entry between 1995 and 2012, with specimens originating from Dominican Republic, Haiti, India, Jamaica, Mexico, Puerto Rico, and St. Lucia. We also have examined specimens taken in quarantine from Bahamas (Citrus, Codiaeum); Dominican Republic (Citrus, Passiflora); Jamaica (Codiaeum); Hawaii (Alyxia, Codiaeum, Graptophyllum); Honduras (Codiaeum); Hong Kong (Citrus); India (Codiaeum, Cypripedium, Dendrobium); Puerto Rico (Schefflera); and Sri Lanka (Murraya). ScaleNet includes hosts in more than 20 families from all but the Afrotropical zoogeographic region. Two species of Coccus other than C. capparidis, C. hesperidum Linnaeus, C. longulus (Douglas), C. moestus De Lotto , C. pseudohesperidum (Cockerell) and C. viridis (Green) have been taken at U. S. ports-of-entry, C. alpinus De Lotto (Brazil, on Coffea) and C. celatus De Lotto (The Philippines, on Dimocarpus, Lansium and Synsepalum).

Important references

HamonWi1984; Hodgso1968a; GillNaWi1977; WilliaWa1990.

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