Brimblecombia Normark, 2019

Normark, Benjamin B., Okusu, Akiko, Morse, Geoffrey E., Peterson, Daniel A., Itioka, Takao & Schneider, Scott A., 2019, Phylogeny and classification of armored scale insects (Hemiptera: Coccomorpha: Diaspididae), Zootaxa 4616 (1), pp. 1-98 : 90-92

Brimblecombia Normark , gen. n.

Type species: Ancepaspis rotundicauda Brimblecombe 1959b . Type depository: Queensland Museum, Brisbane, Australia. Holotype and paratype examined.

Additional species: Ancepaspis asperata Brimblecombe , Ancepaspis longicauda Brimblecombe , Ancepaspis magnicauda Brimblecombe , Ancepaspis reticulata Brimblecombe , Ancepaspis striata Brimblecombe.

Type material of type species examined: Brimblecombia rotundicauda (Brimblecombe) , new combination. QM ( Table 3 ): Moggill, Sept. 1943, ex Casuarina cunninghamiana Miq. , coll. A.R. Brimblecombe (holotype and paratype, T5780, T5781).

Other material examined: B rimblecombia rotundicauda . UMEC. Australia: Queensland: St. Lucia, UQ campus, 27.4992˚S, 153.0133˚E, 8.v.2007, ex Casuarina glauca Sieb. , coll. B.B.N. (D2036A). Brimblecombia asperata (Brimblecombe) , new combination, QM, Australia: Queensland: Tugun, May 1953, ex C. littoralis Salisb. , coll. A.R. Brimblecombe (holotype and paratype, T5776, T5777). Brimblecombia longicauda (Brimblecombe) , new combination, QM, Australia: Queensland: Marmor, Oct. 1955, ex C. glauca Sieb. , coll. A.R. Brimblecombe (holotype and paratype, T5768, T5769). UMEC. Australia: Queensland: St. Lucia, UQ campus, 27.4992˚S, 153.0133˚E, 8.v.2007, ex C. glauca , coll. B.B.N. (D2036 BF); Australia: Queensland: St. Lucia, UQ campus, 27.5003˚S, 153.0121˚E, 8.v.2007, ex C. glauca , coll. B.B.N. (D2042A). Brimblecombia magnicauda (Brimblecombe) , new combination, QM, Australia: Queensland: Tara, Aug. 1957, ex Acacia harpophylla F. Muell. ex Benth. , coll. A.R. Brimblecombe (holotype and paratype, T5770, T5771). UMEC. Australia: Queensland: 28.6858˚S, 151.1606˚E, 27.vii.2014, ex A. decurrens , coll. B.B.N., D.A.P. (D5295E). Brimblecombia reticulata (Brimblecombe) , new combination, QM, Australia: Queensland: Pikedale, Oct. 1954, ex C. luehmanni R.T. Baker , coll. A.R. Brimblecombe (holotype and paratype, T5778, T5779). Brimblecombia striata (Brimblecombe) , new combination, QM, Australia: Queensland: Tara, Aug. 1957, ex A. harpophylla F. Muell. ex Benth. , coll. A.R. Brimblecombe (holotype and paratype, T5782, T5783).

Description: AF ( Figs. 19 , 20 ) pygidium without lobes, plates, or gland spines; ducts few, minute, duct openings difficult to see. Apex of pygidium in most species with flat, spatulate margin and with 3–5 conspicuous longitudinal sclerotized ridges or folds. With 5-locular pores near anterior spiracles (but these apparently missing in 1 species, B. longicauda ). Antenna with 1 seta. Adult female sclerotized at full maturity.

Diagnosis: Whereas Ancepaspis species are pupillarial, Brimblecombia species are not; neither does Brimblecombia appear to secrete a scale cover. When we collected Brimblecombia rotundicauda and B. longicauda around Brisbane in May 2007, they were naked, heavily sclerotized, gravid adult females on twigs of Casuarina . Nakedness—the lack of either a puparium or scale cover—is a highly unusual habit for an armored scale insect; yet Brimblecombe (1959b) reported that the adult females were membranous. This discrepancy between our observations and Brimblecombe's may be due to his having collected in a different season (August through October). Brimblecombia species also differ from Ancepaspis species in having pores by the anterior spiracles. In the Australian fauna, Brimblecombia species are distinctive among non-pupillarial species for their lack of lobes, plates, gland spines, and ducts, and for the distinctive sculpturing of the pygidium, usually including a flat, sclerotized plate projecting from the posterior margin, and often including multiple longitudinal striae consisting of sclerotized cuticular folds.

Etymology: Brimblecombia is a feminine noun. The genus is named for A.R. Brimblecombe, who described all of its constituent species, in honor of his crucial work on Australian Diaspididae . The key he included in his 1959 Ph.D. dissertation makes it possible to identify most of the Diaspididae of Queensland, and many from elsewhere in Australia. Unfortunately it was never published, but copies may be purchased from the University of Queensland library (https://web.library.uq.edu.au/library-services/other-libraries/ordering-copies-uq-theses). The title is "Studies of the Coccoidea in Queensland: with particular reference to the Diaspididae " and the UQ thesis number is 645. The critical volume to order is Volume 1.

Affinities: Brimblecombia is a member of the tribe Aonidiini. Evidence for this is discussed below.

Remarks: Brimblecombe did not give a full explanation for why he placed these species in Ancepaspis . He remarked that some of them "resemble" Ancepaspis edentata , apparently referring to the sclerotized pygidial margin; very small anus; few, minute ducts; lack of perivulvar pores; and overall shape. Phylogenetic analyses of both EF-1α and COI–II placed B. rotundicauda within the tribe Aonidiini, sister to Diaphoraspis compacta Brimblecombe (B.B.N. and A.O., unpublished data; this species was not included in the concatenated phylogenetic analysis presented here because we did not obtain 28S sequences for it.) Brimblecombia shares with related Aonidiini a number of features, including: pores by anterior spiracles (absent in Ancepaspis ), a single antennal seta (multiple in most Ancepaspis species, including A. edentata ), non-pupillarial ( Ancepaspis is pupillarial), and derm of adult female sclerotized at maturity (membranous in Ancepaspis ). In addition, the most common host of Brimblecombia , like that of Diaphoraspis and related Australian Aonidiini, is Casuarina (though 1 species, B. magnicauda , is found on Acacia , like some North American Ancepaspis species).

Figures

FIGURE 19. Brimblecombia rotundicauda (Brimblecombe), adult female, ventral surface. Adapted from Brimblecombe (1959b).

FIGURE 20. Brimblecombia rotundicauda (Brimblecombe), adult female pygidium. Adapted from Brimblecombe (1959b). The dorsal surface is shown on the left and the ventral surface on the right.