Ceroplastes sinensis, Del Guercio, 1900

Wu, San-An & Wang, Xubo, 2019, A review species of the genus Ceroplastes (Hemiptera: Coccomorpha: Coccidae) in China, Zootaxa 4701 (6), pp. 520-536 : 532

Ceroplastes sinensis : a note on its distribution in China

There are two contradictory views in the literature regarding the presence of Ceroplastes sinensis in China. Some authors have recorded it from China: Fernald (1903), Wu (1935), Chen & Wong (1936) and Li (1952) only listed “China’ for its distribution; Silvestri (1920) listed Shanghai and Hong Kong as distribution sites, based on Ehrhorn’s identification of specimens that Mr. A. Koebele collected; and Chou (1947) listed C. sinensis as one of 22 commonly seen scale insects on citrus in China, gave short descriptions of its morphology and biology, and said that “this species has a limited distribution, only found from Jiangsu, Guangdong and Sichuan ”. Pen (1960) studied its parasites in Szechwan (= Sichuan) Province.

On the other hand, Young (1959) and Yang 1982) considered that C. sinensis did not occur in China, and that the records of Wu (1935) and other publications were based on a misunderstanding from the scientific name “ sinensis ”. Xu (1964) agreed with Young (1959) based on review of publications by Fernald (1903), Wu (1935), Li (1952) and a probably erroneous reference, ‘Del Guercio. 1901. Science, n.s. xiii, no. 325, p.469’, which does not exist in the ScaleNet database. Qin et al. (1994) listed ‘ China ” as an incorrect distribution record, mainly because they considered Ehrhorn’s identification (see above), and the survey result by Silvestri (1929), were “unlikely to be reliable”. We think that their conclusion that ‘ C. sinensis did not occur in China’ was not correct, since (1) Young (1959) and Yang 1982) and Xu (1964) did not provide any solid evidence; (2) Qin et al. (1994) ’s opinion on Ehrhorn’s identification was subjective; (3) although C. sinensis was not found in China by Silvestri (1929), in the same paper he also said that many citrus-cultivating provinces such as Guangxi (=Kwangsi) and Sichuan (Szechouen) had not been investigated; and (4) Chou (1947) was not discussed in papers such as Yang (1982) and Qin et al. (1994). Professor Io Chou was a student of Professor Silvestri, and spent two years in Italy in 1934–1935 so it is likely that he would have had knowledge of C. sinensis . As mentioned above, Chou gave distribution data in China, but unfortunately no illustration was given; so there is no sound evidence to support either the presence of C. sinensis in China, or its absence. No Chinese material of this species has been seen in this study.