Dynaspidiotus britannicus ( Newstead, 1898 )

Mifsud, David, Mazzeo, Gaetana, Russo, Agatino & Watson, Gillian W., 2014, The scale insects (Hemiptera: Coccoidea) of the Maltese Archipelago, Zootaxa 3866 (4), pp. 499-525 : 517

Dynaspidiotus britannicus ( Newstead, 1898)

This is probably an erroneous record based on a misidentification. Borg (1932) recorded this species (as Aspidiotus britannicus ), as frequent in many places on Pittosporum tobira , Viburnum tinus , Euonymus japonicus , Hedera helix and others. However, there are no further records of this species from Malta and all recent records from the above-mentioned host-plants are Aspidiotus nerii . In addition, D. britannicus has never been recorded on either Pittosporum or Euonymus , whereas A. nerii has been recorded on all four of the above mentioned host plants. On the Dynaspidiotus britannicus catalogue page, ScaleNet ( Ben-Dov et al., 2014) says: “ Aspidiotus hederae ; Newstead, 1896: 279. Misidentification; discovered by Newstead, 1898: 94 ”. Since Borg (1932) included Aspidiotus hederae Newst. non Vallot as a synonym of Aspidiotus britannicus , it seems likely that he was following Newstead’s misidentification. Dynaspidiotus britannicus is therefore excluded from the Maltese scale insect fauna.