Crypticerya flocculosa (Hempel)

Unruh, Corinne M. & Gullan, Penny J., 2008, Identification guide to species in the scale insect tribe Iceryini (Coccoidea: Monophlebidae), Zootaxa 1803 (1), pp. 1-106 : 30

Crypticerya flocculosa (Hempel)

Icerya flocculosa Hempel, 1932: 312 .

Crypticerya flocculosa (Hempel) ; Unruh & Gullan (2008: 26) .

Diagnosis (adapted from Hempel, 1932). Adult female yellow, body almost entirely hidden by thick layer of white wax arranged in tufts or thick, twisted ribbons; margin with 18–20 thick tufts, longest at anterior and posterior ends, these tufts also fluted and can be very long; thick tufts present on middorsum. Ovisac striated and truncated, turned upwards at end. Adult female oval, 4 mm long, 3.5 mm wide. Antennae 11 segmented. Legs as for tribe. Thoracic spiracles as for genus. Derm covered in setae, longest (0.5 mm) arranged around margin. Multilocular pores of two types present on the derm: (i) each 6 µm in diameter with triangular or square centre and 8 or 9 outer loculi, densest around margin and head, and (ii) each 10 µm in diameter, with triangular, square or pentagonal centre and large number of outer loculi, arranged in transverse rows on dorsal abdomen. Ventral cicatrices oval to round, numbering 3, central cicatrix largest. Abdominal spiracles as for genus.

Type data. BRAZIL: São Paulo, Cotia , ex Citrus and cultivated chestnut, v.1931 (Z. Vaz) .

Type material. Syntypes: ad ♀♀, 1 st -instar nymphs ( SAPO) .

Taxonomic notes. We were unable to examine material of this species. Hempel believed this species could be distinguished from other iceryines by the abundance of white secretion and its arrangement in tufts and ribbons. Hempel’s descriptions of pore types are unlike any other Crypticerya species examined. The description of pores sounds similar to the pores of species in the Icerya pulchra group.