Pulvinaria dodonaeae Maskell

Hodgson, Chris, 2020, A review of neococcid scale insects (Hemiptera: Sternorrhyncha: Coccomorpha) based on the morphology of the adult males, Zootaxa 4765 (1), pp. 1-264 : 241-244

? Pulvinaria dodonaeae Maskell ( Fig. 94 )

Pulvinaria dodonaeae Maskell 1893, 222 . Type data: Australia, host plant not indicated. Lectotype, female, by subsequent designation ( Qin & Gullan, 1992, 115). Type depository: NZAC.

Pulvinaria greeni Froggatt 1915, 415 . Type data: Australia, New South Wales, Condobolin, on Myoporum deserti . Lectotype, female, by subsequent designation ( Qin & Gullan 1992, 115). Type depository: Museu de Zoologia, Universidade de São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil. Junior synonym, Qin & Gullan 1992, 115.

Pulvinaria dodonaeae Maskell ; Ben-Dov 1993, 257.

Material examined: Australia, Pulvinaria dodonaeae Maskell , no other site details but thought to be New South Wales, on Myoporum sp. ( Myoporaceae ), 30.ix.1977, no coll ( ASCU): 3/3ad ♂♂ (fair-good).

Note: Whilst this is not a type specimen, it should be noted that Pulvinaria greeni Froggatt (1915) , which was synonymised with P. dodonaeae by Qin & Gullan (1992), was collected off Myoporum deserti (Myoporaceae) .

Mounted material. Moderate in size, 1.60–1.66 mm long, width across triangular plates (tp) 430–440 μm; body robust; antennae about 3/4 total length of body; body with very few setae, all hair-like setae (hs); fleshy setae (fs)

present on antennae and legs; fs fairly easily differentiated from hair-like setae. Head only weakly reticulated. Pores (other than those in glandular pouches) absent. Wings slightly shorter than total body length but quite broad.

Head. About 228–240 μm long; width across genae 270–290 μm. Median crest (mc) only very faintly reticu- lated dorsally, of about equal width along entire length or narrowing slightly posteriorly; dorsal head setae (dhs) few, totalling 1–4 hs. Dorsal mid-cranial ridge absent; ventral mid-cranial ridge (vmcr) present, quite long, extending to ocular sclerite (ocs), vmcr with perhaps a few reticulations laterally but without ventral median ridge setae (vmcrs); lateral mid-cranial ridges (lmcr) distinct. Genae (g) with very faint, large reticulations but without genal setae (gs). Eyes: with two pairs of large simple eyes, ventral eyes (vse) slightly larger (60–65 μm wide) than dorsal eyes (dse) (50–55 μm wide); dorsal pair dorsad to scape, ventral pair near posterior margin of head. Ocelli (o) distinct, each 12–18 μm wide. Ocular sclerite (ocs) apparently weakly reticulated. Preocular ridge fairly short dorsally but long ventrally, extending almost to ventral mid-cranial ridge. Postocular ridge (procr) strongly developed, extending almost to median crest dorsally; more or less touching ocelli posteriorly and sometimes with a short extension up dorsal margin; interocular ridge (ior) absent. Dorsal ocular setae (docs): 0 or 1 hs on each side. Ventral head setae (vhs) absent. Tentorial bridge (tb) possibly poorly developed. Cranial apophysis (ca) well developed, with a squarish or slightly trifurcated apex, perhaps 60–66 μm long.

Antennae: 10-segmented, filiform. Each 1200 μm long; scape (scp) 40–45 μm long, 53–58 μm wide, with 3 hs on ventral surface and none dorsally; pedicel (pdc) 45–50 μm long, 50–55 μm wide, apparently without polygo- nal reticulations; with 1–3 hs only, all ventral, + a campaniform pore. Segments III–X rather narrow, width 23–28 μm; lengths of segments (μm): III 90–105; IV 140–165; V 178–185; VI 153–195; VII 157–175; VIII 132–150; IX 130–135 and X 110–115; setae: fs each about 30 μm long (1 or 2 much shorter, down to perhaps 13 μm), hs absent; approximate number of fs per segment: III 9–12; IV 20; V 28; VI 27; VII 19; VIII 18 + 1 antennal bristle (ab); IX 18 + 1 ab; X 11 fs, 3 ab + 3 short capitate setae (caps), each about 35 μm long; segment X not constricted apically; one sensilla basiconica on apex.

Thorax: Prothorax: pronotal ridge (prnr) strong and fused medially; lateral pronotal sclerite (prn) very narrow and poorly developed; without medial, post-tergital or lateral pronotal setae; post-tergite absent. Prosternum (stn 1) with a strong transverse ridge, each with a small apophysis; median ridge absent, but sternite with a few ridges laterally; pronotal setae (st 1 s), anteprosternal setae (astn 1 s) and antemesospiracular (asp 1 s) setae absent. Proepisternum + cervical sclerite (pepcv) well developed.

Mesothorax: prescutum (prsc) large, length 132–136 μm, width 170–180 μm; without reticulations or nodula- tions; prescutal setae absent; prescutal ridge (pscr) and prescutal sclerite (pscs) well developed. Prealare (pra) and triangular plate (tp) well developed. Scutum (sct): median membranous area large, about three times wider than long, length 50–70 μm, width 178–207 μm, with 2–4 pairs short hs scutal setae (scts); scutum without scutal setae laterally, without nodulations laterad to scutellum; prealar ridge (prar) distinct, terminating in a well-developed anterior notal wing process (anp). Scutellum (scl) rectangular and tubular, with a moderately large foramen, length 75–78 μm, width 198–230 μm; with 2–5 pairs of short hs scutellar setae (scls) + 2–4 small pores. Mesopostnotum (pn 2) normal; postnotal apophysis (pna) well developed; area within mesopostnotum membranous. Mesepisternum (eps 2) well developed, without ridges or reticulations. Basisternum (stn 2): length 175–200 μm, width 290–325 μm; median ridge (mdr) strong and complete; bounded by strong marginal (mr) and precoxal (pcr 2) ridges; without basisternal setae; lateropleurite (lpl) large, with a short extension from marginal ridge along anterior border; furca (f) waisted, with long furcal arms extending about 2/3rds to marginal ridge (mr). Postalare (pa) well developed, reticulated at anterior end; postalare setae absent. Mesothoracic spiracle (sp 2) 30 μm wide. Postmesospiracular setae absent. Tegula (teg): well developed, without tegular setae (tegs). Wing sclerites apparently normal.

Metathorax: metapostnotum (pn 3) absent; metatergal setae (mts): 0 or 1 on each side. Dorsospiracular setae (dss) absent. Metapleural ridge (plr 3) absent dorsally, short ventrally. Metepisternum (eps 3) unsclerotised, without postmetaspiracular setae (eps 3 s). Metepimeron (epm 3) well developed, without setae. Antemetaspiracular setae absent. Metathoracic spiracle (sp 3): peritreme 28–30 μm wide. Metasternum (stn 3) lightly sclerotised. Anterior metasternal (amss) and posterior metasternal setae (pmss) absent. All structures associated with hamulohalteres absent.

Wings: apparently quite broad although mostly very crumpled, length 1375–1425 μm, width about 640 μm (ratio of total body length to wing length 1:0.86; ratio of wing length to width 1: 0.47). Without alar lobes, alar setae or alar sensilla. Hamulohalteres (h) absent.

Legs: prothoracic legs longest. Fairly setose, mainly with fs or spur-like setae. Coxae (cx) lengths (μm): I 120–125; II 125–133; III 128–138; procoxae without coxal bristles; metacoxae with 19–22 fs + 7 hs; apical seta 25–35 μm long. Trochanter (tr) + femur (f) lengths (μm): I 320–325; II 285–290; III 275–285; each trochanter with a line of oval campaniform pores on each side; metatrochanter with 7–9 fs + 2 or 3 hs; long trochanter seta short, each 38–40 μm long; each metafemur with 28–30 fs + 11 or 12 hs. Tibia (ti) lengths (μm): I 365–375; II 335–350; III 340–345; metatibia with many setae, mostly fs and spur-like on distal half; tibial spurs (tibs) 22–27 μm long. Tarsi (ta) lengths (μm): I 128–130; II 125–128; III 120–130; metatarsi with mostly spur-like setae and fs; tarsal spurs (tabs) barely differentiated, each 18–22 μm long; tarsal campaniform pore (tcp) absent; tarsal digitules (tdt) shorter than claw, capitate. Claws (c) each 27–30 μm long, longer than width of tarsi, slightly curved, with a small denticle; claw digitules (cdt) longer than claw and capitate.

Abdomen. Segments I–VII membranous, sclerotisations on sternites (as), tergites (at) and pleurites (ap) absent. Dorsal abdominal setae (ads) few (all hs), segment I with 0; segments II–IV each with 1 pair medially; segments V–VII each with 1 mediolaterally. Ventral abdominal setae (avs) (all hs): segments III–VI each with 1 seta mediolaterally, V & VI each with a pair medially; VII with 2 pairs. Dorsal pleural setae (dps) few, with 1 hs on II and 2 hs on each of segments III–VI; ventral pleural setae (vps) uncertain, perhaps absent.

Segment VIII: tergite (at) not apparently sclerotised; caudal extension rounded, with 3 hs. Ante-anal setae present, 1 or 2 hs; sternite VIII sclerotised, forming anterior border of basal membranous area (bma); without setae. Glandular pouches (gp) very deep; glandular pouch setae (gls) (mainly broken) each 125–137 μm long, with slightly capitate apices.

Genital segments: segment IX and style fused. Penial sheath (ps) stout, 315–350 μm long; 105–110 μm wide at base; rather parallel-sided proximally and then gradually tapering to a sharp apex (ratio of total body length to penial sheath length 1:0.2). Anus (an) with a sclerotised margin; 28–30 μm wide. Basal rod (bra) very short, length 25–35 μm, not nearly reaching basal membranous area (bma) anteriorly; without an extension posteriorly down aedeagus. Aedeagus (aed) much shorter than penial sheath, broading slightly towards apex, length 150–160 μm; approximately parallel-sided. Style with 5–9 minute setae on each side and a group of sensory pores on apex.

Comment. The adult male of P.? dodonaeae is clearly very different from the males of P.? betulae (L.) and P. acericola (Walsh & Riley) described by Giliomee (1967a). In particular, the complete absence of fleshy setae on the body indicates that this species is not at all closely related to Pulvinaria vitis (Linnaeus) , the type species of Pulvinaria , and needs to be placed in another genus. It is also clear from the description of the adult female of P. dodonaeae by Qin & Gullan (1992) that this species is not a member of the Pulvinariini and indeed probably does not belong the subfamily Coccinae ! P. dodonaeae is an Australian endemic and is hard to place taxonomically at the present time.

The taxonomy of the Pulvinariini is in dire need of revision but currently contains between 18 and 20 genera, with the genus Pulvinaria alone currently including 143 species ( García Morales et al. 2019). T. Kondo and L.G. Cook (unpublished data based on a Bayesian phylogenetic analysis of the family Coccidae using DNA sequences based on 18S, 28S and partial CO1 data) and Hodgson and Hardy (unpublished data based on adult male morphology) found the Pulvinariini to be non-monophyletic. Recently, Choi and Lee (2019) concluded that the Pulvinariini did not fall within the family Coccinae and that it was non-monophyletic. Hodgson (1994), in his review of the family Coccidae , divided the tribe Pulvinariini into at least three, fairly distinct groups based on adult female morphology: (i) the Milviscutulus - group, (ii) the Pulvinarisca -group, and (iii) the Pulvinaria -group. These groups were also found in Kondo and Cook’s unpublished study.

Figures

FIGURE 94.?Pulvinaria dodonaeae Maskell. Macropterous male. (Coccidae). Where A=cranial apophysis and R=dermal reticulations on ocular sclerite.