Crypticerya tuberculata (Morrison)

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 : 45-46

Crypticerya tuberculata (Morrison)

Steatococcus tuberculatus Morrison, 1941: 140 .

Crypticerya tuberculata (Morrison) ; Unruh & Gullan (2008: 28) .

Unmounted material. Adult female strongly ovoid, broadest and high convex across abdomen, narrowest at anterior end. Body of adult female blue purple in colour, dusted with wax, with whitish or yellowish tufts of wax forming four tufts on dorsum and eight tufts around margin on each side of body. Short tubercles forming four rows on dorsal surface, each tubercle with several stout setae; three or four tubercles forming inner submedial rows on head and thorax; six tubercles forming outer, submarginal rows; two conspicuous marginal tubercles on each side, apparently associated with thoracic spiracular region of the body margin; smaller, inconspicuous tubercles on each body segment around margin; these tubercles less conspicuous in old, fully distended and sclerotized adults (adapted from Morrison, 1941).

Slide-mounted material. Adult female elliptical, 6.0–7.0 mm long, 4.2–5.6 mm wide (holotype 6.0 mm long, 5.6 mm wide). Antenna 11 segmented. Eyes, mouthparts and legs as for tribe. Thoracic spiracles as for genus; derm at atrial opening with 5–10 simple multilocular pores, each with bilocular centre and 8–10 outer loculi. Robust hair-like setae and finer hair-like setae scattered across all segments; longest setae forming marginal clusters and between antennae. Flagellate setae distributed as for genus. Simple multilocular pores, each 12–14 µm in diameter, with bilocular (rarely trilocular) centre and 8–12 outer loculi, scattered across all body segments, densest on head and thorax; similar, smaller pores, each 10–12 µm in diameter, forming marginal clusters and scattered across ventral marginal to submarginal head and thorax and across abdomen. Marsupium present, shaped as for genus; marsupial band formed by short hair-like setae, each 38–50 µm long, and simple multilocular pores two types: (i) larger pores forming inner band 5–7 pores wide, each pore 12–13 µm in diameter, with bilocular or trilocular centre and 6–9 outer loculi, and (ii) smaller pores scattered outside of inner band, each pore 11–12 µm in diameter, with bilocular or trilocular centre and 6–12 outer loculi. Simple multilocular pores, each 9–10 µm in diameter, with bilocular or trilocular centre and 4–8 outer loculi appearing and slightly bluish when stained, scattered on ventromedial to submedial head and thorax; similar pores, each 9–10 µm in diameter, with bilocular centre and 4–6 outer loculi, scattered within marsupium. Vulvar opening as for genus, surrounded by typical multilocular pores, each 13–15 µm in diameter, with elongate to bilocular centre and 10–12 outer loculi. Cicatrices oval to reniform, numbering 3, central cicatrix largest. Abdominal spiracles as for genus. Anal ring as for genus; anal opening surrounded by robust hair-like setae and typical multilocular pores, each 10–13 µm in diameter. Tubercles present on dorsal head and thorax in 1 medial pair, 2 submedial pairs and 2 submarginal pairs; present on abdomen in 4 longitudinal rows: 2 medial, 2 submarginal; each tubercle with several robust hair-like setae on tips, each 100–200 µm long; tubercles present on venter in marginal longitudinal band, with several robust hair-like setae on tips, each 100–350 µm long.

First-instar nymph as for genus, except each dorsal abdominal segment with one submarginal pore, one submedial pore and one medial pore, and long hair-like setae at abdominal apex in two pairs.

Type data. MEXICO: Oaxaca, Oaxaca, ex Acacia pennatula , 20-30.xi.1930 (S. Hughes-Schrader); San Geronimo, ex Caesalpinia coriaria , 20-30.xi.1930 (S. Hughes-Schrader).

Type material. Holotype: ad ♀, “ Steatococcus tuberculatus /n.sp./ On Acacia pennatula / Oaxaca, Oax., Mexico / Nov.20-30, 1933 / By S. Hughes-Schrader /No. 41-1” ( USNM) . Paratypes: 4 1 st -instar nymphs (one slide, same data as holotype) ( USNM); 2 ad ♀, 7 1 st -instar nymphs (nymphs on one slide), “ Steatococcus tuberculatus /n.sp./On Caesalpinia coriaria /Sa Geronimo, Oax.,/ Mexico / By S. Hughes-Schrader ” ( USNM) .

Taxonomic notes. This species is distinct from all other Crypticerya species by the presence of elongate tubercles on the dorsal surface and margin. Refer to the C. mexicana group for further discussion of similar species.

Hughes-Schrader collected C. tuberculata in Oaxaca, Mexico, and it was described by Morrison (1941). Hughes-Schrader established greenhouse populations of this species at Columbia University and later at Duke University from a stock of females she collected in Tehuantepec, Oaxaca, Mexico, which, according to Moses and Wilson (1970, p. 375), “were imported by permission of the Bureau of Entomology and Plant Quarantine of the U.S. Department of Agriculture”. The insects were maintained on Acacia arnesiana and A. pennatula in a small, non-fumigated greenhouse. This captive population provided fresh material for Hughes-Schrader, her colleagues and students to study the cytology of this species extensively for decades ( Franks, 1965; Hughes- Schrader, 1946; Hughes-Schrader & Ris, 1941; Moses, 1966a, 1966b; Moses & Wilson, 1970; O'Brien, 1956).