Kermes Boitard, 1828

Spodek, Malkie & Ben-Dov, Yair, 2014, A taxonomic revision of the Kermesidae (Hemiptera: Coccoidea) in Israel, with a description of a new species, Zootaxa 3781 (1), pp. 1-99 : 9

Kermes Boitard, 1828

Type species. Coccus variegatus Gmelin (= Kermes roboris Fourcroy ), subsequently designated by Fernald, 1903.

Introduction. The genus Kermes is the type genus of the family Kermesidae . Some of the synonyms for this genus include Kermococcus Silvestri and Talla von Heyden ( Bullington & Kosztarab, 1985). This is the only genus that is found in all regions of the world where Kermesidae species are recorded: the Nearctic region with 16 species, the Oriental and Palaearctic regions both with 23 species, the latter including the six described in this study from Israel ( Ben-Dov et al., 2013).

All Kermes species share the following traits in the adult female: presence of (i) a submarginal band of tubular ducts on venter; (ii) multilocular pores ventrally on the abdominal segments, and (iii) a three-segmented labium with 14 setose setae. Our study suggests that the many species currently included in Kermes have a very varied morphology making a generic diagnosis difficult, indicating that further work needs to be done, particularly those described from post-reproductive females.