Crypticerya tabernicola (Ferris)

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 : 43-44

Crypticerya tabernicola (Ferris)

Steatococcus tabernicolus Ferris, 1921: 70 .

Crypticerya tabernicola (Ferris) ; Unruh & Gullan (2008: 28) .

Unmounted material. Mature adult female globose, round and most distended across abdomen; body dark purple; legs, antennae and eyes black; with age, covered in mealy secretion forming conspicuous transverse rows across dorsum; waxy tendrils forming around margin and dorsal head and thorax.

Slide-mounted material. Adult female elliptical, 4.4–5.2 mm long, 3.2–4.5 mm wide (lectotype 5.2 mm long, 4.5 mm wide). Antenna 10 or 11 segmented (segments V and VI fused if 10 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. Short hair-like setae sparsely scattered across all surfaces; longest setae forming marginal clusters and between antennae. Flagellate setae distributed as for genus. Simple multilocular pores, each 10–12 µm in diameter, with bilocular centre and 6–12 outer loculi, forming medial to submedial longitudinal row on dorsal head and thorax, densest in marginal clusters on dorsal abdomen and on medial to submedial dorsal abdomen anterior to anal opening and medial to marginal dorsal abdomen posterior to anal opening; similar pores, each 12–13 µm in diameter, with bilocular (sometimes trilocular) centre and 8–12 outer loculi, forming marginal clusters and scattered on marginal to submarginal ventral head and thorax and across ventral abdomen. Marsupium present, shaped as for genus, except anterior edge formed by sparse row of multilocular pores; marsupial band formed by sparse short hair-like setae and simple multilocular pores of two types: (i) larger pores forming inner band 5–7 pores wide, each 12–13 µm in diameter, with bilocular or trilocular centre and 6–9 outer loculi, and (ii) smaller pores, each 8–10 µm in diameter, with bilocular or trilocular centre and 6–10 outer loculi and appearing slightly bluish when stained, scattered around inner band. Simple multilocular pores, each 10–12 µm in diameter, with bilocular or trilocular centre and 4–6 outer loculi, scattered on ventromedial to submedial head and thorax; similar pores, with bilocular centre and 4 or 5 outer loculi, scattered in marsupium. Vulvar opening as for genus, surrounded by typical multilocular pores, each 13–15 µm in diameter, with elongate centre and 8–12 outer loculi. Cicatrices numbering 3, central cicatrix largest, hourglass-shaped, lateral cicatrices reniform. Abdominal spiracles as for genus. Anal tube as for genus; anal opening as for genus, surrounded by robust hair-like setae and typical multilocular pores, each 12–14 µm in diameter. Slightly wrinkled patches of derm on submarginal and submedial thorax and in transverse rows on abdomen.

First-instar nymph as for genus, except each dorsal abdominal segment with one submarginal pore, one submedial pore and one medial pore and relatively short hair-like setae at abdominal apex in 2 pairs.

Type data. MEXICO: Baja California, near La Rivera, ex Prosopis sp .

Type material. Lectotype here designated: ad ♀, “ Palaeococcus Type /tabernicolus/n.sp./ On Prosopis sp. / Near La Rivera Dist. / Sur Baja Calif./ July 1919 / G.F. Ferris /Entomological Laboratory/Stanford University” ( BME) . Paralectotype: 2 nd -instar nymph, “ Palaeococcus Paratype /tabernicolus/n.sp./ On Prosopis sp. / Near La Rivera Dist. / Sur, /Baja Calif./ July 1919 / G.F. Ferris /Entomological Laboratory/Stanford University” ( BME) .

Other material examined. MEXICO: 1 st -instar nymph, “ Palaeococcus tabernicolus n.sp. /On Prosopis sp. /Near La Rivera Dist./Sur, Baja Calif./July, 1919/G.F. Ferris/Entomological Laboratory/Stanford University” ( BME).

Taxonomic notes. Refer to the C. rileyi group for discussion of similar species.

Ferris stated that only two specimens were available for study and that immature stages were not seen (1921: 70). The slide with the second-instar nymph is labelled “ Paratype ” and therefore we consider this the second specimen to which Ferris referred. CMU discovered a 1 st -instar nymph in the BME slide collection with Ferris’s slide label and identical collection information written in the same handwriting as the type material. As Ferris explicitly stated that he did not see the any other material, we consider this first-instar nymph not to be as part of the type series.