Ferrisia terani Williams & Granara de Willink

Kaydan, M. B. & Gullan, P. J., 2012, 3543, Zootaxa 3543, pp. 1-65 : 46

Ferrisia terani Williams & Granara de Willink

( Fig. 19)

Ferrisia terani Williams & Granara de Willink, 1992: 181 .

Type material examined. Paratype: 1 adult ♀, ex Citrus , ARGENTINA, Tucumán, 26.vii.1977, C. Granara de Willink ( USNM) .

Other material examined. 2 adult ♀ (2 slides, DNA vouchers FBK015 & PG90), ex Citrus , ARGENTINA, Tucumán, S. M. de Tucumán, May 2002, M.C. Granara de Willink ( BME) ; 1 adult ♀, ex Persea sp. , MEXICO, San Antonio , 15.vi.1972, C. Parker, 4009 ( USNM) ; 1 adult ♀, ex leaf of Eriobotrya sp. , MEXICO, intercepted at Los Angeles 049882, 27.v.1985, D. Roll, 85-8491 ( USNM) ; 2 adult ♀ (on slide with a non- Ferrisia mealybug), ex Jodina rhombifolia , URUGUAY, Colonia Suiza, H.L. Parker , received 7.ix.1944, So. Amer. Par. Lab., 869-10 ( USNM) ; 2 adult ♀ (2 slides), ex Vaccinium ashei , USA, Florida, Hawthorne , 21.xi.1997, J. Beckwith, E97-4417 ( FSCA) .

Other material of doubtful identity (not totally typical of F. terani ): 1 adult ♀, ex Opuntia sp. , MEXICO 18.ii.1993, H. Griab, El Pugo 42832, 93 03393 ( USNM). This female has wider enlarged tubular ducts (width at duct mid-length: 6.0–7.3 µm on head; 7.0–8.3 µm on posterior abdomen) than typical specimens of F. terani (see below), but the ducts may have been distorted by overheating in KOH during clearing. The antennae (ca. 700 µm long) and legs of this Mexican specimen also are slightly longer than these appendages on the paratype of F. terani that we examined.

This species was described from citrus and cassava in Argentina and Guatemala ( Williams & Granara de Willink 1992). Other collections (listed above) suggest that the species is quite widespread in South America and Mexico and also polyphagous, with host-plant records from Ericaceae , Euphorbiaceae , Lauraceae , Rosaceae , Rutaceae and Santalaceae , and perhaps also Cactaceae if the female from Opuntia belongs to this species.

The adult female is described and well illustrated in the original description (redrawn and modifed here, Fig. 19). It resembles the adult female of F. malvastra in having multilocular pores around the vulva only (fewer than 9 pores for F. terani ) and having narrow dorsal enlarged tubular ducts, with a shaft diameter of 4.0–5.0 µm at mid-length (unless the specimen has been over-cleared in KOH, which distorts duct width), with the ducts narrower on the head than on the abdomen. The adult female of F. terani can be distinguished from that of F. malvastra by its slender body shape (body broadly oval for F. malvastra ) and by having the dorsal enlarged tubular ducts on the posterior abdominal segments with the associated setae situated inside a large sclerotised area surrounding each duct (setae usually situated on the edge of a small sclerotised area surrounding each duct in F. malvastra ).