Archaeococcoid scale insects (Hemiptera: Coccoidea) from the tropical high mountains of the Andean Cordillera, South America
Author
Foldi, Imre
text
Zootaxa
2009
2300
1
38
journal article
40341
10.5281/zenodo.191685
1b3d32d1-1cb8-4508-a45a-c7608b7d8e54
1175-5326
191685
The family
Monophlebidae
in the Neotropical region
The
Monophlebidae
is a large family with a worldwide distribution. The classification of the Monophlebinae (now
Monophlebidae
) was first established by
Morrison (1927)
, and discussed further in his remarkable monograph (
Morrison, 1928
). Since then there have been additional significant studies, the latest by
Unruh & Gullan (2008a
,
2008b
), and
Williams & Gullan (2008)
.
Adult female monophlebids are usually rather large, and important characteristic at all growth stages is their mobility, due to the presence of well-developed brown or black legs. The adult females are characterised by the following morphological features: antennae 7–11 segmented; ventral cicatrices present on the abdomen, usually with 1 or 3 posterior to the vulva, but in some cases many more; multilocular pores often numerous, but rather variable in the structure and configuration of the loculi; multilocular pores also sometimes in groups, forming either an ovisac pore band or marsupial pore band; hairs, hair-like setae, flagellate setae, spiniform setae and spines present or absent; thoracic spiracles usually without pores in atrium; abdominal spiracles varying in number from 2 to 7 pairs, each with or without pores in atrium; anal opening dorsal, with a simple anal tube either with only a sclerotised ring or also with pores at inner end. Identification of monophlebid species is often very difficult. Therefore, for taxonomic purposes, the simultaneous description of the adult female and male, and the first-instar nymph of a given species helps to establish the best characters for its identification and those of related species (Foldi, 2006;
Foldi & Watson, 2001
).
The taxonomy of the
Monophlebidae
in the Neotropical region has been greatly modified by the recent major revision of the tribe Iceryini (
Unruh & Gullan, 2008a
), which is the largest and the most widely distributed tribe in the family (Foldi, 2001;
Ben-Dov, 2005
).
Unruh & Gullan (2008a)
reconstructed the phylogeny of the Iceryini on the basis of molecular data and established numerous new combinations, new synonymies, considered several species to be
incertae sedis
, and designated
lectotypes
. They recognised 74 species in the tribe Iceryini belonging to only five genera:
Crypticerya
Cockerell
,
Echinicerya
Morrison
,
Gigantococcus
Pesson & Bielenin
,
Gueriniella
Fernald
and
Icerya
Signoret.
Unruh & Gullan
(2008a)
redescribed and illustrated the
type
species of each genus, and provided a key to the genera based on adult females. In addition,
Unruh & Gullan (2008b)
published an identification guide to all species in the tribe Iceryini, and the genus
Crypticerya
has been revised recently by Unruh (2008). Recently,
Kondo & Unruh (2009)
described a polyphagus new species,
Crypticerya multicicatrices
Kondo & Unruh
, from
Colombia
, with a key to the adult females of South American iceryine species.
The fauna of the Neotropical region now includes 33 known monophlebid species in 7 genera and 2 tribes: 1. Tribe Iceryini:
Crypticerya
Cockerell
,
Echinicerya
Morrison
and
Icerya
Signoret
; and 2. Tribe Llaveiini:
Laurencella
Foldi
,
Llaveia
(Llave)
,
Neohodgsonius
(Foldi)
and
Protortonia
Townsend
(Foldi, 2001,
Ben-Dov, 2005
,
Williams & Gullan, 2008
,
Unruh & Gullan, 2008a
,
b
). The record of the tribe Monophlebini in the Neotropics is based on
Monophlebus niveus
Hempel
from
Brazil
(
Hempel, 1920
) and, although the identity of this species has not been established, it is unlikely to be congeneric with the
type
species of
Monophlebus
Guérin-Méneville
,
M. atripennis
Burmeister
from Java. The largest of these genera is
Crypticerya
, which now includes 16 species in the Neotropical region excluding the Nearctic part of
Mexico
: 1.
C. abrahami
(Newstead)
from
Venezuela
and
Guyana
; 2.
C. brasiliensis
(Hempel)
from
Argentina
,
Brazil
,
Colombia
,
Panama
and
Peru
; 3.
C. flava
(Hempel)
from
Brazil
; 4.
C. flocculosa
(Hempel)
from
Brazil
; 5.
C. genistae
(Hempel)
from
Brazil
and recently spread to the Caribben and southeastern
USA
(
Hodges
et al
., 2008
); 6.
C. luederwaldti
(Hempel)
from
Brazil
; 7.
C. minima
(Morrison)
from
Argentina
; 8.
C. montserratensis
(Riley & Howard)
from
Colombia
,
Grenada
,
Mexico
,
Montserrat
,
Panama
and
Puerto Rico
; 9.
C. multicicatrices
Kondo & Unruh
from
Colombia
; 10.
C. palmeri
(Riley & Howard)
from
Argentina
,
Chile
and
Mexico
; 11.
C. pimentae
(Newstead)
from
Jamaica
and
USA
. 12. C.
rileyi
(Cockerell) from
Mexico
; 13.
C. rosae
(Riley & Howard)
from
Colombia
,
Mexico
,
Puerto Rico
and
USA
(Florida); 14.
C. similis
(Morrison)
from
El Salvador
,
Panama
and
Trinidad
; 15.
C. subandina
(Leonardi)
from
Argentina
, and 16.
C. zeteki
(Cockerell)
from
Colombia
and
Panama
Canal Zone.
Echinicerya
includes only
E. anomala
Morrison
from
Guatemala
. The most widespread monophlebid species in the Neotropics is
Icerya purchasi
Maskell
, found in most South American countries, but native to
Australia
. Two other
Icerya
species have been recorded in the Neotropics, namely
I. seychellarum
(Westwood)
and
I. schrottkyi
Hempel.
The tribe Llaveiini includes four genera:
Laurencella
includes
L. colombiana
Foldi & Watson
from
Colombia
,
L. marikana
Foldi
from
Mexico
,
L. taunayi
(Hempel)
from
Brazil
and
L. uhleri
(Signoret)
(see below).
Llaveia
includes
L. axin
(Llave)
from
Guatemala
,
Mexico
(Nearctic and Neotropical), and
L. championi
(Cockerell)
from
Panama
.
Neohodgsonius
includes
N. cassicola
(Foldi)
from
Venezuela
. The species
Palaeococcus brasiliensis
(Walker)
was described based on adult males from
Brazil
(
Walker, 1852
) and, although it is impossible to determine which genus this species belongs to, almost certainly it is not congeneric with the
type
species of
Palaeococcus
Cockerell
from Europe. In addition,
Williams & Gullan (2008)
have revised the Neotropical genus
Protortonia
Townsend
, describing and illustrating all known species, including all available instars, and this genus includes: 1.
P. azteca
(Ferris)
from
Mexico
; 2.
P. cacti
(L.) from
Puerto Rico
; 3.
P. c ro t o n i s
Reyne from
Netherlands Antilles
; 4.
P. ecuadorensis
Foldi
from
Ecuador
and
Colombia
. 5.
P. navesi
Fonseca
from
Brazil
. 6.
P. primitiva
(Townsend)
from
Mexico
, and 7.
P. quernea
Williams & Gullan
from
Costa Rica
, collected at
3000 m
on
Quercus
sp. (
Fagaceae
), on the slope of a volcano.
Williams & Gullan (2008)
provided keys to the genera in the tribe Llaveiini (based on adult female characters), and to the adult females of
Protortonia
species. They transferred
Marchalina azteca
Ferris
to
Protortonia
(as
P. azteca
(Ferris))
, synonymised
Ecuadortonia
Ben-Dov
with
Laurencella
Foldi
, and transferred
Ortonia uhleri
Signoret
to
Laurencella
(as
L. uhleri
(Signoret))
.
Remark
. Readers can refer to the key in
Unruh & Gullan (2008b)
for identification of adult females of Iceryini and to
Williams & Gullan (2008)
for genera of Llaveiini.