Crypticerya brasiliensis (Hempel)

Kondo, Takumasa, Gullan, Penny J., Peronti, Ana L. B. G., Ramos-Portilla, Andrea Amalia, Caballero, Alejandro & Villarreal-Pretelt, Nelson, 2016, First records of the iceryine scale insects Crypticerya brasiliensis (Hempel) and Crypticerya genistae (Hempel) (Hemiptera: Monophlebidae) for Colombia, Insecta Mundi 2016 (480), pp. 1-9 : 4

Crypticerya brasiliensis (Hempel) ( Fig. 1A, B )

Icerya brasiliensis Hempel 1900: 370 .

Icerya braziliensis Hempel 1912: 18 . Misspelling of species epithet.

Crypticerya brasiliensis Unruh and Gullan 2008a: 26 . Change of combination.

Unmounted material (adapted from Hempel 1900). Adult female elliptical, pink; antennae and legs dark brown; entirely covered with white secretion consisting of one long caudal tuft, one cephalic tuft, a marginal and a submarginal row of nine tufts on each side, and a central longitudinal mass of secretion; a tuft on each side of both caudal and cephalic tufts longer than other marginal tufts ( Figure 1B , arrow). Anal tuft up to 20.5 mm long; caudal and cephalic tufts usually fluted with four longitudinal ribs. Ovisac large, white, sometimes showing a creamy tinge, distal end curved up, convex beneath and slightly striated longitudinally; dorsum and sides of ovisac longitudinally fluted, with 14 or 15 longitudinal furrows.

Remarks. In life, the arrangement of waxy secretions in C. brasiliensis , C. multicicatrices and C. zeteki is superficially similar, namely the presence of a long caudal tuft and a shorter cephalic tuft. Crypticerya multicicatrices can be easily differentiated from the other two species by the shorter waxy tufts laterad to the long caudal tuft, which are no more than twice the length of other short marginal tufts. In C. brasiliensis , the waxy tufts laterad to the long caudal tuft are usually three or more times longer than other marginal tufts ( Fig. 1B ). Another iceryine species, C. zeteki ( Fig. 1F ) also recorded from Colombia has a similar arrangement of waxy secretions. According to the photograph of the type material provided by Kondo and Unruh (2009) and Figure 1F from specimens collected on D. lutescens (Arecaceae) in Tumaco, Nariño, Colombia, the waxy tufts laterad to the long caudal tuft in C. zeteki are about three times longer than the shorter marginal tufts, thus overlapping with C. brasiliensis . Crypticerya multicicatrices ( Fig. 1E ) appears to be recognizable to some extent by external morphology, however, the only way to identify these three species correctly is to slide-mount them and key out them according to their cuticular morphology.

Figures

Figure 1. Colombian Crypticerya spp. A. Crypticerya abrahami (Newstead) after removing bark of tree trunk of Pithecelobium dulce. Note absence of long waxy secretions and ovisac. B. Crypticerya brasiliensis (Hempel). Note long and curved lateral waxy filament laterad to long caudal tuft (red arrow). C. Crypticerya genistae (Hempel). Note absence of long waxy tufts and presence of a long ovisac. D. Crypticerya montserratensis (Riley and Howard). Note very long thread-like waxy filaments. E. Crypticerya multicicatrices Kondo and Unruh. Note shorter waxy filament laterad to long caudal tuft (red arrow). F. Crypticerya zeteki (Cockerell). Note filament of intermediate length laterad to long caudal tuft. Photos: B by A. Caballero, A, C, E, F by T. Kondo, D reproduced from illustration by Riley and Howard (1890).