Ericerus, Guerin-Meneville

Moghaddam, Masumeh & Watson, Gillian W., 2024, The Scale Insects Of Iran (Hemiptera: Coccomorpha) Part 3 The Soft Scales (Coccidae) And Other Families, Zootaxa 5542 (1), pp. 1-202 : 58

Genus ERICERUS Guérin-Méneville

Coccus (Ericerus) Guérin-Méneville, 1858 : lxvii. Type species: Coccus ceriferus Fabricius (a misidentification of Coccus pela Chavannes ) by monotypy. Pela Targioni Tozzetti, 1866: 140 . Type species: Pela cerifera Targioni Tozzetti (= an unjustified replacement name for Coccus pela Chavannes ); junior synonym discovered by Fernald 1903: 146.

Diagnostic characters of the adult female: Live adult female broadly oval to circular, becoming roughly hemispherical with age. Slide-mounted, body with shallow stigmatic clefts; characterized by having the following combination of characters: (i) up to 6 stigmatic spines in each stigmatic cleft, and (ii) numerous dorsal tubular ducts except in the area covered by preopercular pores. Pregenital disc-pores each with 10 loculi, present on all abdominal and thoracic segments, also lateral to antennal bases. Spiracular disc-pores each with 5 loculi, present in band between each spiracle and margin. Preopercular pores present in a scattered group anterior to anal plates, extending onto thorax. Dorsal tubular ducts numerous, except in area containing preopercular pores. Anal cleft of moderate depth. Legs well developed, each without a tibio-tarsal articulatory sclerosis; claw digitules both slender. Antennae usually each with 6 or 7 segments.

Comments: Worldwide, two species are included in Ericerus Guérin-Méneville ( García Morales et al. 2016); E. farsicus Moghaddam & Faghih is known from Iran ( Moghaddam & Faghih 2019).