Eriopeltis festucae (Boyer de Fonscolombe)

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 : 60-61

Eriopeltis festucae (Boyer de Fonscolombe)

( Fig. 22 , Plate 2F , distribution map Fig. 90C )

Coccus festucae Boyer de Fonscolombe, 1834: 216 . Eriopeltis festucae (Boyer de Fonscolombe) ; Signoret 1872b: 430.

Field characteristics: Live adult female very elongate, flattened, and completely concealed within a long, felt-like cottony white ovisac.

Microscopic diagnosis: Slide-mounted adult female body oval, without stigmatic clefts; anal cleft very shallow, about same length as anal plates.

Dorsum. Derm of young adult female membranous. Large truncate-conical setae abundant over entire surface except for a narrow mid-dorsal strip. Pores of 2 types, both present throughout: (i) a heavily sclerotized circular-tooval bilocular pore, abundant; and (ii) a smaller, simple pore. Preopercular pores circular, slightly convex, present in a median row extending anteriorly from anal plates to about dorsad to antennae. Duct tubercles absent. Tubular ducts, each with a terminal gland, present throughout except for narrow mid-dorsal strip. Anal plates together quadrate, each plate with long terminal seta (not shown) and 5 shorter setae. Anal ring bearing 8–10 long setae.

Margin. Marginal setae truncate-conical, similar to smaller dorsal truncate-conical setae on either side of anal plates and cleft; each side with 8–21 truncate-conical marginal setae between anterior and posterior stigmatic areas. Stigmatic clefts absent; stigmatic setae not differentiated from marginal setae.

Venter. Derm membranous. Pregenital disc-pores each with 10 or 11 loculi, present around anogenital fold and anteriorly on preceding abdominal segments; with a few on abdominal segment II. Spiracular disc-pores each with 5 loculi, present in a band between each spiracle and margin. Microducts abundant throughout. Ventral tubular ducts of 2 or 3 types, differing in shape of inner ductule but all ending in terminal glands ( Fig. 22 ). A few small setae present on 1 or 2 pregenital segments, and 1 pair of small spine-like setae present between antennal bases. Legs very small for size of body, each with only a pseudo-articulation between tibia and tarsus; claw lacking a denticle; claw digitules setose, lacking a dilated apex; tarsal digitules longer than claw digitules. Antennae very small for size of body, each with 8 ring-like segments.

Distribution: Eriopeltis festucae is known from 39 countries in the Nearctic and Palaearctic regions ( García Morales et al. 2016); in Iran, it is found in Chaharmahal & Bakhtiari, Ghazvin, Hamadan, Khorasan –e Razavi, Markazi, Semnan and Zanjan provinces ( Moghaddam 2013).

Host-plants: The species has been recorded on host-plants in 22 genera, almost all belonging to Poaceae but there is one record from Cyperaceae ( García Morales et al. 2016) . In Iran, it has only been found on wild species of Poaceae ( Bodenheimer 1944b) .

Economic importance: The scale is widespread in Iran, but there have not been any records of economic damage.

Natural enemies: None recorded in Iran.

Figures

PLATE 2. Coccidae continued: A, Ceroplastes rubens Maskell; B, Coccus hesperidum (Linnaeus); C-1 and C-2, Ceroplastes rusci (Linnaeus); D, Didesmococcus unifasciatus (Archangelskaya); E, Ericerus farsicus Moghaddam & Faghih; F, Eriopeltis festucae (Boyer de Fonscolombe); G, Eulecanium tiliae (Linnaeus).

FIGURE 22. Adult female of Eriopeltis festucae (Boyer de Fonscolombe), reproduced from Gill (1988) page 37, fig. 11, with permission from the author and California Department of Food & Agriculture, Sacramento, California, USA.

FIGURE 90. Distribution maps of scale insect species in Iran covered in this work. A, Drosicha turkestanica Archangelskaya; B, Ericerus farsicus Moghaddam & Faghih; C, Eriopeltis festucae (Boyer de Fonscolombe); D, Eulecanium ficiphilum Borchsenius; E, Eulecanium rugulosum (Archangelskaya); F, Eulecanium tiliae (Linnaeus); G, Exaeretopus tritici Williams; H, Gossyparia spuria (Modeer); I, Gueriniella serratulae (Fabricius); J, Hadzibejliaspis stipae (Hadzibejli); K, Icerya aegyptiaca (Douglas); L, Icerya purchasi Maskell.