Ceroplastes rusci (Linnaeus)

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 : 48-50

Ceroplastes rusci (Linnaeus)

( Fig. 16 , Plates 2 C-1 and C-2, distribution map Fig. 89G )

Coccus rusci Linnaeus, 1758: 456 . Ceroplastes rusci (Linnaeus) ; Signoret 1872a: 35.

Field characteristics: Live adult female body with a thick, broadly oval and quite hard wax test, marginal areas around body divided into a series of eight quadrate plates; test usually pale pink to almost white; ventral view with broad white strip of secretion between each spiracle and margin of test. Mature female smoothly globular, venter reddish brown, stigmatic clefts shallow but distinct; caudal process short and stout, extending dorso-posteriorly.

Microscopic diagnosis: Slide-mounted adult female body oval, convex, with shallow stigmatic clefts. Caudal process short and stout.

Dorsum. Derm membranous on young females, except for sclerotized caudal process. Derm with 1 central and 7 marginal clear areas. Setae each bluntly spinose. Pores of 2 types: (i) loculate bilocular microducts, easily most abundant; and (ii) simple microducts of 2 sizes: larger ducts abundant near margin, but present rather sparsely throughout; and smaller ducts, sparsely present within clear areas. Preopercular pores present in a transverse band, numbering 5–13 (10–20 in Iranian specimens). Anal plates each with 3 pairs of long setae dorsally and an unusually long apical seta. Anal ring with 8 setae.

Margin. Marginal setae strongly setose; each side with 1−8 setae present between anterior and posterior stigmatic areas; each anal lobe with 3 or 4 longer marginal setae. Stigmatic clefts shallow, each with a line of conical, bluntly pointed stigmatic setae, each slightly longer than broad; dorsal-most spinose setae in each cleft largest, other stigmatic setae becoming progressively smaller along margin.

Venter. Derm entirely membranous. Pregenital disc-pores each with 10 loculi, restricted to around anogenital fold, and across preceding segment; much less frequent on abdominal segment V, with 0–4 on segment IV and 0 or 1 on III; 1 or 2 occasionally found between antennal bases. Spiracular disc-pores each with 5 loculi, present in broad bands (each about 7 pores wide) between each spiracle and margin. Ventral tubular ducts each with a long, narrow inner ductule, often with an obvious terminal gland, present in a group of about 1–19 in cephalic region; frequency variable posteriorly on abdominal submargin, perhaps sometimes absent but some specimens with 1 or 2 mediolaterally on each side of all abdominal segments. Submarginal setae more than twice as frequent as widely spaced marginal setae. Antennae each with 6 segments, usually with 1 distinct pseudo-articulation in segment III. Legs well developed, each with a well-developed tibio-tarsal articulatory sclerosis; each claw with a distinct small denticle; claw digitules both broad and subequal to, or slightly shorter than, tarsal digitules.

Distribution: C eroplastes rusci is a cosmopolitan species of New World origin; in Iran, it is found in Hormozgan, Kohgilouyeh & Boyerahmad, Lorestan and Sistan & Balouchestan provinces ( Moghaddam 2013).

Host-plants: The scale is highly polyphagous on mostly woody hosts. In Iran, it has been recorded on edible fig, Ficus carica ( Moraceae ) ( Moghaddam 2013).

Economic importance: The species is a serious pest of F. carica in Fars and Lorestan provinces.

Natural enemies: A complex of natural enemies of C. rusci has been observed in Iran, including the parasitoid wasps Aprostocetus toddaliae (Risbec) and Diglyphus chabrias (Walker) ( Hymenoptera : Eulophidae ) ( Talebi et al. 2011).

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 16. Adult female of Ceroplastes rusci (Linnaeus), from Hodgson & Peronti (2012) page 141, fig. 64. © Magnolia Press, www.mapress.com/j/zt, reproduced with permission from the authors and the copyright holder.

FIGURE 89. Distribution maps of scale insect species in Iran covered in this work. A, Asterodiaspis minor (Russell); B, Asterodiaspis quercicola (Bouché); C, Bambusaspis bambusae (Boisduval); D, Bodenheimera rachelae (Bodenheimer); E, Ceroplastes floridensis Comstock; F, Ceroplastes rubens Maskell; G, Ceroplastes rusci (Linnaeus); H, Ceroplastes sinensis Del Guercio; I, Coccus hesperidum Linnaeus; J, Coccus pseudomagnoliarum (Kuwana); K, Cryptococcus fagisuga Lindinger; L, Didesmococcus unifasciatus (Archangelskaya).