Chaetococcus bambusae (Maskell, 1893)

Gavrilov-Zimin, Ilya A., 2016, Cytogenetic and taxonomic studies of some legless mealybugs (Homoptera, Coccinea, Pseudococcidae), CompCytogen 4, pp. 587-601 : 593

Taxon classification Animalia Hemiptera Pseudococcidae

Chaetococcus bambusae (Maskell, 1893)

Material.

K 1172, South Thailand, Phang Nga Province, vicinity of Khura Buri Greenview Resort, under the leaf sheathes of bamboo, 29.XI.2013, Ilya Gavrilov-Zimin.

Cytogenetic data.

Nur et al. (1987) reported 2n = 10 and parthenogenetic reproduction in this species, based on material from Jamaica. I have studied two populations of this species from Southern Thailand (mentioned above) and from Indonesian New Guinea (vicinity of Jayapura) and also was not able to find male embryos. So, the species is clearly thelytokous. As in the other here studied thelytokous species Antonina graminis , the Chaetococcus bambusae females have a spermatheca at the base of unpaired oviduct, but without sperm bundles inside. The counting of the chromosomes was possible in the material from Thailand only, 2n = 10 (Fig. 4a). Also, a lot of embryonal cells (probably cells of bacteriome) were with 20 and with 40 chromosomes (Fig. 4 b–c).