Mirococcopsis, Borchsenius, 1948

Gavrilov, Ilya A., 2007, A revision of the mealybug genus Mirococcopsis Borchsenius (Homoptera: Coccinea: Pseudococcidae) based on the structure of the adult females, Zootaxa 1586, pp. 1-23 : 2-3

MIROCOCCOPSIS Borchsenius, 1948

Mirococcopsis Borchsenius, 1948: 582 ; 1949: 168.

Eumirococcus Ter-Grigorian, 1964a: 858 , syn. n.

Type species— Mirococcopsis rubida Borchsenius, 1948 , by original designation.

Generic diagnosis. Body rounded, broadly oval or elongate. Anal lobes poorly developed. Antennae usually each with 6 segments, in some species with 7 or 8 segments. Legs normally developed, small compared with size of body; claw without a denticle. Anal ring simplified, with 6 setae and usually with few cells and microspines. Multilocular and trilocular pores present. Tubular ducts of simple structure or with small collars on some species. Cerarii often absent entirely but sometimes C18 with 1-3 flagellate setae and several trilocular pores.

Taxonomic notes. In addition to the species described below, the following have been included in Mirococcopsis at some time: (i) M. elongata Borchsenius, 1948 —this was placed in Mirococcopsis erroneously because this species has a claw denticle and probably should be transferred to the genus Mirococcus Borchsenius, 1947 ; (ii) M. stipae Borchsenius, 1949 , which has very characteristic oral collar tubular ducts (with the collar placed in the middle part of the duct) and this species is here transferred to the genus Volvicoccus Goux, 1945 as previously suggested by Kozar (1981) and Matile Ferrero (1983): V. stipae (Borchsenius) , comb. n.; (iii) M. salina Matesova, 1982 , which has been transferred to the genus Nudicauda Gavrilov, 2006 ( Gavrilov, 2006) ; and (iv) M. artomisiphilis Tang, 1988 (in Tang & Li, 1988), which has been shown to be a junior synonym of Nudicauda orientalis ( Borchsenius, 1949) ( Gavrilov, 2006) .

Unfortunately, I have not seen specimens of M. chinensis Tang, 1992 , but the figure of Tang (1992) suggests that this species is a junior synonym of the very polymorphous M. subterraneus (Newstead) , comb. n.

According to the original description, the monotype genus Eumirococcus Ter-Grigorian, 1964 a, is characterized by the presence of quinquelocular disc pores. However, a study of the lectotype of Eumirococcus borchsenii Ter-Grigorian, 1964 a, showed that these “quinquelocular disc pores” are in reality simple discoidal pores, typical of Mirococcopsis and other genera of mealybugs. Eumirococcus Ter-Grigorian is therefore here considered a synonym of Mirococcopsis Borchsenius , syn. nov.

Males are unknown for species of Mirococcopsis . The only specially studied species, M. subterranea , is probably thelytokous because, in all studied females (specimens collected in Voronezh Province of Russia), the embryos with heterochromatinization of the paternal set of chromosomes (a character of male embryos in the Lecanoid genetic system) were absent, and the spermatozoa were absent in the spermathecae ( Gavrilov, 2007, and unpublished). A karyological study of this species showed 2n=10 (Fig. 10B). M. subterranea , and also the type species of Mirococcopsis , M. rubida , are ovoviviparous; all stages of embryonic development take place within the female body.