Pityococcus McKenzie, 1942

Vea, Isabelle M. & Grimaldi, David A., 2015, Diverse new scale insects (Hemiptera: Coccoidea) in amber from the Cretaceous and Eocene with a phylogenetic framework for fossil Coccoidea, American Museum Novitates 2015 (3823), pp. 1-80 : 31

Pityococcus McKenzie, 1942

TYPE SPECIES: Pityococcus ferrisi McKenzie, 1942 ; by original designation.

GENERIC DIAGNOSIS (macropterous male): Based on the description of Pityococcus sp. in Hodgson and Foldi (2006) and the present description, Pityococcus differs from the fossil Cancerococcus apterus Koteja, 1988c ( Desmococcus male is unknown) with the following combination of characters: ocular sclerite with five pairs of simple eyes (vs. four in Cancerococcus ), wings present (vs. absent in Cancerococcus ).

OCCURRENCE: Recent species distributed in the Nearctic. Fossil species in Baltic amber.

SPECIES INCLUDED: Pityococcus was defined based on adult female morphology and includes the Recent P. deleoni McKenzie, 1942 , P. ferrisi McKenzie, 1942 , and P. rugulosus McKenzie, 1942 . Only an unidentified Pityococcus was described based on a macropterous male in Hodgson and Foldi (2006).

COMMENTS: Adult males of Pityococcus have been frequently found as inclusions in Eocene ambers and, according to Koteja (2000a), all are apterous. Therefore, this is the first formal description of a winged Pityococcus male in the fossil record. There are currently three described extant Pityococcus spp. , all of which are based on adult females. Hodgson and Foldi (2006) provided the only description of a macropterous male Pityococcus , but unidentified to species. The same authors also mentioned a specimen of Pityococcus labeled as P. deleoni , but most appendages were missing. Pityococcus moniliformalis , n. sp., was assigned in this genus based on the following combination of characters: ocular sclerite with a row of five simple eyes; antennae bearing short, stout, fleshy setae; the presence of capitate setae; the presence of a membranous area on the scutum; the quadrangular shape of the scutellum, with anterior margin shorter than posterior margin, and the presence of ostioles on abdominal segment VI.

In our cladogram, P. moniliformalis is retrieved as the sister taxon to the Recent Pityococcus sp. and Pityococcidae is included in an extinct lineage including Turonicoccus , Pedicellicoccus , n. gen., Grimaldiella , and Electrococcus . Koteja discussed the affinity of Turonicoccus and Pityococcus , with regard to the presence of an everted endophallus ( Koteja, 2000b: 176), found for the most part in archaeococcoids with compound eyes ( Hodgson and Foldi, 2006). However, Koteja did not have a detailed description of Recent Pityococcus at the time, having found only apterous Pityococcus in Baltic amber, and relying on the reports of Miller and Miller (1993) and Miller and Gimpel (1999) for Recent representatives of the genus. Given current knowledge, Pityococcus is mostly closely related to Turonicoccus based on the presence of the endophallus, antennal segments with short and stout fleshy setae, capitate setae on the apical antennal segment (but Turonicoccus also bears capitate setae on other antennal segments), but differs by having only five simple eyes (as opposed to six in Turonicoccus ).

All Recent Pityococcus are distributed in the Nearctic region and feed on pine trees. The presence of Pityococcus in Palaearctic Baltic ambers indicates that this genus is a relict taxon that was probably more widely distributed in the past.