Puto peyerimhoffi (Vayssière), Vayssiere

Han, Sarah I., 2011, A study of the scale insect genera Puto Signoret (Hemiptera: Sternorrhyncha: Coccoidea: Putoidae) and Ceroputo Šulc (Pseudococcidae) with a comparison to Phenacoccus Cockerell (Pseudococcidae), Zootaxa 2802, pp. 1-22 : 13

Puto peyerimhoffi (Vayssière)

Phenacoccus peyerimhoffi Vayssière, 1923: 152 –155.

Puto peyerimhoffi ; Balachowsky, 1953b: 304. Change of combination.

Vayssière (1923) described the adult female, adult male and first-instar nymph of this species from the Aurès mountains of Algeria on Juniperus thurifera (Cupressaceae) . The generic and family placement of this species is problematic because it possesses characteristics of both Puto and Ceroputo as understood here. The presence of 12 eyes on the adult male, seven-segmented antennae on the first-instar nymph and, on the adult female, basal spurs on the claw, tubular ducts on the frons, and three sensilla on each surface of the trochanter, are features consistent with species of Puto . The absence of multilocular pores and the presence of quinquelocular pores are features consistent with species of Ceroputo . The similarity of this species to Ceroputo nulliporus and C. mimicus was pointed out by Marotta and Tranfaglia (1993). We here retain this species in Puto because it possesses more features of this genus than of Ceroputo , but further investigations are required. We agree with the illustration of this species given by Marotta and Tranfaglia (1993) but provide corrected information on the tubular duct distribution and number of sensilla on the trochanter in Table 1.