Andaspis brevicornuta Hamilton & Williams

Hamilton, Fredericka B., Williams, Douglas J. & Hardy, Nate B., 2017, Five new species of the armored scale genus Andaspis MacGillivray (Hemiptera, Coccomorpha, Diaspididae) from New Caledonia, ZooKeys 693, pp. 17-31 : 17-18

Andaspis brevicornuta Hamilton & Williams sp. n. Figures 1-6

Material examined.

Holotype: adult female, slide-mounted. Original label: "New Caledonia, Rivière Bleue, Nothofagus codonandra , J.S. Dugdale, 10.x.1978, Andaspis " (handwritten in black ink). Deposited at BMNH.

Description.

Adult female. Slide-mounted adult female 1.06 mm long; widest at third abdominal segment, 0.48 mm wide. Body outline oblong, derm membranous except for pygidium. A distinctive species with six spurs or minute horns present on anterior edge of head. Each antenna with five setae. Anterior spiracles each with 2 disc pores, each about 4 µm in diameter, trilocular; posterior spiracles lacking pores. An terior abdominal segments well-developed with convex margins; tooth-like tubercles present on segments 2 and 4. In addition to those on pygidium, gland spines located along margins of abdominal segments 3 and 4. Many short macroducts distributed around ventral margins extending from mesothorax to abdominal segment 1.

Pygidium with well-developed median lobes, approximately triangular in shape. Two short gland spines present between median lobes. Each median lobe with paraphysis arising from outer and inner basal angles, anterior ends almost touching, also with short sclerosis arising from inner angle and a large club-shaped sclerosis arising from outer basal angle. Second lobes present; each with a large club-shaped basal sclerosis. Third lobes present, each with outer edge notched but without basal sclerosis. Additionally, a pointed tubercle located on each side of abdominal segment 6. Eight gland spines present along the margin of each side of the pygidium, each with a long microduct, about 40 µm. Marginal setae present, each about 14 µm long, setae on abdominal segment 7 shorter, about 10 µm long. Macroducts on pygidium restricted to dorsal margin and submargin, with eight marginal macroducts and five smaller and narrower submarginal macroducts located on each side. Marginal macroduct openings narrowly oval, each about 8 µm long × 3 µm wide. Opening of each macroduct on segment 7 narrow, 5 µm long × 3 µm wide. Perivulvar pores absent. Identity of dark-rimmed circular structures on venter and dorsum of pygidium near vulva unknown and they could be orifices of pores or setal sockets.

Remarks.

The adult female of this species differs from those of all other currently described Andaspis species by having 6 tooth-like spurs (or minute horns) present on the anterior margin of the head. This species is somewhat similar to Andaspis halli Rao, 1952, a species known to occur in Zimbabwe. Adult females of the two species share an elongate body shape and a distinct second lobe. However, this species differs from it by the following characters (those for A. halli in parentheses): two scleroses located above each median lobe (no scleroses present above each median lobe), a club-shaped sclerosis present above each second lobe (an elongate sclerosis present above each second lobe), eight marginal macroducts located on the dorsum (six marginal macroducts located on the dorsum), and lacking perivulvar pores (three groups of perivulvar pores).

Etymology.

The specific epithet is the Latin adjective meaning short horned, referring to the projections on the head margin.