Cryptococcus Douglas 1890

Miller, Douglass R. & Stocks, Ian C., 2022, New genera and species of felt scales (Hemiptera: Coccomorpha: Eriococcidae), with descriptions of new species and immature instars of described species, Zootaxa 5221 (1), pp. 1-213 : 60

Cryptococcus Douglas 1890

Cryptococcus Douglas 1890: 155 . Type species: Cryptococcus fagisuga Lindinger 1936 (= Coccus fagi Bärensprung 1849 ) by monotypy.

Note: Cryptococcus and Pseudochermes were placed in the family Cryptococcidae by Kozár et al. (2013), based primarily on the plate that surrounds the anal opening and on the presence of only 1 seta on each side of the basal segment of the labium. However, molecular evidence based on 18S sequence data suggests the placement of Cryptococcus in the Eriococcidae sensu lato, i.e., in the Gondwanan clade (see Cook & Gullan 2004, Gwiazdowski et al. 2006 and Nan et al. 2013). Therefore, we are treating the two species of Cryptococcus that occur in the U.S. as part of the family Eriococcidae .

Etymology: The generic epithet “ Cryptococcus ” is formed from the Greek word “ kryptos” meaning “secret” or “hidden” and the Greek word “ kokkos” meaning “round structure” or “scale insect”, and refers to the highly cryptic nature of species in the genus.