Serenaspis minima ( Maskell, 1884 )

Caballero, Alejandro, Ramos-Portilla, Andrea Amalia & Kondo, Takumasa, 2017, Scale insects (Hemiptera: Coccomorpha) on sugarcane in Colombia, with description of a new species of Tillancoccus Ben-Dov (Coccidae), Zootaxa 4258 (5), pp. 490-500 : 496

Serenaspis minima ( Maskell, 1884)

Despite this species having been recorded on sugarcane from Colombia by Posada (1989) and Gallego & Vélez (1992), there are good reasons to believe these records were misidentifications. As far as we know, S. minima is present only in the Australasian region ( Australia, New Zealand), and there are no records from the New World. In order to corroborate this record from Colombia, a careful search of the voucher specimens was carried out in four Colombian entomological museums, i.e., the Museo de Entomología, Corporación Colombiana de Investigación Agropecuaria (Corpoica), Centro de Investigación Palmira, Valle del Cauca ( MECP) ; the Francisco Luís Gallego Entomology Museum, Medellín, Antioquia ( MEFLG) ; the entomology collection at the Universidad Nacional, Palmira campus, Valle del Cauca ( CEUNP) ; and the “Luis María Murillo” entomology collection held at Corpoica, Tibaitatá (CTNI). Specimens studied by Posada should be deposited at CTNI; those studied by Gallego & Vélez (1992) are held at MEFLG. However, no voucher specimens of S. minima were found in any of these depositories.

Furthermore, Gallego & Vélez (1992) referred to Pinnaspis minor by the common name: "piojo blanco del algodonero", but this name was assigned by Figueroa (1952) to Pinnaspis temporaria Ferris (now Pinnaspis strachani (Cooley)) collected on cotton from Valle del Cauca. Figueroa (1952) treated Chionaspis minor , Hemichionaspis minor and Pinnaspis minor as junior synomyms of P. strachani . Pinnaspis strachani is a highly polyphagous species and has a worldwide distribution, including many countries in the New World and is here reported feeding on S. officinarum for the first time. We believe that Serenaspis minor is not present on S. officinarum in Colombia and that the above records were probably misidentifications of P. strachani .