Pulvinaria urbicola Cockerell, 1893

Tanaka, Hirotaka & Kamitani, Satoshi, 2020, Review of the Pulvinaria (Hemiptera: Coccomorpha: Coccidae) species of the Ryukyu Islands, Japan, Zootaxa 4868 (3), pp. 408-422 : 417-420

Pulvinaria urbicola Cockerell, 1893

( Fig. 4 )

Pulvinaria urbicola Cockerell, 1893: 160 ; Fernald, 1903: 140; Zimmerman, 1948: 342; Beardsley, 1966: 493; Hamon & Williams, 1984: 105; Williams & Watson, 1990: 158; Qin & Gullan, 1992: 154; Ben-Dov, 1993: 286; Tanaka et al., 2006: 177; Joshi, 2017: 534 .

Material examined. JAPAN, Okinawa Prefecture: Ishigaki Is. , Ishigaki-shi , Tonogusuku , on Solanum melongena , 24.v.2005, coll. T. Uesato, 2 adult females mounted singly (1 EUMJ, 1 ELKU); Ishigaki Is., Ishigaki-shi, Tonogusuku , on Psidium guajava , 10.vi.2005, coll. unknown, 4 adult females mounted singly (2 EUMJ, 2 ELKU) ; Okinawa Is., Nishihara-cho, Senbaru , on Capsicum frutescens , 30.vi.2013, coll. Tetsu Kinoshita, 2 adult females mounted singly (1 EUMJ, 1 ELKU) ; Okinawa Is., Uruma-shi , Ishikawa, on Capsicum annuum , 9.ix.2005, coll. Yamashiro, 6 adult females mounted singly (3 EUMJ, 3 ELKU); Yonaguni Is., Sonai, on Dracaena sp., 25.v.2005, coll. unknown, 1 adult female mounted singly ( EUMJ) .

Redescription. Live appearance: adult female elongate oval, more or less convex dorsally. Body yellow to yellowish green with dark brown spots on dorsum (the dark spots occasionally lacking). Without visible wax secretion on dorsum before oviposition ( Tanaka et al. 2006). Ovisac relatively long, about 2–6 times as long as body; posterior part of body not strongly lifted by ovisac.

Slide-mounted adult female: (n = 15). Body elongate oval, 1.5–3.0 mm long, 0.8–2.0 mm wide, margin with a slight indentation at each stigmatic cleft and sometimes also near each eyespot; anal cleft approximately 1/5–1/7 of body length.

Dorsum. Derm membranous. Dermal areolation relatively weak, sometimes present in submarginal area of dorsum. Dorsal setae spiniform, frequent, scattered over entire dorsum, each 5–11 µm long with a well-developed basal socket. Preopercular pores oval to circular, each 2–4 µm in diameter, barely sclerotised and often difficult to see and count, with 0–14 present anterior to the anal plates. Microducts frequent throughout, each one situated within an areolation ( Fig. 4 DA). Tubular ducts lacking. Dorsal tubercles usually lacking, but rarely 1 normal convex type present in submarginal area of head. Anal plates together quadrate; each plate 128–145 µm long, 68–90 µm wide, with a well-developed supporting bar, a slightly convex posterolateral margin and 4 apical setae. Ano-genital fold with 2 or 3 pairs of setae along anterior margin and 2 or 3 pairs laterally. Anal ring bearing 6–7 setae. Eyespots present on margin

Margin. Marginal setae well-developed basal sockets and tips fringed / divided or simply pointed but not spatulate, those on either side of anal cleft tending to be longer; each seta 13–82 µm long, each side with 8–18 setae between anterior and posterior stigmatic clefts. Stigmatic clefts distinct but shallow, each with 3 stigmatic spines, longest spine 45–70 µm long, approximately 1.3–4 times as long as other spines.

Venter. Derm membranous. Multilocular pores each 4–9 µm wide, with 3–8 (mostly 7) loculi, present around genital opening and on medial areas of preceding 3 to 5 abdominal segments; a small group also present lateral to each metacoxa and occasionally to each mesocoxa. Spiracular pores each 3–4 µm wide, most with 5 loculi, present in rather broad bands 1–7 pores wide between margin and each spiracle; anterior bands each containing 17–40 pores, posterior bands each with 20–53 pores. Microducts scattered throughout venter. Tubular ducts of three types: type I each with large outer ductule (3–4 µm wide and 8–10 µm long), a stout inner ductule (3–4 µm wide and 10–12 µm long) and a well-developed flower-shaped terminal gland, present in posterior medial area of head, medial area of all thoracic segments and anterior abdominal segments, also in inner submarginal area extending from near anterior abdominal segments to prothoracic segments; type II tubular ducts each with a rather narrower outer ductule (2–3 µm wide and 8–12 µm long) and a shallow cup-shaped invagination leading to a narrower inner ductule (<1µm wide and 15–20 µm long) with a well-developed terminal gland, mostly occurring in medial area of the posterior abdominal segments and inner submarginal area of abdominal segments; type III ducts similar to type II, but each with a short filamentous inner ductule (<1µm wide and 2–3 µm long) and minute terminal gland, densely present in submarginal band from near anal clefts to just posterior to metathoracic spiracular pore band; also sparsely present in submarginal to marginal area of head and thoracic segments, and intermixed with type II ducts in inner submarginal area of abdomen. Posterior 3 abdominal segments each with 1 pair of long ventral setae present on the medial area. With 1–3 pairs of long setae present between antennae; 0–2 pairs of long setae present on area mesad of each procoxa; other setae short and fine, distributed over entire venter. Spiracles normal for the genus but rarely surrounded by weak sclerotised spiracular plates; peritreme widths: anterior spiracle 31–65 µm, posterior spiracle 36–73 µm. Legs well developed, each with a completely articulated tibio-tarsal joint and an articulatory sclerosis; claw without a denticle; both claw digitules rather broad and slightly shorter than thin tarsal digitules. Hind trochanter + femur 170–270 µm long, hind tibia 105–179 µm long, and hind tarsus 85–110 µm long. Antennae each 7 or 8-segmented (mostly 8), 250–375 µm long. Labium 45–60 µm long, 84–122 µm wide.

Host-plants in Japan. Apiaceae : Peucedanum japonicum var. japonicum ( Tanaka et al. 2006) ; Asparagaceae : Dracaena sp.; Malpighiaceae : Malpighia emarginata (as M. glabra, Tanaka et al. 2006 ); Myrtaceae : Psidium guajava ; Solanaceae : Capsicum frutescens ( Tanaka et al. 2006) , C. annuum , Solanum melongena . Worldwide host-plants records of this species are given by García Morales et al. (2016).

Remarks. Pulvinaria urbicola resembles the Japanese species P. okitsuensis Kuwana, 1914 and the type specimens of P. floccifera ( Westwood, 1870) in the number of loculi in the multilocular pores and the distribution of type III ventral tubular ducts ( Tanaka et al. 2006). However, it can be distinguished from P. okitsuensis and P. floccifera in having (contrasting character states in P. okitsuensis and P. floccifera in parentheses): (i) cylindrical paintbrushlike marginal setae but lacking spatulate marginal setae (Sometimes, these types look like paintbrush-like marginal setae, but those apices are usually spatulate) and (ii) sometimes having dermal areolations in the submarginal area (no areolations). Important diagnostic morphological character states of P. urbicola plus a comparison with the type species of the genus, P. vitis , are summarized in Table 1. Pulvinaria urbicola can be separated from other Pulvinaria species distributed in Ryukyu Islands and P. vitis by condition of dermal areolation, location of eyespots, shape of marginal seta apices, Type III ventral tubular duct distribution, the number of loculi in each multilocular pore, and the number of stigmatic spines in each stigmatic cleft. Good redescriptions and illustrations of P. urbicola were provided by Qin & Gullan (1992) and Tanaka et al. (2006).

Pulvinaria urbicola shows considerable regional morphological variation. Japanese populations always have completely articulated tibio-tarsal joints and articulatory scleroses in their legs; however, some populations in other countries have legs with only a weakly developed articulatory sclerosis between the tibia and tarsus ( Tanaka et al. 2006, Williams & Watson 1990). Japanese populations of P. urbicola also have type III ventral tubular ducts in the submarginal or marginal areas of the head and thoracic segments, whereas Australian and Indian populations lack ducts on the head or thorax ( Joshi 2017, Qin & Gullan 1992). The species also shows great variation in colour and body markings, as illustrated by the photographs in Tanaka et al. (2006) and Joshi (2017).

Figures

FIGURE 4. Pulvinaria urbicola Cockerell, 1893, adult female collected in Okinawa prefecture in 2001 (modified from Tanaka et al. 2006).ANT, antenna;AP, anal plate; DA, dermal areolations; DMD, dorsal microduct; DS, dorsal seta; DT, dorsal tubercle; LG, leg; MP, multilocular pores; MS, marginal setae; POP, preopercular pores; SDP, spiracular disc pore; SSP, stigmatic spines; VMD, ventral microduct; VTD, ventral tubular ducts of types I–III. Scale bars: 100 µm for ANT, AP, DA and LG; 50 µm for MS and SSP; 10 µm for others.