Kermesidae Signoret, 1875

Spodek, Malkie & Ben-Dov, Yair, 2014, A taxonomic revision of the Kermesidae (Hemiptera: Coccoidea) in Israel, with a description of a new species, Zootaxa 3781 (1), pp. 1-99 : 9

Kermesidae Signoret, 1875

Introduction. The scale insect family Kermesidae is composed of about one hundred species in ten genera (Ben- Dov et al., 2013). The family placement of Kermesidae has changed throughout the years and have been placed in Kermitidae ( Maskell, 1884), Kermidae ( Ferris, 1937) , Kerminae ( Balachowsky, 1948) and Kermococcidae ( Balachowsky, 1930). The family has also been combined with the eriococcids ( Ferris, 1957), pseudococcids ( Balachowsky, 1942) and dactylopiids + eriococcids + micrococcids + beesoniids ( Hoy, 1963). Miller et al. (2005) noted several characters that separated the genera of Kermesidae based on adult female morphology, including: (i) anal ring with or without pores; (ii) pores of two types, those with five loculi and those with eight to ten loculi; (iii) tubular ducts arranged in a submarginal band on venter; (iv) absence of microtubular ducts; (v) presence of simple disk pores, and (vi) legs variously reduced with indistinct segmentation. Several exceptions to this diagnosis occur and it is very likely that some of the genera are incorrectly placed within the Kermesidae (authors' observations; Miller et al., 2005).