FNZ 51 - Coccidae males (Insecta: Hemiptera: Coccoidea) - Prepupae, introduction
Hodgson, CJ; Henderson, RC 2004. Coccidae (Insecta: Hemiptera: Coccoidea): adult males, pupae and prepupae of indigenous species. Fauna of New Zealand 51, 228 pages.
(
ISSN 0111-5383 (print),
;
no.
51.
ISBN 0-478-09360-8 (print),
).
Published 22 Jun 2004
ZooBank: http://zoobank.org/References/85A2C19D-CA28-4C43-9B7C-BABE3D5DFCE8
Prepupae, introduction
Introduction.The prepupae have been studied only rarely - indeed, according to Williams (1997), the prepupal stage has only been described for 6 soft scale species: Ceroplastes pseudoceriferus Green (Sankaran 1962); Eulecanium tiliae (L.) (Kawecki 1958); Neolecanium cornuparvum (Thro) (Ray & Williams 1983); Parafairmairia gracilis Green (Koteja & Rosciszewska 1970); and Pseudophilippia quaintancii Cockerell (Ray & Williams 1984). The inclusion of Lichtensia viburnae Signoret by Williams (1997) appears to have been an error.
Because so few prepupae have been described, the value of the taxonomic characters for identifying species and genera is still unclear. However, it is hoped that the present study, describing a further 20 species, all indigenous to New Zealand, will suggest characters which appear to be typical both for individual species and for genera.
Important taxonomic characters
Hodgson & Henderson (2000), when revising the soft scales of New Zealand, augmented the original 3 genera introduced by Maskell in the previous century with a further 8 genera, based entirely on adult female characters. Whilst only a relatively few prepupae have been available for this study, their character-states by and large appear to support these taxonomic groupings. From this material, the features which appear to be of importance as taxonomic characters are:
- overall size (small on Lecanochiton and moderate to large in the other genera);
- shape of head (narrow on Aphenochiton and Umbonichiton and broad on the ornata -group of Crystallotesta and on Plumichiton );
- number and distribution of the spiracular disc-pores associated with the anterior spiracles - usually in a broad crescent anterior and laterad to the peritreme, but may form a line laterad to peritreme (as on K. depressa ) or may extend mesad past the muscle plate (as on Plumichiton species);
- presence or absence of disc-pores associated with the posterior spiracle - this character appears to be most useful at the generic level;
- shape and size of the lobes on abdominal segment VII - these are short and rounded on the ornata -group and on I. patella, but are particularly long and pointed on Aphenochiton species, K. depressa, and on some Umbonichiton species;
- size and distribution of the dorsopleural setae - fleshy and in a line on the ornata -group and on I. patella , but generally segmentally arranged, with 2 setae on each side per segment on the remaining species; also, the size and arrangement of setae on the apex of the lobes of abdominal segment VII appears to be useful;
- presence or absence of lobes and setae on abdominal segment VIII;
- presence or absence of ante-anal setae on segment VIII;
- size and shape of the penial sheath, particularly in relation to the length of the lobes on segment VII.
The taxonomic value of these characters needs to be tested (a) with more material (to show their variance) and (b) by comparison with both other species in the same genus and other, less closely related, species.