Pulvinaria mesembryanthemi (Vallot)
Ice plant scale
Vallot named this species mesembryanthemi after the genus of some ice plants, in 1829.
Status in New Zealand: an exotic (adventive) species, first recorded here in 1987. Not important economically. Found on one native ice plant by the seashore, and on exotic ice plants in gardens.
Biology: perhaps more than one generation per year.
Found on the stems and leaves of:
- seashore, on native ice plant(s): Diphysma australe
- in gardens, on exotic ice plants: Carpobrotus sp., Lampranthus sp., Mesembryanthemum crystallinum, Mesembryanthemum sp.