Center for Systematic Entomology, Gainesville, Florida

 

Date of this Version

6-26-2020

Citation

Marcelo Tavares de Castro, Sandro Coelho Linhares Montalvão, Vera Regina dos Santos Wolff, Rose Gomes Monnerat, First association of scale insects (Hemiptera: Diaspididae) with Salacia crassifolia (Mart. Ex Schult.) G. Don. (Celastraceae). Insecta Mundi 0774: 1–5

Comments

Copyright held by the author(s). This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons, Attribution Non-Commercial License

Published in 2020 by Center for Systematic Entomology, Inc. P.O. Box 141874 Gainesville, FL 32614-1874 USA http://centerforsystematicentomology.org/

Abstract

Salacia crassifolia (Mart. ex Schult.) G.Don., (Celastraceae) is a native species of shrub/tree highly ap­preciated in Brazil for its fruits and medicinal properties. Scale insects have never been reported associated with S. crassifolia; nevertheless, this paper describes the occurrence of two diaspidids on S. crassifolia leaves in Brazil. Three mature trees were inspected in February and March 2018 and scale insect samples were collected and pre­served in 70% alcohol, then mounted and identified under an optical microscope. Two species of scale insects were found associated with this plant, Pseudoparlatoria argentata Hempel and Melanaspis aristotelesi Lepage and Gi­annotti, both from the family Diaspididae (Hemiptera). The three observed trees were infested by the diaspidids, with some leaves completely colonized by both species. This is the first reported occurrence of P. argentata and M. aristotelesi in plants of the Celastraceae family. It is also the first report of these insects in the Distrito Federal, Brazil, expanding the distribution and hosts in native plant species of the Cerrado biome.

Share

COinS