Biodiversity Data Journal :
Taxonomic paper
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First record of Eggplant Mealybug, Coccidohystrix insolita (Hemiptera: Pseudococcidae), on Guam: Potentially a major pest
Corresponding author:
Academic editor: Laurence Livermore
Received: 17 Dec 2013 | Accepted: 18 Jan 2014 | Published: 23 Jan 2014
© 2014 Aubrey Moore, Gillian Watson, Jesse Bamba
This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Citation:
Moore A, Watson G, Bamba J (2014) First record of Eggplant Mealybug, Coccidohystrix insolita (Hemiptera: Pseudococcidae), on Guam: Potentially a major pest. Biodiversity Data Journal 2: e1042. https://doi.org/10.3897/BDJ.2.e1042
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The eggplant mealybug, Coccidohystrix insolita (Green) (Hemiptera: Pseudococcidae), is recorded from the island of Guam in the Mariana Islands for the first time. Factors indicating that this introduced mealybug has the potential to become a pest of economic importance for agriculture and horticulture on Guam are discussed.
Coccidohystrix insolita, eggplant mealybug, invasive species
The eggplant mealybug, Coccidohystrix insolita (Green) is broadly distributed in the tropics and subtropics and well known as a agricultural and horticultural pest (
Mealybugs producing long ovisacs were found infesting the lower leaf surfaces of eggplant, Solanum melongena L., in a farmer's field on Guam on December 4, 2013 (Figs
Infested leaves were collected into bags and taken to the laboratory. Color photographs were taken to record the appearance of the insects in life using a Leica EZ4HD dissection microscope. Infested leaf fragments were preserved in 70% ethanol and sent to the Plant Pest Diagnostic laboratory of California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA-PPDC) for diagnosis. A total of seven adult female specimens were selected and prepared on three microscope slides using the method given by
9-segmented; posterior ostioles present, anterior ostioles absent; cerarii on margins numbering 17 pairs, numerous dorsal cerarii present also, each cerarius consisting of 1–15 large conical setae situated on a sclerotized prominence, without any associated trilocular pores; legs well developed, each claw with a denticle present on plantar surface; circulus absent; anal lobes well developed, each with a sclerotized ventral bar; quinquelocular pores numerous on venter; multilocular disc pores numerous on venter of abdominal segments III-IX, a few also present on the venter of segments I and II and on the dorsum of segment VII; ventral oral collar ducts present on submargins of abdominal segments V-VIII; oral rim ducts absent entirely.
Diagnosis was based
C. insolita has been recorded in the literature from the following regions and countries:
Afrotropical: Kenya, Madagascar, Rodriques Island (Mauritius), South Africa, Tanzania, Zanzibar; Australasian: Western Samoa; Oriental: Bangladesh, Burma (=Myanmar), India, Laos, Pakistan, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Vietnam; Palaearctic: China, Saudi Arabia (
In addition, a Japanese quarantine inspector found C. insolita on Alternanthera (Amaranthaceae) imported from Singapore (
Prior to our discovery on Guam, C. insolita was known only from two Pacific island nations: the Philippines and Western Samoa. C. insolita was first detected in the Philippines during 1994 (
Coccidohystrix insolita lives on the leaves (Fig.
The appearance of C. insolita in life is unusual for a mealybug because the adult female has very little dorsal wax and secretes a white, waxy ovisac up to 6 times as long as the body of the female (Fig.
C. insolita is polyphagous and is recorded from the following families of host plants (
Many plants belonging to these families are important to agriculture and forestry on Guam.
Twenty-three species of hymenopterous parasitoids are associated with C. insolita (
Aphelinidae: Coccophagus pseudococci; Encyrtidae: Adektitopus longipennis, Anagyrus gracilis, Apoleptomastix bicoloricornis, Blepyrus insularis, Gyranusoidea signata, Homalotylus albiclavatus, Homalotylus hemipterinus, Homalotylus indicus, Homalotylus turkmenicus, Leptomastix nigrocincta, Leptomastix nigrocoxalis, Neocharitopus orientalis, Paranathrix tachikawai, Prochiloneurus albifuniculus, Prochiloneurus pulchellus; Eulophidae: Aprostocetus ajmerensis, Aprostocetus annulicornis, Aprostocetus jaipurensis; Pteromalidae: Catolaccus crassiceps; Signiphoridae: Chartocerus hyalipennis, Chartocerus kerrichi, Chartocerus kurdjumovi.
None of these species are known to exist on Guam and there were no signs of parasitism in the specimens examined.
The following natural enemies have been recorded attacking C. insolita: Fungi: Metarhizium anisopliae; Insecta: Coleoptera: Coccinellidae: Anegleis cardoni (Weise); Hyperaspis maindronia; Nephus regularis; Lepidoptera: Lycaenidae: Spalgis epeus (
Three species of attendant ants are associated with C. insolita: Dolichoderus bituberculatus, Solenopsis geminata, Anoplolepis gracilipes (
Guam, like all small tropical islands, is susceptible to damage from invasive species because of a warm climate with no winter, coupled with a lack of natural enemies for many new arrivals. It is difficult to predict the eventual pest status of any newly detected invasive insect species, but C. insolita has the hallmarks of being a major pest on Guam for several reasons: