Identification, Images, & Information
For Insects, Spiders & Their Kin
For the United States & Canada
Clickable Guide
Moths Butterflies Flies Caterpillars Flies Dragonflies Flies Mantids Cockroaches Bees and Wasps Walkingsticks Earwigs Ants Termites Hoppers and Kin Hoppers and Kin Beetles True Bugs Fleas Grasshoppers and Kin Ticks Spiders Scorpions Centipedes Millipedes

Calendar

TaxonomyBrowse
Info
ImagesLinksBooksData

Superfamily Coccoidea - Scales and Mealybugs

Pseudococcus maritimus - male Ensign Scale ? on blueberry - male Scale insect Soft scale Male, Puto? - Puto - male Unknown Arctorthezia Ensign Scale - female
Classification
Kingdom Animalia (Animals)
Phylum Arthropoda (Arthropods)
Subphylum Hexapoda (Hexapods)
Class Insecta (Insects)
Order Hemiptera (True Bugs, Cicadas, Hoppers, Aphids and Allies)
Suborder Sternorrhyncha (Plant-parasitic Hemipterans)
Superfamily Coccoidea (Scales and Mealybugs)
Synonyms and other taxonomic changes
summary of classification and relationships of higher taxa in (1)
Numbers
~1100 spp. in ~250 genera of 28 families in our area; >8,400 spp. in ~1,180 genera of 36 families worldwide(2)
Identification
Males winged, females wingless. Adult females have no appendages or they are atrophied resulting in a scale-like or gall-like body covered in a layer of wax in the form of powder, tufts or plates.
key to families in (3) • keys to quarantine spp. in (4)(5)(6)
knowing food plant helps identification greatly
Food
Parasitic on plants, tend to be host-specific. Symbiotic proteobacteria Tremblaya principes and Moranella endobia help providing the insect with amino acids.(7)
Life Cycle
Most start as free-moving crawlers, with the females becoming less mobile as they mature. In most groups, the females attach to a single spot and lose legs, antennae, etc., and begin to look more like some kind of growth. Both mobile and non-mobile types develop thick protective layers of wax or other inert substances, often in elaborate shapes. The female lays eggs often in a large sac hidden under her own protective covering; the crawlers hatch to move on to new feeding sites. The last 2 larval stages do not feed.(7)
Adult males rarely noticed, look somewhat like winged aphids:
Remarks
Most gain the protection of ants by secreting a honeydew. Normally only a minor pest (mostly as disease vector), but non-native species can build up to devastating numbers. Some of the earliest and most successful uses of biocontrol have been against this group.
See Also
Whiteflies undergo a similar legless, attached stage as nymphs, but then both males and females develop into winged adults.
Works Cited
1.Phylogeny and higher classification of the scale insects (Hemiptera: Sternorrhyncha: Coccoidea)
Gullan P.J., Cook L.G. 2007. Zootaxa 1668: 413–425.
2.ScaleNet
3.An annotated key to the families of scale insects (Homoptera: Coccoidea) of America, North of Mexico...
Howell J.O., Williams M.L. 1976. Ann. Ent. Soc. Am. 69: 181‒189.
4.Miller D., Rung A., Parikh G., Venable G., Redford A.J., Evans G.A., Gill R.J. (2014) Scale Insects, 2nd ed.
5.The Scale Insects of California. Parts 1-3.
Raymond J. Gill. 1988. Sacramento, Calif. : Analysis and Identification Branch, Division of Plant Industry, California Dept. of Food and Agriculture.
6.The Soft Scale Insects of Florida (Homoptera: Coccoidea: Coccidae)
Avas B. Hamon and Michael L. Williams. 1984. Florid Department of Agriculture & Consumer Services, Division of Plant Industry.
7.The Insects : Structure and Function
R. F. Chapman. 1998. Cambridge University Press.