Identification, Images, & Information
For Insects, Spiders & Their Kin
For the United States & Canada

Family Margarodidae - Giant Scale Insects

Cottony cushion scale - Icerya purchasi - female Icerya purchasi Icerya purchasi Red creatures found in lawn Cottony Cushion Scale ?? - Icerya purchasi If this is a scale insect, it is enormous - Icerya If this is a scale insect, it is enormous - Icerya Cottony cushion scale - Icerya purchasi - male - female
Classification
Kingdom Animalia (Animals)
Phylum Arthropoda (Arthropods)
Class Insecta (Insects)
Order Hemiptera (True Bugs, Cicadas, Hoppers, Aphids and Allies)
Suborder Sternorrhyncha (Plant-parasitic Hemipterans)
Superfamily Coccoidea (Scales and Mealybugs)
Family Margarodidae (Giant Scale Insects)
Other Common Names
Giant Coccids, Ground Pearls.
Numbers
Nearctica lists 14 genera.
Identification
Females are large and rounded and have segmented bodies. Legs may be well developed or reduced.
Range
Worldwide.
Print References
(1)
Works Cited
1.Borror and DeLong's Introduction to the Study of Insects
By Norman F. Johnson, Charles A. Triplehorn