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Home » Guide » Arthropods (Arthropoda) » Insects (Insecta) » True Bugs, Cicadas, Hoppers, Aphids and Allies (Hemiptera) » Plant-parasitic Hemipterans (Sternorrhyncha) » Scales and Mealybugs (Coccoidea) » Giant Scale Insects (Margarodidae) » Icerya » Cottony Cushion Scale (Icerya purchasi)
Photo#77689
Cottony Cushion Scale (Adult / Nympth) - Icerya purchasi
Copyright © 2006 bnuts40

Cottony Cushion Scale (Adult / Nympth) - Icerya purchasi
Savannah, Georgia, USA
I kept a few of these Cottony Cushion Scales in a jar.
These nympths emerged within a few days.
The egg sack just ruptures.
The second image the egg sack has been opened .
As far as I can tell the sack is much like a spider sack with no internal organs of the adult inside.
Note the ant - these small ants are always on the egg sack possibly milking nutrients the same way ants milk aphids.
Adult with egg sack 7-8-mm long >>
Opened egg sack >>
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Contributed by bnuts40 on 17 September, 2006 - 12:36pm

Nice shots
- and you can post straight to guide pages when you know the ID. I've moved these ones.

I believe that scale insects excrete a sweet "honeydew" like aphids do - that's presumably what the ants are after.
… Hannah Nendick-Mason, 17 September, 2006 - 1:00pm login or register to post comments

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