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Pityococcus rugulosus lifecycle
5f. Female cyst
6f. Quiescent adult female (this set)
7f. Adult female crawler

Specimen 1 shown here was collected along with its needle as a cyst on 03APR2016 from a Pinus edulis (pinyon) tree on Embudito Trl. (No. 192) at 6983 ft elevation in the Sandia Crest 7.5’ quadrangle, Sandia Mountains, Bernalillo Co., NM. The cutting was kept in water at room temperature until it eclosed on 09APR2016, when this image was taken. It is still alive and attached to the needle by its proboscis. It continues to feed and its abdomen grows larger during this stage. The previous stage's long straight fibers that stabilized its location on the needle are no longer present, but there are now clinging legs available for this. The short curly fibers that are seen are prelude to nesting. Adult males were collected from the branches the prior year on 29MAR2015, and are undoubtedly seeking to mate during this stage of the female.

Specimen 2 (2'nd through 6'th image) was collected from the same tree on 10APR2016. Its proboscis was gently pulled from the needle, and the specimen was HMDS treated(1). This minimizes shrivel due to desiccation and greatly enhances contrast of surface features. This caused the abdomen length to contract and the proboscis to split lengthwise into its constituent halves. The cited length is as treated. Note from the ventral close-up that the medial cicatrix on each abdominal segment (a key identifying feature)(2) is visible, but covered with a translucent membrane during this stage, lowering visual contrast.

This image is from a CombineZP processed stack of 240 images with a 5.6 µm step taken with a Mitutoyo M Plan APO 10×/0.28 ∞/0 mm microscope objective + Nikon 135 mm F2.8 AIS telephoto lens + Nikon D810 camera (magnification 6.75×; technique described here).

The main pages for each linked image set documenting a stage of development for this species are linked here: