Scale insects on grass stem - Stemmatomerinx

Moved

… Charley Eiseman, 18 November, 2010 - 3:34pm

Probaly Stemmatomerinx, a gra

Pseudococcidae: probaly Stemmatomerinx, a grass specialist with several native US species. The glassy projecting wax filaments are made by special secretory pores called cerari.

… Ian Stocks, 18 November, 2010 - 3:24pm

Cocoons?

More likely these are pupal cocoons.

… Eric R. Eaton, 7 January, 2009 - 12:00pm

Question

Is some type of Coccoidea possible? Too big?

… John R. Maxwell, 7 January, 2009 - 12:04pm

That's where I'm leaning

The long, projecting fibers don't look like anything I've ever seen on a cocoon. My best guess is that these are egg cases, either of mealybugs or felt scales. The apparent opening at the right end of the one on the right reminds me of this one

before I tore it open (which, of course, would be the definitive way of figuring out what these are, if you still have them).

… Charley Eiseman, 7 January, 2009 - 2:07pm

I tried

to make it into a mealybug, but haven't had much luck. In my web search every now and then I found something I thought was a little similar it was an egg case. I don't know what this object is, but it is interesting.
http://www.forestryimages.org/browse/detail.cfm?imgnum=5112081
I wanted these to be fuzzier
http://www.forestryimages.org/browse/detail.cfm?imgnum=5113061

… John R. Maxwell, 7 January, 2009 - 2:56pm

I think

the object in the first link is an egg sac-- check out this link (scroll down). I'll confess that I haven't seen any coccoid ovisacs with long fibers projecting like this either, but certainly mealybugs etc. themselves can have similar filaments, so it seems plausible to me. I would have been skeptical of coccoids leaving egg sacs on a grass stem (or blade?) if I hadn't come across it before.

… Charley Eiseman, 8 January, 2009 - 6:17am

http://mrec.ifas.ufl.edu/LSO/Mealybugs.htm

… John R. Maxwell, 8 January, 2009 - 8:19am