Balanococcus kwoni Pellizzari & Danzig

Pellizzari, Giuseppina & Danzig, Evelyna, 2007, The bamboo mealybugs Balanococcus kwoni n. sp. and Palmicultor lumpurensis (Takahashi) (Hemiptera, Pseudococcidae), Zootaxa 1583, pp. 65-68 : 65-67

Balanococcus kwoni Pellizzari & Danzig , n. sp.

Balanococcus bambusum (not Tang, 1992); Kwon, Danzig & Park, 2003: 398 (misidentification).

Living specimens. Adult females elongate-oval, dark red, covered with fine, white, mealy wax.

Mounted specimens. Adult female (fig. 1) elongate, oval, sides sub-parallel, 3–4.57mm (3.58) long, 1.4–1.9mm (1.7) wide across fourth abdominal segment. Anal lobes barely perceptible, each with ventral surface bearing an apical seta 125–150 μm (137) long.

Venter. Antennae each 250–275 μm (260) long, with 7 segments (rarely 6, when 3rd segment with a weak sign of segmentation). Legs small and slender, hind coxa 50–60 μm long, hind trochanter + femur 170–185 μm (177) long, hind tibia + tarsus 170–190 μm (182) long; claw without denticle, 20–25 μm long. Claw digitules longer than claw, knobbed; tarsal digitules 30–40 μm (36) long, knobbed. Translucent pores present on hind coxae. Labium 75–100 μm (87) long, shorter than clypeolabral shield. Spiracles with associated trilocular pores. Circulus present, small, round, not divided by intersegmental fold, 55–75 μm (67) wide. Trilocular pores evenly distributed. Multilocular disc-pores sparse on body submargin and present in transverse rows on abdominal segments, numerous on segments VII and VIII, present also on segments VI and V. Oral collar tubular ducts of two sizes, both with deep collars, larger 6 μm long, 3.4 μm wide, smaller 4 μm long and 2.4 μm wide, more numerous in last abdominal segments, distributed among multilocular disc pores, present also on margin of head and thorax and rare over medial part of abdominal segments. Ventral setae sparse, slender, longer on posterior abdominal segments.

Dorsum. Ostioles poorly developed, each with 4 or 5 trilocular pores on each lip. With two pairs of cerarii: anal lobe cerarii each with 2 conical setae, 1 or 2 auxiliary setae and 8–10 trilocular pores. Penultimate cerarii with 2 conical setae and 2–5 trilocular pores; sometimes one conical seta is replaced by a flagellate seta. Anal ring 65–80 μm (73) wide, with 2 rows of pores and 6 anal ring setae, each 120–150 μm (138) long. Trilocular pores evenly distributed. Multilocular disc pores present in transverse rows on posterior abdominal segments, and sparse on body margin and on head. Oral collar tubular ducts similar in size to those on dorsum, more numerous on margin of last abdominal segments, rare on margin of thorax. Dorsal setae short and slender.

Material examined. Holotype: adult female, Italy, Botanic Garden of Padua, on Pseudosasa japonica 16.XI.2006, G. Pellizzari, slide n. 1328/1, DEAE.

Paratypes: 19 adult females, Italy, same date and locality as holotype, slides n. 1328/2-1328/16, DEAE; 2 females in ZIN; 3 females in BMNH; South Korea, SE Yangle, flower shop, Phyllostachys , 3.IX.2000, G.M. Kwon, slide n. 0104031-GM08, 1 female, ZIN.

Other material: Italy, 2 males and some unmounted females, same date and locality as holotype are deposited in the collection of DEAE; South Korea, 12 adult females, Daseo-ri, Chuja, Bukjeju, on Pseudosasa japonica , 12.VI.2001, G.M. Kwon, IAST.

Etymology. The species is named after Gi-Myon Kwon, who collected this new species in South Korea.

Host plant: Pseudosasa japonica , Phyllostachys (Gramineae)

Distribution. South Korea (Daseo-ri, Chuja, Bukjeju); Italy (Padua, Botanic Garden).

Comments. The genus Balanococcus Williams is characterised by the presence of numerous oral collar tubular ducts on the dorsum and venter, distributed around the entire body margin, and multilocular disc-pores with a similar distribution but also present in transverse rows on the abdomen. Only B. caucasicus Danzig and B. orientalis Danzig & Ivanova possess the marginal band consisting of tubular ducts only ( Danzig, 1998). The new species has dorsal and ventral tubular ducts and multilocular disc-pores around the margin and submargin of the entire body, but in low numbers.

Biological observation. Live females are dark red in colour. They lay dark-red eggs in a white waxy ovisac that sometimes covers part of the female body. Post-reproductive dead females, egg-laying females, eggs in ovisacs and dead males were collected under the leaf sheaths of Pseudosasa japonica in the Botanic Garden of Padua ( Italy) in November 2006. On March 2nd, 2007, only groups of eggs were found under the leaf sheaths of the infested plants, so the species overwinters in the egg stage. Overwintering eggs had started to hatch by the end of March and the first adults (males and females) were observed on April 24th.

The binomen Balanococcus bambusum (Tang) cannot be retained among the synonyms of P. l u m p u re n s i s, and so the list of synonyms under P. l u m p u re n s i s as reported in ScaleNet (Ben-Dov et al., 2007) should be emended as follows: