Ovaticoccus Kloet, 1944

Pellizzari, Giuseppina & Kozár, Ferenc, 2011, A new species of Greenisca and two new species of Ovaticoccus from Italy (Hemiptera Coccoidea Eriococcidae), with a key to European genera of Eriococcidae., Zootaxa 3090, pp. 57-68 : 61

Genus: Ovaticoccus Kloet, 1944

Type species: Coccus agavium Douglas, 1888

Generic diagnosis. Unmounted adult female. Body oval; body colour varying from pink to purple; with a white, waxy, filamentous eggsac on abdomen.

Mounted female. Venter. Antennae 6 or 7 segmented. Labium three segmented, basal segment with two pairs of short setae. Stylet loop slightly longer than labium. Multilocular pores, each with 5 or more loculi, present. Legs short, with tibia shorter than tarsus; hind coxae usually not enlarged. Claw with denticle, claw digitules knobbed, longer than claw. All coxae with spinulae; posterior coxae also with large pores. Microtubular ducts present. Cruciform pores present. Ventral setae short and hair-like.

Dorsum. Characteristically dome-shaped spinose setae present or absent. Anal lobes not developed; ventral surface of each lobe with a long apical seta and two shorter subapical setae. Quinquelocular pores numerous on all segments. Macrotubular ducts, if present, heavily sclerotized, each with inner ductule short, terminal gland not observed. Microtubular ducts short. Anal ring usually ventral, not well developed, without pores but with 2–8 setae, all shorter than diameter of anal ring. Cauda absent.

Distribution. Ovaticoccus species are mainly known from the Nearctic Region, mostly in South-western part of the USA ( Miller and McKenzie, 1967), except O. amplicoxae Williams & Martin (2003) , which was described from the Neotropic Region, and might not belong to Ovaticoccus . The species O. agenjoi (Gomez-Menor Ortega) , known from the Palaearctic region (Canary Isl.), was removed from Ovaticoccus by Kozár and Konczné Benedicty (2008a), and placed in the new genus Hispaniococcus. O. agavium is an alien species in Palaearctic and Ethiopian regions ( United Kingdom, Italian mainland and Sicily, France, Russia, Ukraine, Eritrea, Ethiopia), where it was introduced with ornamental or cultivated Agavaceae (i.e. Agave sisalana ).

Ovaticoccus species live on plants belonging to Agavaceae , Asteraceae , Ephedraceae , Lamiaceae , Liliaceae , Poaceae and Polygonaceae ( Miller and McKenzie, 1967; Ben-Dov et al., 2011).