Cerococcus parrotti (Hunter)

Chris J. Hodgson & Douglas J. Williams, 2016, (Hemiptera: Sternorrhyncha, Coccomorpha) with particular reference to species from the Afrotropical, western Palaearctic and western Oriental Regions, with the revival of Antecerococcus Green and description of a new genus and fifteen new species, and with ten new synonomies, Zootaxa 4091 (1), pp. 1-175 : 160-161

Cerococcus parrotti (Hunter)

Lecaniodiaspis parrotti Hunter 1899: 76 .

Solenococcus parrotti ; Fernald 1903: 59. Change of combination. Cerococcus parrotti ; Lawson 1917: 170. Change of combination.

Type details. UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Kansas, Lawrence, on Aesculus glabra (Sapindaceae) , 9.ii.1899. Depository unknown. The original type material is thought to consist of a single female test plus a specimen that had been almost totally destroyed by a parasite (Howell et al. 1971). Although Lambdin and Kosztarab apparently looked at a test from the type series, Miller was unable to trace this specimen. It is possible that type specimens have been lost (D. Miller, pers. comm.). However, it is generally accepted that there is no doubt about its identity.

Material studied. U.S.A., Virginia, Sea Shore State Park, Virginia Beach, on Acer rubrum (Sapindaceae) , 19.iii.1969, M.L. Williams & J. Howell (USNM): 1/3adff (fg); Virginia, Montgomery Co., Blacksburg, UPI Campus, on Tilia europea (Malvaceae) , 5.iii.1968, M.L. Williams & J.O. Howell (USNM): 1/1adf (g); Georgia, Albany, on ‘ Pecan terminal ’ (it is unclear to what plant this name refers; the Pecan species in Georgia is Carya illinoinensis ( Juglandaceae )), 27.ii.1975, W.L. Tedders (USNM): 2/6adff (f–g).

Comment. Lambdin and Kosztarab (1977) provide a good description, while Howell et al. (1971) describe and illustrate most instars and the female and male tests, and also provide information on its life cycle, host plants and distribution. However, our findings differ slightly from those of Lambdin and Kosztarab in that the above material has the apex of each stigmatic band almost split by a band of small 8-shaped pores; and there are two multilocular disc-pores on abdominal segment VIII, and the anteriormost band is on segment II, and therefore there are no discpores on the metathorax.

The adult female of C. parrotti is characterised by the following combination of character-states: (i) 8-shaped pores on dorsum “closely spaced, usually in swirls although difficult to distinguish” (Lambdin & Kosztarab, 1977, p. 173—but shown as forming a faint reticulate pattern in their figure); (ii) 8-shaped pores on dorsum of three sizes, all quite small; (iii) larger pores restricted to near stigmatic pore bands; smallest pores on posterior abdominal segments and associated with apex of each stigmatic pore band; (iv) cribriform plates subcircular to elliptical, present in submedial groups of two on each side of abdominal segment IV, with anterior plate slightly larger than posterior plate; (v) tubular ducts of two sizes, broader ducts restricted to posterior abdominal segments; narrower ducts frequent elsewhere; (vi) multilocular disc-pores in narrow bands about one pore wide across almost all abdominal segments but absent from metathorax; (vii) stigmatic pore bands bifurcated; (viii) stigmatic pore bands with few spiracular disc-pores, and (ix) leg stubs present.

In the key to adult females of Cerococcus , C. parrotti keys out close to C. andinus from South America.