Agrophaspis ansevatae, Hardy, Nate B. & Williams, Douglas J., 2018

Hardy, Nate B. & Williams, Douglas J., 2018, Doubling the known endemic species diversity of New Caledonian armored scale insects (Hemiptera, Diaspididae), ZooKeys 782, pp. 11-47 : 11

Agrophaspis ansevatae sp. n. Figure 1

Material examined.

Holotype: New Caledonia: 1 adult female (0.49 mm long, 0.46 mm wide): ex undetermined tree, shore south of Anse Vata, Noumea, 17.viii.1963, leg. SW Brown, SWB accession 252 (USNM). Paratypes: New Caledonia: 1 adult female, same data as holotype; exuviae of 1 second-instar: on same slide as holotype, SWB accession 252 (USNM).

Description.

Adult female, n = 2. Pupillarial. Body 0.38-0.49 mm long, broadest at anterior abdominal segments (0.36-0.46 mm); outline roughly triangular, posterior margin truncate, thorax and head tapering anteriorly.

Pygidium truncate, with four long tapering caudal projections, lacking typical lobes and plates. Dorsum with sclerotic patches around and behind anus. Anus circular, near center of pygidium. Venter of pygidium with vulva near center, about as far from posterior margin as anus. No perivulvar pores. Microducts scattered along margin, at least one near base of each caudal projection.

Prepygidial segments Venter with microducts along margin of abdominal segments; small setae in submedial and marginal areas of abdomen. No pores present near spiracles. Antennae each with three fleshy setae.

Puparium (cuticle of second-instar female) (not illustrated). Pygidium with three pairs of lobes, medial lobes each with lateral and medial notch, second and third lobes each with lateral notch; fringed plates between lobes. Macroducts one-barred. Anus near posterior margin, diameter less than width of medial lobe. Margin with many gland tubercles.

Comments.

Borchsenius and Williams (1963) erected the genus Agrophaspis by monotypy for the New Caledonian pupillarial species Aonidia buxtoni Laing. The adult female of that species shares several traits with the adult of A. ansevatae ; for example, both lack perivulvar and spiracular pores. Most strikingly, they both lack typical lobes and plates on the pygidium, and have in their place long, tapering caudal projections. In A. buxtoni there are seven, and each is bifid or trifid. In A. ansevatae there are four. On the holotype, at least one of these also appears to have a slightly bifid apex. The puparia are also similar, but in A. ansevatae the diameter of the anus is less than the width of L1, whereas in A. buxtoni it is greater than the width of L1.

Etymology.

The species epithet is taken from the specimens’ provenance, near Ansa Vata.