Aleurotrachelus atratus Hempel, 1922

Hernández-Suárez, Estrella, Martin, Jon H., Gill, Raymond J., Bedford, Ian D., Malumphy, Christopher P., Betancort, J. Alfredo Reyes & Carnero, Aurelio, 2012, 3212, Zootaxa 3212, pp. 1-76 : 10

Aleurotrachelus atratus Hempel

( Figures 4 and 42)

Aleurotrachelus atratus Hempel, 1922a: 3–4 .

Distribution in the Canary Islands: TENERIFE: Punta del Hidalgo, Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Taganana. GRAN CANARIA: Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Puerto de Mogán. LA GOMERA: San Sebastián. Elsewhere: Palaeartic Region (restricted to indoor plantings): England, France; Neotropical Region: Antigua, Bahamas, Barbados, Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominica, Ecuador, Guadeloupe, Guatemala, Guyana, Mexico, Nevis, Puerto Rico, Saint Lucia, Trinidad & Tobago, Venezuela, Virgin Islands; Neartic Region: Bermuda, USA (Florida); Pacific Region: Hawaii, Samoa; Malagasian Region: Comoro Islands, La Réunion, Madagascar, Mauritius, Mayotte; Afrotropical Region: Cabo Verde, Mozambique, Sao Tomé, Saint Helena, Uganda.

Host plants in the Canary Islands: Cocos nucifera , Codiaeum variegatum , Howea forsteriana , Syagrus romanzoffiana . Other host plants listed: Borowiec et al. (2010) recently recorded this whitefly on 56 palm species ( Arecaceae ) although coconut palm seems to be its preferred host plant.

Comments: Originally described from Cocos nucifera L. in Brazil, in recent years this species has showed a rapid geographical dissemination ( Borowiec et al., 2010). It reached the Canary Islands by 1998 ( Hérnandez-Suárez et al., 2003). In the 1990s, it reached pest status in Puerto Rico ( Medina et al., 1994) but only recently has been considered as a pest of significant economic status elsewhere ( Borowiec et al., 2010). In the Canary Islands, it spread quickly from Tenerife to other islands. It is very common on coconut palms in gardens, but never in sufficiently large numbers for it to be considered an economically important pest in the archipelago. In the field, it can be recognised by its rather elongate black puparium surrounded by powdery white waxy material, each puparium with a prominent rhachis ( Fig. 42). Exuviae of earlier instars often remain attached to the dorsum of the puparium.