Antecerococcus froggatti (Morrison & Morrison) Morrison & Morrison, 2016

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 : 132

Antecerococcus froggatti (Morrison & Morrison) , comb. nov.

Cerococcus froggatti Morrison & Morrison 1927: 17 –18.

Cerococcus Frogatti ; Balachowsky 1932: 34. Misspelling of species name. Cercococcus froggatti ; Borchsenius 1960: 111. Change of combination.

Type details. AUSTRALIA, New South Wales, Mittagong, on Helichrysum diosmifolium, W.W. Froggatt. Depositories : USNM: holotype adf (USNM type no. 40366) + 1/4 paratype adff (very poor), and 1/17 paratype first-instar nymphs. BMNH: data as for holotype, 3/21adff + 1/12 first-instar nymphs (almost certainly paratypes —see below) (mainly g). ANIC: data as for holotype (and therefore probably part of type material but not marked as such), 1/1adf, apparently deposited by Lambdin as it is a relatively recent mount with his initials (P.J. Gullan, pers. comm.).

Material examined. Cerococcus bryoides (Mask.) , AUSTRALIA, N.S.W., on Helichrysum diosmaefolium (= H. diosmifolium ) ( Asteraceae ), no date, W. Froggatt #369 (BMNH): 1/8adff (f–g). Froggatt kept notebooks listing all of his insect accessions (see Gullan 1984) and entry #369 from his first notebook says: "369. Antecerococcus bryoides, Mask., Mittagong, N.S.W. 4-9-01. (W.W.F.) on Helichrysum diosmifolium . Sent Green 2/02" (P.J. Gullan, pers. comm.). It is likely that these specimens are part of the type series studied by Morrison and Morrison (1927) even though Froggatt had labelled them C. bryoides rather than C. stellatus , as indicated by Morrison and Morrison. They state that “this species has been characterized from a few mounted and unmounted examples received from Mr. W.W. Froggatt under his No. 91 and collected by him at Mittagong, New South Wales, on stems of Helichrysum diosmifolium (Compositae) .”

Comment. Froggatt (1915) referred to this collection from Mittagong as " Cerococcus bryoides ". Lambdin and Kosztarab (1977) described this species well except that they did not mention the anteroventral sclerotizations on the anal lobes, which are present. A. froggatti is characterised by the following combination of characters: (i) dorsum with three sizes of 8-shaped pores, mainly in swirls; (ii) largest 8-shaped pores in a line of about four along margins of posterior abdominal segments; (iii) smallest pores absent from apices of stigmatic pore bands; (iv) cribriform plates in a submedial group of two on each side of abdominal segment IV, each with large micropores; (v) leg stubs present; (vi) posterior stigmatic bands bifurcate; (vii) multilocular disc-pores very few, restricted to complete bands across abdominal segments VI & V, and submarginally on each side of vulva on segment VII; (viii) spiracular disc-pores quite abundant in each stigmatic band, but each stigmatic band not expanding much at apex.

The adult female of A. froggatti falls within group C in the key to species of Antecerococcus and keys out close to A. mirandae and A. stellatus . All three species are currently only known from Australia.