Aspidiotinae, Ferris, 1942

Wappler, Torsten & Ben-Dov, Yair, 2008, Preservation of armoured scale insects on angiosperm leaves from the Eocene of Germany, Acta Palaeontologica Polonica 53 (4), pp. 627-634 : 631-632

Aspidiotinae gen. et sp. indet. 4

Material.— NHMN PB 2005/140, LS. An incompletely preserved, dicotyledonous leaf found at Eckfeld Maar near Manderscheid, Eifel Mountains, Germany; middle Eocene (middle Lutetian, ELMA Geiseltalian, MP 13, 44.3 ± 0.4 Myr).

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Fig. 1. Scale covers of female and nymphal stages of armoured scale insects on dicotyledon and monocotyledon fossil leaves from the middle Eocene (44–47 Myr) Messel and Eckfeld maar fossil sites. A. FIS SM.B.Me 20426; A 1, complete preserved leaf of undetermined dicotyledon (microphyll), with about 70 scale covers; A 2, concentric rings, representing the first and second nymph instars, covers surrounded with a ring (white arrow). B. Aonidiella aurantii ( Maskell, 1878) . Mainly known as an important pest of Citrus . C. Single scale of Aonidiella aurantii ( Maskell, 1878) on grapefruit. D. FIS SM.B. Me 19309; D 1, SEM micrograph of scale cover surface structure revealing secretionary pattern during the process of scale cover formation (black arrows indicating the position of first and second nymph instars); D 2, microsection of a single female scale cover clearly showing the moults of nymph stages incorporated in the scale cover. E. NHMM PB 2005−62, LS. Female scale cover in 3D preservation on a palm leaf. F. NHMM PB 2005−456, LS. Female scale cover in 3D preservation on a palm leaf; F 1, showing “white−cap” secretion of the first instar (white arrow); F 2, showing “white−cap” secretion of the first instar (white arrow) under laser scanning microscope. G. NHMM PB 1995−448, LS. Female scale covers with putative immature stages (white arrows). H. FIS SM.B.Me 3468. Crowded population of armoured scale insects of a fossil palm leaf, resembles heavy infestations of the extant species Parlatoria blanchardi Targioni Tozzetti, 1892 . I. Heavy infestations of the extant species Parlatoria blanchardi Targioni Tozzetti, 1892 on Phoenix dactylifera in Israel. J. NHMM PB 2005−140, LS. Elongated scale situated on the main vein, which does not resemble scale covers of any extant species.

Description.—We observed on the leaf surface three ovalelongate scale covers (1.77–2.3 mm wide, 3.1–3.2. mm long) (Fig. 1M). These elongated scale covers were placed on the same leaf next to five circular scale covers (diameter about 1.53 mm), which are here assigned to Aspidiotinae gen. et sp. indet. 2. Unlike the circular scale covers that are distributed sparsely over the leaf, the elongated scale covers are restricted to the main vein and secondary veins. It seems likely that these scale insects fed directly from the leaf veins.

Comments.—The elongated shape of these scale covers does not resemble scale covers of extant species. It is remarkably different from Lepidosaphes . The structure and arrangement of concentric rings on the scale cover appear to indicate that they belong to adult females and not males.