Gigantococcus longisetosus (Newstead)

Unruh, Corinne M. & Gullan, Penny J., 2008, Identification guide to species in the scale insect tribe Iceryini (Coccoidea: Monophlebidae), Zootaxa 1803 (1), pp. 1-106 : 59-60

Gigantococcus longisetosus (Newstead)

Icerya longisetosa Newstead, 1911: 15 .

Gigantococcus longisetosus (Newstead) ; Unruh & Gullan (2008: 37) .

Unmounted material. Adult female oval, covered in white wax, margin of body with fringe of very long setae, longest setae at anterior and posterior margins where twice length of antennae and two-thirds width of body (adapted from Newstead, 1911).

Slide-mounted material. Adult female oval, lectotype 6.0 mm long, 4.0 mm wide. Antennae 11 segmented. Eyes and legs as for tribe. Mouthparts missing from lectotype. Thoracic spiracles as for genus; derm outside atrium with 0–12 pores, each pore 10–11 µm in diameter, with bilocular centre and 4–6 outer loculi. Hair-like setae covering derm, forming marginal clusters of long, hair-like setae, longest at anterior head. Flagellate setae scattered on derm, densest on ventral head and thorax. Simple multilocular pores, each 12–14 µm in diameter, with trilocular (sometimes bilocular or quadrilocular) centre and 6–9 outer loculi, covering dorsal surface and ventral margin. Simple multilocular pores, each 10–11 µm in diameter, with bilocular or trilocular centre and 4–6 outer loculi, scattered on ventromedial head and thorax. Marsupium present, marsupial band made of simple multilocular pores, each 8–10 µm in diameter, with bilocular or trilocular centre and 4–6 outer loculi. Simple multilocular pores, each 10–11 µm in diameter, with trilocular centre and 7–10 outer loculi, scattered around outer edge of marsupial band. Simple multilocular pores, each with bilocular or triloc- ular centre at 4–8 outer loculi, scattered on ventromedial abdomen (within marsupial cavity). Multilocular pores, each 8–10 µm in diameter, with quinquelocular, hexalocular centre and 5–8 outer loculi, sparsely scattered across ventral abdomen and around ventral submargin to margin. Compound multilocular pores, each 10–11 µm in diameter, with 8–12-lobed centre and 6–8 slightly reniform outer loculi, scattered on ventral submargin to margin. Vulvar opening as for genus. Cicatrices hourglass-shaped, numbering 3, subequal in size. Abdominal spiracles as for genus. Anal tube as for genus; anal opening as for genus, surrounded by long, hairlike setae.

Type data. TANZANIA [= GERMAN EAST AFRICA]: Amani, ex Acacia sp. (S.G. Vosseler) .

Type material. Lectotype here designated: ad ♀, “Cocciden von Acacia /mit Larven./18.xi.03.”//“Zoolog. Museum Berlin./Fundort: D. O. Afrika /Amani/Sammler. Prof. Vosseler S. G./fe.am XI.03/ Jr. Nu 938/06” ( ZMB).

Taxonomic notes. Refer to the Gi. ewarti group for a discussion of similar species.

The World Catalogue listed BMNH (type no. 938/06) as the type depository of this species, but the material is located at ZMB (J.H. Martin at BMNH and J. Deckert at ZMB, pers. comm.) .

Newstead originally described an adult female and first-instar nymph and his only illustrations are of the first-instar nymph and enlargements of two pore types. He described 9 antennal segments in the adult female, but we counted 11 segments. He did not describe a marsupial opening on the venter, a feature which is often quite obvious even without the aid of a microscope.

The lectotype of this species was slide-mounted by P.J. Gullan from type material housed at ZMB. Although Newstead described a first-instar nymph (and presumably a third-instar nymph), only a single damaged adult female remains.

An undescribed species of Gigantococcus has been misidentified as I. longisetosa ever since Newstead (1913) incorrectly identified BMNH specimens collected in Sierra Leone by J.J. Simpson in 1912 as I. longisetosa . Newstead’s (1911, 1913) descriptions of I. longisetosa emphasise the long marginal setae of the female but this feature is common in several Gigantococcus species. The adult female of true Gi. longisetosus forms a marsupium and has small compound pores on the ventral surface. The adult female of the undescribed species that has been identified as I. longisetosa for the past century forms an ovisac and has unusual compound pores not seen in any other iceryine species.