Ceroplastes ficus Newstead, 1910

Hodgson, Chris J. & Peronti, Ana L. B. G., 2012, 3372, Zootaxa 3372, pp. 1-265 : 118-121

Ceroplastes ficus Newstead

( Figs 57, 58; Map fig. 104)

Ceroplastes ficus Newstead, 1910b: 190 .

Ceroplastes ficus Newstead ; Hall, 1931: 294; De Lotto, 1965: 183; De Lotto, 1967a: 111; Hodgson, 1969a: 6; Almeida, 1973: 2; Qin & Gullan, 1995: 295; Hodgson et al., 2009: 102.

Ceroplastes pallidus Brain, 1920b: 33 . Synonymised by Hall (1931).

Material examined. Ceroplastes ficus Newstead : Lectotype ♀ (here designated): German East Africa [now Tanzania]: Left label: Colonial Office / Ent. Res. Com. (Trop. Africa) / Collection C / No. 1328 / on bark cloth / Bukoba / Ger. East Africa / 4/IV/10; Left label: Ceroplastes ? ficus Newstead / Cotype ♀ / BM 1945, 121 ( BMNH): 1/bits of 3 (poor; lectotype arrowed, bottom centre).

Paralectotype ♀: as for lectotype ( BMNH): 2/2 (?3) (poor) .

Also non-type material: Eritrea, no site, on Balanites aegyptiacus , -. xi.1926, G. Poali ( BMNH): 1/2 (fair). Malawi, Mt. Mlanje at 4000', 17.vii.1966, on Parinari curatellifolia , C.J. Hodgson ( BMNH): 1/1 (fair-good). South Africa, Gauteng Province, Bon Accord Dam, 19.ix.1954, on Pappea capensis var. radlkoferi , E.C.G. Bedford ( BMNH): 1/1 (fair-good); South Africa, on Ochna pulchella (De Lotto considered this a miss-spelling of Ochna pulchra Hook ( Ochnaceae )), no date or collector ( BMNH, Mauritius Dept. Agric.): 1/1 (fair-good). Tanzania [Tanganyika Terr.], Bukoba, on wild plant, Sept. 1926, A.N. Ritchie ( BMNH): 2/4 (young, good; labelled C. subactiniformis , a manuscript name). Uganda,? Kampala, on? Sapodilla plum, 26.vii.1933, H. Hargreaves ( BMNH): 3/8 (mainly fair); Kampala, on Nephelium sp. , Feb. 1935, P. Chandler ( BMNH): 2/2 (fair); Kananda, on Anona (Annona) sp., 16.i.1927, H. Hargreaves ( BMNH): 1/1 (good). Zimbabwe [Southern Rhodesia], Banket, on Ochna sp. , 16.vii.1928, W.J. Hall ( BMNH): 1/2 (fair-poor); Bulawayo, on Grevillea robusta , 20.x.1928, W.J. Hall ( BMNH): 1/1 (fair); Sebakwe Poorte, on Artabotrys brachypetalus , 20.iii.1966, C.J. Hodgson ( BMNH): 1/1 (fair). There are also some extremely poor slides labelled C. ficus from Ghana and Kenya in BMNH. These are too poor to confirm.

Ceroplastes pallidus , part of type series: South Africa, Brain 102 ( BMNH): 1/1 (fair-good). Brain (1920b) gives the following details: Pretoria, Church Square, on fig. Also present in USNM: Pretoria, on fig, June 1918, C.K. Brain: 6/7 (2 slides labelled type, 3 paratypes and 1 topotype) ;

Note. The following description is taken mainly from the non-type slides from Tanganyika and checked as far as possible on the type specimens.

Unmounted material. "Test of the adult female more or less hemispherical, thin, semitransparent, hard and brittle, shaded with horn coloured greys and browns; the large dorsal area comparatively smooth, with distinct lines radiating from the central nucleus, the larger ones being widely separated and equidistant. Besides these there are also some faint concentric ones visible in some of the examples. Lateral plates narrowly rectangular, length much greater than width, outer angles produced and darker than the rest; caudal process triangular, with the angle rounded; anal valves nude, minute, and only visible under a rather strong magnification. Length 6–6.5 mm; width 5–5.25 mm." ( Newstead, 1910b: 190).

Mounted material. Body oval, probably rather convex, with shallow, stigmatic clefts; dorsum of mature adults with very pronounced, hemispherical lateral tubercles, with deep indentations between tubercles but much less pronounced on immature adults. Caudal process rather similar to a lateral lobe, with only apex sclerotised, at least on younger specimens. Limbs relatively short. Length 2.5–6.0 mm, total width of mounted specimen 2.0–5.0 mm.

Dorsum. Derm entirely membranous on available specimens, except for caudal process, only apex of which heavily sclerotised on younger specimens but area of sclerotisation expanding with age; derm becoming more sclerotised on old individuals. Caudal process without pores or setae. Length of sclerotisation on caudal process 285–750 µm, width 325–875 µm (only 225 µm long on C. pallidus ). Derm with eight large clear areas each on a swollen, hemispherical tubercle, plus base of caudal process, each without dorsal setae; medio-dorsal clear area especially large. Dorsal setae each bluntly spinose, margins almost parallel, each subequal to or slightly longer than width of basal-socket (length 3.0–6.5 µm; basal socket width 3.0–5.0 µm); sparse in non-clear areas. Dorsal pores: (i) loculate microducts of rusci-type abundant except in clear areas; pores with 2 satellite loculi scarce and perhaps restricted to wax-plate lines; pores with 3 or more loculi not noted; wax-plate lines considered to be present but pores sparse; and (ii) simple microduct very sparse, perhaps only present in clear areas. Preopercular pores few, with 10–15 in band 1 or 2 pores deep. Anal plates each with 3 long dorsal setae, each 66–80 µm long, plus a short apical seta about 10 µm long; length of plates 100–135 µm, combined widths 110–165 µm. Anal tube short, only about 140–150 µm long; anal ring setae each about 220–250 µm long.

Margin. Marginal setae strongly setose, each 22–35 µm long; with perhaps 15–19 between eyespots, and (on each side) 7–11 between eyespots and anterior stigmatic setae, 8–15 between stigmatic clefts and maybe about 21–30 on each side of abdomen; occasionally with 1 amongst stigmatic setae; each anal lobe with 3 or 4 long setae, each about 45–65 µm long. Stigmatic clefts shallow, each with a line of quite tall, mainly bluntly pointed, conical stigmatic setae, line broadening to 3–6 setae deep in each cleft; each cleft usually with a larger stigmatic seta near apex of group, each 16–22 µm long, 10–12 µm wide at base, setae becoming progressively smaller laterally, smallest about 8–10 µm long, 7–8 µm wide at base (most about 13–15 µm long and 8–10 µm wide); setae extending a short distance along margin on either side of each cleft; with about 21–40 setae in each anterior cleft and 24–46 in each posterior cleft. Eyespots each about 33–38 µm wide.

Venter. Derm entirely membranous but parts of margin becoming slightly sclerotised in older individuals. Pregenital disc-pores abundant around genital opening and across preceding segment; much less frequent anteriorly, with 6–20 medially and 3–10 on each side of segment V associated with anogenital fold, and about 3–6 medially and 0 mediolaterally on IV; 0–2 medially on segments III and II; none present more anteriorly. Spiracular disc-pores present in narrow bands of about 100 pores, broadening near cleft; rarely extending medially past peritreme. Ventral microducts showing nothing distinctive. Ventral tubular ducts each with a narrow inner ductule without an obvious terminal gland; present in a group of about 10–12 in cephalic region; apparently generally absent posteriorly associated with abdominal mediolateral folds, although 1 located on young specimen from Bukoba. Submarginal setae about twice as frequent as marginal setae, each 7–21 µm long.

Antennae 6–8 segmented, most often 7 segmented, when 6 segmented, segment III with distinct pseudoarticulations; total length about 290–385 µm. Clypeolabral shield about 150–185 µm long. Spiracles: width of peritremes 51–87 µm. Legs relatively small but well developed, each with a distinct tibio-tarsal articulatory sclerosis; claw denticles obscure or absent; claw digitules both broad and subequal to or shorter than length of tarsal digitules; dimensions of metathoracic legs (µm): coxa 140–175; trochanter + femur 173–225; tibia 115–160; tarsus 66–105, and claw 20–27.

Discussion. The above description is similar to that of De Lotto (1965) except that he found tubular ducts posteriorly associated with the anogenital fold. Almost none could be found on the specimens studied here and it may be that they are generally absent. In addition, De Lotto found some antennae 6 segmented, and his antennal measurements were rather shorter.

C. ficus has been collected in Angola ( De Lotto, 1967a), Eritrea, Ghana ( Newstead, 1917), Malawi, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda and Zimbabwe, on 10 plant families. ScaleNet ( Ben-Dov et al., 2011) lists Annonaceae , Celestraceae, Dryopteridaceae , Euphorbiaceae , Moraceae , Ochnaceae , Proteaceae and Rosaceae , and here we add Chrysobalanaceae and Umbelliferae.