Coccus ficicola, Choi, Jinyeong & Lee, Seunghwan, 2018

Choi, Jinyeong & Lee, Seunghwan, 2018, Review of the genus Coccus Linnaeus from Korea, with description of a new species (Hemiptera, Coccomorpha, Coccidae), ZooKeys 734, pp. 121-135 : 123-124

Coccus ficicola sp. n. Figs 1 A–D, 2 A–Q

Material examined.

Holotype: adult female: Korea, Gangnam-gu, Yeoksam-dong, 18.iv.2015, coll. J.Y. Choi, on Ficus benghalensis L. ( Moraceae ). Paratypes: same data as holotype, 9♀♀.

Diagnosis.

Adult females in life (Fig. 1 A–D) with a reticulated pattern of brown stripes and a longitudinal ridge medially on dorsum; dermal areolations present but small; dorsal tubercles present; dorsal tubular ducts sparse on submarginal area; dorsal setae with bluntly rounded apices; marginal setae usually with simple pointed apices; multilocular disc-pores usually with ten loculi; ventral tubular ducts with a narrow inner ductule, frequent on posterior region of the head, medial area of thorax, and inner submarginal area of abdomen; antennae each with eight segments; legs each with a tibio-tarsal sclerosis on the articulation.

Description.

Adult female. Living appearance (Fig. 1 A–D). Body oval, flattened, or moderately convex. Young adult females yellowish to brownish, with a reticulated pattern of brown stripes except for a longitudinal ridge on mid dorsum. Older adult females becoming more convex and darker. Eggs not seen.

Slide-mounted material (Fig. 2 A–Q). Body oval, 2.6-3.5 mm long, 2.0-3.6 mm wide, with distinct stigmatic cleft; anal clefts approximately 1/6 of body length.

Dorsum. Derm membranous. Dermal areolations oval and small, each with a microduct. Dorsal tubercles normally convex, present on submarginal area, 4-6 in total on each side: two between apex of head and anterior stigmatic cleft, one or two between anterior and posterior stigmatic clefts, and one or two between posterior stigmatic cleft and anal cleft. Dorsal setae cylindrical, short, stout, blunt apically, each 6-9 μm long, moderately distributed on dorsum. Dorsal tubular ducts each with a developed outer ductule and a slender inner ductule with a developed terminal gland, sparsely present on submargin. Dorsal microducts evenly scattered over entire dorsum. Preopercular pores round and small, rather inconspicuous, 6-7 μm wide, set in a small group of approximately 6-15 in front of anal plates. Anal plates quadrate, 190-223 μm long, 160-203 μm wide, usually posterolateral margin slightly longer than anterolateral margin; anterolateral margin 119-144 μm long, posterolateral margin 130-154 μm long; each plate with four apical setae. Ano-genital fold with two pairs of anterior and three pairs of lateral margin setae. Anal ring with six long setae.

Margin. Marginal setae spinose, slender, slightly bent, each 16-32 μm long, mostly with simple pointed apices, but sometimes with bifid tips; with 52-59 present between anterior stigmatic clefts; 12-17 laterally present between anterior and posterior stigmatic clefts, 45-53 present between posterior stigmatic cleft and anal clefts. Stigmatic clefts deep, each with three stigmatic spines, median spine 2-3 times as long as lateral spine: medians 48-77 μm long, laterals 14-30 μm long. Eyespots located near margin.

Venter. Derm membranous. Multilocular disc-pores 7-8 μm wide, each with 10-12 loculi, mostly with ten loculi, abundant around vulvar area, but less frequent on anterior segments of abdomen. Spiracular pores 4-5 μm wide, each with five loculi, in a narrow band 1-2 pores wide between each spiracle and stigmatic cleft. Ventral tubular ducts of a single type, each 21-28 μm long, with a developed outer ductule and a narrow inner ductule with a flower-shaped terminal gland, approximately 16-20 ducts densely present between mouthparts and procoxa on each side; a broad transverse band containing around 4-7 ducts vertically present between mesocoxae; abundant between each meso- and metacoxa, extending around spiracles; and also sparsely scattered on inner submarginal area between anal plates and each metacoxa. Ventral microducts present on entire venter, especially frequent on submargin. Ventral setae with three pairs of long pregenital setae; two pairs of long setae between antennae; other setae sharply spinose, each 7-14 μm long, moderately distributed over entire venter. Legs well developed, each with a tibio-tarsal articulation and an articulatory sclerosis; total length of each metathoracic leg 560-638 μm long: each coxa 138-163 μm long, trochanter+femur 181-213 μm long, tibia+tarsus 218-237 μm long, claw 17-26 μm long. Tarsal digitules thinner and longer than claw digitules. Spiracles normal, mostly posterior peritreme broader than anterior: anterior peritremes each 38-49 μm wide, posterior peritremes each 45-57 μm wide. Antenna 8-segmented, each 279-339 μm long. Clypeolabral shield 127-138 μm wide.

Etymology.

Named after its host plant, Ficus benghalensis L.

Host plant.

Moraceae : Ficus benghalensis L.

Comments.

Coccus ficicola sp. n. is probably a non-endemic species because it occurs on an imported ornamental plant, Ficus benghalensis , which is widely cultivated in tropical areas ( Starr et al. 2003). In order to know the exact origin of the new species, further investigations are needed.

Morphological comparison of adult females of Coccus ficicola sp. n. and its related taxa.

Based on taxonomic articles, such as Gill et al. (1977), Ben-Dov (1981), Avasthi and Shafee (1991), and Lin et al. (2017), we selected ten species morphologically similar to C. ficicola sp. n.: C. capparidis (Green, 1904), C. discrepans (Green, 1904), C. elatensis (Ben-Dov, 1981), C. formicarii (Green, 1896), C. gymnospori (Green, 1908), C. hesperidum (Linnaeus, 1758), C. latioperculatum (Green, 1922), C. moestus (De Lotto, 1959), C. praetermissus Lin & Tanaka, 2017, and C. sulawesicus Gavrilov, 2013. The morphological characters of adult females of Coccus ficicola and the ten species are summarized in Table 1.

In the morphological comparison, Coccus ficicola shows a new combination of morphological characters; in particular, the distributional pattern of ventral tubular ducts of the species reveals uniqueness among the nine morphological characters. Coccus ficicola is most closely related to C. gymnospori (Green), in having (i) dorsal tubercles, (ii) dorsal tubular ducts on submarginal area, (iii) dorsal setae with bluntly rounded apices, (iv) preopercular pores, (v) marginal setae with pointed or frayed apices, (vi) antenna with eight segments, (vii) three pairs of pregenital setae, and (viii) tibio-tarsal sclerosis. However, C. ficicola differs from C. gymnospori in having the following combination of character states (character states of C. gymnospori in parenthesis): (i) ventral tubular ducts abundant, 16 to 20 ducts present between mouthparts and each procoxa (few, only 3 or 4 ducts); a broad transverse band containing 4-7 ducts vertically between metacoxae (thin, containing one or two ducts); and present on inner submarginal area of abdomen (entirely absent), and (ii) multilocular disc-pores extending further anteriorly (restricted to preceding two abdominal segments) ( Ben-Dov 1981; Avasthi and Shafee 1989).

Although the African species, C. africanus (Newstead) and C. alpinus De Lotto, are not included in the list of related taxa for morphological comparison, C. ficicola is similar to both species in having abundant ventral tubular ducts. However, C. ficicola does not have continuous ventral tubular ducts between the metacoxae, whereas both African species have this character state ( De Lotto 1957; De Lotto 1960; Granara de Willink et al. 2010).