Cryptophyllaspis occulta ( Green, 1896 )

Pellizzari, Giuseppina & Porcelli, Francesco, 2017, Aspidiotus bornmuelleri Lindinger, 1911, rev. comb. (Hemiptera: Coccomorpha: Diaspididae), a neglected endemic species from Macaronesia, with comments on the genus Cryptophyllaspis, and further notes on the scale insect fauna of Canary Islands, Spain, Zootaxa 4300 (1), pp. 99-110 : 100

Cryptophyllaspis occulta ( Green, 1896)

This minuscule species forms minute rounded galls on the upper leaf surfaces of Grewia orientalis L. ( Malvaceae ). It is known only from the original record in Sri Lanka. According to Green (1896), the scales settle on the leaf underside, and the adult female becomes completely enclosed in the leaf tissue. Green placed this species in Aspidiotus , but Cockerell (1897) referred to it as Aspidiotus (Cryptophyllaspis) occultus . Leonardi (1897) transferred it to Hemiberlesia and Cockerell (1899) placed it in Cryptophyllaspis . Ferris (1938) presented a drawing of C. occulta based on specimens from the type material; three years later, the same author in his in-depth study on the genus Aspidiotus considered it to be an Aspidiotus species ( Ferris, 1941). Borchsenius (1966) maintained the species in Cryptophyllaspis .