Lepidosaphes monticola, Hardy, Nate B. & Williams, Douglas J., 2018

Hardy, Nate B. & Williams, Douglas J., 2018, Doubling the known endemic species diversity of New Caledonian armored scale insects (Hemiptera, Diaspididae), ZooKeys 782, pp. 11-47 : 11

Lepidosaphes monticola sp. n. Figure 10

Material examined.

Holotype: New Caledonia: 1 adult female (1.75 mm long, 0.75 mm wide): ex Podocarpus?logifolatus, Mt. Koghis, 900 m, 12.x.1978, PN Johnson, BM 19 2 (NHMUK). Paratypes: New Caledonia: 1 adult female: same data as holotype; 2 adult females: ex undetermined host, Mt. Mou (near Sanitarium), 19.viii.1963, SW Brown, SWB accession 254 (NHMUK, USNM); 1 adult female: ex Podocarpus longifolatus, Mt. D’Or, 900 m, 31.x.1978, J. S. Dugdale, 78-3266 (NHMUK). Other material: New Caledonia: 1 teneral adult female: same data as holotype but with accession BM 19 17.

Description.

Adult female, n = 4. Presumed to secrete scale cover. Body 1.25-1.88 mm long, broadest near anterior spiracle (0.5-0.83 mm); outline roughly fusiform, head and prothorax fused into circular prosoma, margin incised between pro- and mesothorax, margins of posterior pre-pygidial abdominal segments strongly convex.

Pygidium with three lobes on each side, L2 and L3 bilobed, each with lateral marginal slightly divergent near base, L1 and sublobes of L2 each with pair of convergent paraphyses. A pair of bifid gland spines between L1s, a pair of simple gland spines between L1 and L2, another pair between L2 and L3. Dorsum of pygidium weakly sclerotic, with longitudinal striations. Anus small, 10 μm in diameter, in middle of pygidium. Margin of pygidium with five large two-barred macroducts (~25 μm long, 10-13 μm wide at distal end) with elongate, oblique orifices: one on pore prominence between L1 and L2, one between L2 and L3, one just anterior to first sublobe of L3, two anterolateral of L3. Other dorsal macroducts (away from margin) as long as marginal ducts but less wide at distal end, ~7 μm, scattered along submargin and arranged in longitudinal line from L3 to anterior of anus. Venter of pygidium with vulva in anterior half of pygidium. Perivulvar pores quinquelocular, 5-9 µm in diameter, in five groups: 8-11 pores in posterior group, 11-12 in anterolateral group, 3-5 in medial group.

Prepygidial segments Dorsum with fine, hair-like setae, sparse along margin, few on medial areas of head and thorax. Each abdominal segment with submedial and submarginal group of macroducts. In holotype, submedial group in transverse line, submarginal group divided into anterior cluster and posterior transverse line. Some other specimens with fewer ducts and without differentiated subdivisions of submarginal group. Each posterior abdominal segment with cluster of macroducts associated with 1-3 gland spines. Antennae each with two long setae. Anterior spiracle with cluster of 3-10 trilocular pores. Posterior spiracles without pores. Some specimens with distinct clusters of microducts on head or prothorax.

Comments.

Shimmer (1868) erected the genus Lepidosaphes by monotypy for the species Mytilococcus communis Amerling (now Lepidosaphes ulmi ). There are 167 species currently recognized in the genus ( García Morales et al. 2016). Takagi (1970) gives a thorough diagnosis: adult females tend to have (1) an elongate or fusiform body shape, the margins of anterior abdominal segments convex; (2) two pairs of well-developed pygidial lobes, and in some species an additional 1-2 pairs of rudimentary lobes; (3) median pygidial lobes separate and symmetrical; (4) L2 bilobate; (5) if basal scleroses present on pygidium, they are slender and extend from the basal edges of lobes; (6) gland spines present between medial lobes as well as in the space between L1 and L2; (7) large marginal macroducts with oblong orifice and sclerotic rim, usually six on each side of pygidium, stereotypically with one near junction of abdominal segments VIII and VII, two near junction of segments VII and VI, and three anterior to segment VI; (8) antenna usually with two or more long setae; (9) anus near anterior edge of pygidium; (10) perivulvar pores in five groups; and (11) pores near anterior spiracles. For the most part, this diagnosis works for the adult female of L. monticola , although it does have some less common character states, for example L3 is relatively well developed, and the anus is farther posterior of the anterior pygidial edge (opposite the posterior group of perivular pores) than it is in most species (at the base of the pygidium or almost opposite the center of the frame formed by the perivulvar pores). The most striking difference is the circular prosoma, which, to the naked eye, makes the body of the L. monticola female appear unlike other species of Lepidosaphes . This body shape is typical of many species of Aulacaspis Cockerell, but the pygidium of Aulacaspis species is quite different ( Takagi 1999). Two Neotropical species of Pseudoparlatoria Cockerell have a body shape and pygidium similar to that of L. monticola ( Ferris 1941; Wolff 2001; Wolff and Claps 2008). Nevertheless, species of Pseudoparlatoria invariably lack pores near the anterior spiracles of the adult female. In a forthcoming paper, B. B. Normark will show that in comparison to body shape, the presence or absence of pores near anterior spiracles is more phylogenetically conservative. Hence, we describe L. monticola as an odd-bodied species of Lepidosaphes , rather than an odd-pored species of Pseudoparlatoria .

Lepidosaphes monticola belongs to a group of Pacific species that share a row of microducts on segment VII, forwards from the second lobes. In the other Pacific species this group only extends anteriorly to each side of the anus, but in L. monticola this group extends well anterior to the anus. Lepidosaphes monticola is similar to L. carolinensis Beardsley, described from The Federated States of Micronesia, L. esakii Takahashi, known from The Federated States of Micronesia and The Republic of Kiribati, and to L. karkarica Williams & Watson, described from Papua New Guinea. Lepidosaphes carolinensis has sclerotized spines on the lateral margins of the anterior abdominal segments, and L. karkara possesses well-developed lateral tubercles in these positions but L. monticola lacks these structures.

Note that we have excluded from the type series a teneral adult female specimen from the type locality, Mt. Koghis. This specimen differed from the others in having a distinct patch of short microducts along the submargin of the prosoma, lateral of the clypeolabral shield. The adult females from Mt. Mou also have clusters of microducts on the margin of the head, although not as many as the teneral Mt. Koghis female, and in a different location (the anterior margin). The teneral Mt. Koghis female also has smaller perivulvar pores than those found in the other specimens examined (5 versus 9 µm in diameter).

Etymology.

The species name refers to its mountainous habitat and is a noun in apposition.