Aolacoccus, Gullan, Penny J. & Williams, Douglas J., 2016

Gullan, Penny J. & Williams, Douglas J., 2016, A new pupillarial scale insect (Hemiptera: Coccoidea: Eriococcidae) from Angophora in coastal New South Wales, Australia, Zootaxa 4117 (1), pp. 85-100 : 88-89

Aolacoccus gen. nov.

urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act:920E0B26- 1412 -45A8-AA91-F8AF62F25096

Type species. Aolacoccus angophorae sp. nov., by present designation and monotypy.

Etymology. The genus is named after Dr Aola M. Richards , who first collected the species described here. Aola took a keen interest in scale insects when working at the Plant Diseases Division, Department of Scientific and Industrial Research, Auckland, New Zealand, before moving to the School of Zoology, University of New South Wales, Kensington, New South Wales, Australia. She was an excellent collector and published mainly on damage and control of scale insects. Her knowledge was much wider though, with other studies mostly on coccinellids, parasitoids and Orthoptera. After retiring, Aola settled in London where she still lives. The name Aola is combined with the genus name Coccus and is masculine.

Generic diagnosis. As the genus currently is monotypic, its description is the same as for the species description below and only a brief generic diagnosis based on the adult female is included here.

Adult female minute, <1 mm long, retained within the sclerotised cuticle of the second-instar female. In life, found on trunk and branches of Angophora trees, with each insect usually hidden under a thin layer of bark tissue. Body globular, margin not defined (lacking setae), with posterior of abdomen tapering to a rounded end. Derm mostly membranous, with segmentation indistinct to absent. Most body setae minute (each about 2 µm long) and sparsely distributed, but setae longer on posterior of abdomen. Macrotubular and microtubular ducts absent. Loculate pores absent dorsally, all quinquelocular (5 loculi) ventrally and present only on derm around each spiracle and in a cluster around vulva. Small disc-like structures, perhaps cicatrices, in cluster posterior to vulva. Antennae each a small, unsegmented tubercle bearing several fleshy setae. Frontal lobes and antennal tubercles absent. Spiracles well developed, subequal in size, each with muscle plate (apodeme) expanded medially. Legs absent. Vulva well developed. Anal lobes absent. Anal ring small, apparently ventrally located and partially sclerotised.

Adult females of Aolacoccus can be identified using the key of Hardy et al. (2011) or Hardy & Gullan (2007) to genera of felt scales ( Eriococcidae ) found on Eucalyptus and Corymbia in Australia, but modified as follows for couplets 8 and 9 and with the addition of couplet 9a:

8. Anal ring invaginated, U-shaped, with numerous small pores and a pair of apodemes extending anterolaterally; pore plates (hind legs reduced to flattened plates bearing translucent pores) present; bilocular pores present; from bark of Eucalyptus .... ...................................................................................undescribed genus A* - Anal ring absent, or if present, circular or partial, not invaginated, without pores or apodemes; pore plates absent; bilocular pores absent......................................................................................... 9 9. Body minute, <1 mm long; dorsum membranous, no part forming a sclerotic operculum; from bark of Angophora ............................................................................................. Aolacoccus gen. nov. - Body almost always> 1 mm in diameter or length and sometimes more than 1 cm long; part of dorsum forming a sclerotic operculum, either disc-like or button-like, that plugs gall orifice; ex galls on stems or leaves of Corymbia .............. 9a 9a. Loculate disc pores absent but pore plates present, each with irregular rim and 3–40 rounded tubercles that appear as holes or 'pores'; each spiracle composed of broad, irregular atrium with tangled mass of radiating, sclerotic tracheal trunks; ex woody galls on stems of Corymbia ................................................................ Cystococcus Fuller - Either small pore plates (as in Cystococcus ) or loculate disc pores (mostly quinquelocular) present; spiracles either similar to those of Cystococcus or of typical eriococcid type; ex non-woody galls on leaves of Corymbia ............ Ascelis Schrader

(*The use of this code name ‘undescribed genus A’ is not intended as a nomenclatural action.)