CEROPLASTES SINENSIS DEL GUERCIO (HOMOPTERA: COCCIDAE), A WAX SCALE NEW TO AUSTRALIA

Abstract

Ceroplastes sinensis Del Guercio was recorded for the first time in Australia in August 1966, in the vicinity of Sydney. The scale is widely distributed overseas, occurring in Europe, Africa, China and New Zealand. It infests a wide range of host plants including commercial citrus. Males occur but comprise only about 3 per cent. of the population. The male insecthas 6 instars, one of which, the true third instar, is described for the first time. The principal natural enemies of C. sinensis are Aneristus ceroplastae Howard, Metaphycus helvolus (Compere) and Scutellista cyanea Motschulsky. Their current abundance is too low to influence the abundance of the scale.

Phenology and relative abundance ofCeroplastes destructorandC. sinensis(Hemiptera: Coccidae) on citrus in Northland, New Zealand

“…C. destructor is also univoltine in South Africa (Cilliers 1967) and most of New South Wales (Gellatley 1968;Milne 1981;Beattie et al 1990), but bivoltine in northern New South Wales (Gellatley 1968) and Queensland (Smith 1970;Smith & Ironside 1974). C. sinensis produces one generation a year in New South Wales (Snowball 1970;Beattie et al 1990) and Virginia (Pollet 1972).…”

“…Both species migrate from leaves to twigs to complete their development. Although there has been some debate in the literature, it appears that both C. destructor (Snowball 1970;Milne 1981) and C. sinensis (Pollet 1972;Gimpel et al 1974;Qin & Gullan 1994) move as third instars.…”

“…Both C. destructor and C. sinensis have three nymphal instars (Cilliers 1967;Pollet 1972). Males are unknown in C. destructor (Hely et al 1982) and comprise <3% of C. sinensis populations (Snowball 1970). Both species migrate from leaves to twigs to complete their development.…”

“…Overseas, the ecology of C. destructor has been studied in South Africa (Cilliers 1967;Snowball 1969) and Australia (Smith 1970;Smith & Ironside 1974;Milne 1981 ;Beattie et al 1990). The ecology of C. sinensis has been studied in Australia (Snowball 1970;Beattie et al 1990) and the United States (Pollet 1972).…”

Size and fecundity of soft wax scale(Ceroplustes destructor)and Chinese wax scale(C. sinensis)(Hemiptera: Coccidae) on citrus

“…Males are unknown in soft wax scale (Hely et al 1982), and they comprise < 3 % of Chinese wax scale populations (Snowball 1970).…”