Pulvinaria floccifera (Westwood)

Family

Coccidae

Common name

Cottony camellia scale

Field characters

Body elongate oval; relatively flat in cross section; body cream or tan, with medial stripe and mottling near body margin on young females, dark brown in older females; without obvious wax covering; ovisac produced beneath and behind female, relatively flat, white, flocculent, about 2 times length of body. Occurring on leaves and stems; oviposition is normally on twigs. Males mentioned by Canard1969. Eggs laid inside ovisac.

Validation characters

Marginal setae expanded or swollen, rarely with setae with conspicuous fringing; ventral tubular ducts absent from marginal and submarginal areas of head; multilocular pores normally with 7 loculi; multiloculars present in vulvar area forward to segment 2, especially submarginally. Other characters: Dorsal tubular ducts present; tibio-tarsus articulated, with sclerosis; claw without denticle; claw digitules equal; 3 pair of prevulvar setae (posterior pair often obscured by anal plates); 4 to 12 submarginal tubercles around body margin; stigmatic setae differentiated from other marginal setae, middle seta longer than lateral setae; anal plates with posterior margin about equal in length to anterior margin; each anal plate with 4 apical setae, without a subdiscal seta; with 1 or 2 subapical setae on each plate; anal fold with 2 or 4 fringe setae; antennae 8-segmented; preopercular pores inconspicuous, restricted to area anterior of anal plates.

Comparison

Pulvinaria floccifera is similar to P. urbicola by having multilocular pores predominantly with 7 loculi. Pulvinaria floccifera differs by lacking ventral submarginal tubular duct on head (P. urbicola has a few tubular ducts in this area), by having dorsal tubular ducts (P. urbicola lacks these structure except rarely on head), and by having most marginal setae simple or slightly expanded, rarely with setae with more than 2 or 3 tines (P. urbicola has many marginal setae spatulate, with multiple tines).

U.S. quarantine notes

This species was intercepted 3 times at U. S. ports-of-entry between 1995 and 2012, with specimens originating from Costa Rica, France, and St. Lucia. We also have examined specimens taken in quarantine from Belgium (Anthurium), British West Indies (Cypripedium), Canada (Camellia, Ilex, Oncidium), Czech Republic (Ilex), Colombia (Miltonia), Costa Rica (Brassia, Oncidium), France (Camellia, Dendrobium, Hoya, Ilex, Oncidium, Vanda), Germany (Camellia), Guatemala (Lycaste), India (Crypripedium), Italy (Laurus, Pittosporum), Japan (Anthurium, Eurya, Taonabo), Madeira (Camellia), Mexico (Chamaedorea, Epidendrum, Odontoglossum, Oncidium), Myanmar (Dendrobium), The Netherlands (Ilex, Taxus), Panama (Brassia), Portugal (Camellia), The United Kingdom (Ansellia, Camellia, Cattleya, Codiaeum, Cymbidium, Cypripedium, Miltonia, Odontonia, Phalaenopsis). ScaleNet includes hosts in over 35 plant families from all zoogeographic regions. A few other species of Pulvinaria have been taken in quarantine in addition to P. floccifera, P. hydrangeae Steinweden, P. ixorae Green, P. polygonata Cockerell, P. psidii Maskell and P. urbicola Cockerell including: P. aurantii Cockerell (Japan, on Citrus); P. citricola Kuwana (Ecuador, on Musa; Japan, on Diospyros); P. elongata Newstead (Colombia, on Oryza and Saccharum); P. horii (Kuwana) (Japan, on Acer); P. neocellulosa Takahashi (India, on Murraya); and Pulvinaria vitis (Linnaeus) (Canada, on Tilia).

Important references

Canard1969; Gill1988; HamonWi1984; Hodgso1994a; HodgsoHe2000.

Scalenet catalog and citation list

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