The Coccidae (Hemiptera: Coccoidea) of Chile, with descriptions of three new species and transfer of Lecanium resinatum Kieffer & Herbst to the Kerriidae
Author
Kondo, Takumasa
Author
Gullan, Penny J.
text
Zootaxa
2010
2560
1
15
journal article
10.5281/zenodo.293984
15c86811-b9bf-40de-b89d-3fd161964b2c
1175-5326
293984
Tachardiella resinata
(Kieffer & Herbst)
,
comb. nov.
Lecanium resinatum
Kieffer & Herbst, 1909
: 122
.
Coccus resinatum
;
Ben-Dov, 1993
: 88
(change of combination).
Coccus resinatus
;
Williams & Ben-Dov, 2009
: 41
(justified emendation).
Many scale insect species described in the genus
Lecanium
Burmeister
(now an unavailable name) are soft scale insects and a number have been transferred to the genus
Coccus
(see
Williams & Ben-Dov, 2009
). Presumably, this was the reason that
Ben-Dov (1993)
transferred
L. resinatum
to
Coccus
.
Kieffer & Herbst (1909)
described this scale insect from the host plant
Baccharis rosmarinifolia
(Asteraceae)
, which is now
Baccharis linearis
(
Tropicos, 2010
)
, from Concepcion,
Chile
. The original description is in
German
and the claim (
Ben-Dov, 1993
), which has been perpetuated by others (e.g.,
Gullan
et al
., 2005
), that this species induces a gall is based on a misinterpretation of the description, which refers to these insects producing "Harzgallen", which literally translates to "resin galls". These structures are described as yellow, tending to spherical or hemispherical, attaining
4–5 mm
in diameter, sessile, and usually densely packed. Resinous tests are produced by several scale insect groups, including the lac insects (
Kerriidae
). It seems certain that
C. resinatus
is a kerriid because Kieffer’s & Herbst’s (1990) description of the red “larvae”, the first-instar nymphs, matches that of kerriid nymphs. Two genera of
Kerriidae
,
Austrotachardiella
Chamberlin
and
Tachardiella
Cockerell
, are widespread in South
America
(
Ben-Dov, 2006
) and it cannot be established with certainty to which genus
C. resinatus
belongs because there is no
type
material. However, only
Tachardiella
species have been found on
Asteraceae
, including
T. pustulans
(Cockerell)
on
Baccharis
from the southwestern
USA
. Furthermore, the resinous tests of adult females of
Tachardiella
species are usually globular, as in
C. resinatus
, whereas those of
Austrotachardiella
species usually have various projections or processes. Here we transfer
Lecanium resinatum
to
Tachardiella
as
T. resinata
(Kieffer & Herbst)
comb. nov.
, until the identity of this species can be investigated further based on collections made from the host plant in the region of the
type
locality.