Unaspis
Creators: name: Watson, Gillian W.
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2015
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Hemiptera
Diaspididae
Unaspis

description: Genus Unaspis
Diagnosis. Adult female not pupillarial; body elongate, widest at metathorax or abdominal segment I. Derm usually membranous except for pygidium, but a few species with prosoma becoming sclerotized with maturity. Free abdominal segments I–III with slightly to moderately produced lateral lobes, without marginal sclerotized spurs. Pygidium slightly rounded, sometimes with a small apical notch formed by divergent median lobes. Median lobes usually well developed, not zygotic, with a pair of minute marginal setae between the bases; either quite widely spaced, symmetrical and parallel-sided, or set quite close together basally and divergent, with inner margins longer than outer margins, so forming a slight notch at apex of pygidium; median lobes rounded or serrate. Second and third lobes similar in size, well developed, deeply bilobed, the lobules rounded. Slender ventral paraphyses arising from the angles of the inner lobules of second and sometimes third lobes, usually converging anteriorly. Gland spines well developed, absent from between median lobes; usually present singly or in pairs between the lobes, more numerous on margins of posterior free abdominal segments; becoming shorter (conical duct tubercles) and situated on ventral surface further anteriorly. Anus circular, situated between centre and anterior 1/3 of pygidium; with a median furrow extending from anus to median lobes. Vulva situated near centre of pygidium. Marginal macroducts with each orifice sclerotized, the long axis perpendicular to the margin; usually associated with pore prominences or marginal serrations; absent from between median lobes, usually numbering 7 on each side of the pygidium. Dorsal macroducts mostly smaller than marginal ducts, numerous, scattered or loosely arranged in segmental series submarginally and submedially, present as far posteriorly as abdominal segments VII and VIII. Ventral conical duct tubercles sometimes present. Perivulvar pores absent or present in 5 groups. Stigmatic disc pores present in a compact cluster by anterior spiracle; usually fewer by, or absent from posterior spiracle. Antennae situated near or on anterior margin, each with 1 or 2 setae, occasionally more.
Comments. In the armoured scale insect subfamily Diaspidinae, a number of genera in which the adult female has an elongate body and median lobes not yoked together with an internal sclerosis (such as Aonidomytilus, Dactylaspis, Dinaspis, Duplachionaspis, Lapazia, Lepidosaphes, Nilotaspis, Pallulaspis, Stramenaspis and Velataspis) might be misidentified as Unaspis. However, Aonidomytilus, Lapazia, Lepidosaphes, Nilotaspis, Pallulaspis, Stramenaspis and Velataspis all possess a pair of gland spines between the median lobes, which are not present in Unaspis. Dactylaspis has leg vestiges present, which are not present in Unaspis. In Dactylaspis, Dinaspis and Duplachionaspis, the third lobes are represented by conical spurs or sclerotized serrations on the margin, whereas in Unaspis they are always flattened and bilobular with rounded tips.
description: Published as part of Watson, Gillian W., 2015, Unaspis lansivora sp. n. (Hemiptera: Diaspididae), a new pest of Lansium domesticum (Meliaceae), and a key to Unaspis species, pp. 432-440 in Zootaxa 3905 (3) on page 434, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.3905.3.9, http://zenodo.org/record/243067