Icerya purchasi Maskell
Creators: name: Moghaddam, Masumeh
name: Watson, Gillian W.
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2024
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Hemiptera
Margarodidae
Icerya
Icerya purchasi

description: Icerya purchasi Maskell
(Fig. 82, Plate 5 B-1 and B-2, distribution map Fig. 90L)
Icerya purchasi Maskell, 1879: 221. Icerya purchasi crawii Cockerell, 1897: 94; junior synonym discovered by Unruh & Gullan 2008b: 93. Icerya purchasi maskelli Cockerell, 1897: 94; junior synonym discovered by Unruh & Gullan 2008b: 93. Icerya purchasi citriperda Hempel, 1920: 337; junior synonym (discovered by Unruh & Gullan 2008b: 93). Pericerya purchasi (Maskell); Silvestri 1939: 649.
Field characteristics: Live adult hermaphrodite usually reddish brown, lightly coated in white or pale-yellow wax; at maturity, producing a white fluted ovisac at posterior end, ovisac often as long as the body (Williams & Watson 1990) and pushing rear end of abdomen upwards.
Microscopic diagnosis (derived from Williams & Watson (1990) and Unruh & Gullan (2008b)): Slide-mounted adult female broadly oval, with black setae numerous on abdomen, forming tufts around margins and in median tufts on dorsum of head and thorax. Antennae each with 10 or 11 segments. Abdominal spiracles numbering 2 pairs. Cicatrices situated posterior to vulva, numbering 3, central cicatrice largest or all subequal in size. Anal opening surrounded by long, robust hair-like setae. Vulva surrounded by setae and oval pores, each pore with about 10 outer loculi, present around an oval central loculus. Ovisac band well developed, narrow (1‒3 pores wide) between hind coxae, but up to 8 pores wide lateral to coxae and around ventral submargins of abdomen; band formed of 2 pore types: an oval type with a bilocular centre and about 10 outer loculi, and a slightly smaller circular type with a single central loculus and about 7 outer loculi. Simple multilocular disc-pores, each 9–10 µm in diameter, with a bilocular center (appearing reniform) and 4 or 5 outer loculi, scattered on ventromedial head and thorax and across ventromedial to submedial abdomen. Open-centre pores, each with about 8‒12 loculi and with a notch in inner margin of rim, associated with marginal tufts of setae and sometimes a few scattered across dorsal medial areas of thorax and anterior abdomen; in lateral view, each pore is cylindrical, almost as long as wide.
Distribution: Icerya purchasi is of Australian origin but is now cosmopolitan; in Iran, it has been recorded from Fars, Mazandaran, Tehran and Yazd provinces (Moghaddam 2013).
Host-plants: The species is highly polyphagous, having been recorded on host-plants in 211 genera belonging to 85 families (García Morales et al. 2016). In Iran, it has been found on Acer sp. (Aceraceae); Glycine max and Prosopis farcta (Fabaceae); Citrus spp. (Rutaceae); and Daphne odora (Thymelaeaceae) (Moghaddam et al. 2015).
Economic importance: Icerya purchasi is one of the most polyphagous scale insects and is an important pest in Iran, especially on citrus in the north of the country; it also damages ornamental plants.
Natural enemies: Larval and adult stages of the ladybird Novius cardinalis Mulsant (Coleoptera: Coccinellidae) are important predators of I. purchasi in Iran (Heydari et al. 2016).
Comments: adult females of this species are known to be hermaphrodites, capable of self-fertilisation, although occasionally small numbers of winged males are found that are capable of mating with the hermaphrodites (Mongue et al. 2021).
description: Published as part of Moghaddam, Masumeh & Watson, Gillian W., 2024, The Scale Insects Of Iran (Hemiptera: Coccomorpha) Part 3 The Soft Scales (Coccidae) And Other Families, pp. 1-202 in Zootaxa 5542 (1) on pages 167-169, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.5542.1.1, http://zenodo.org/record/14385386