Ceroplastes ceriferus
Creators: name: Choi, Jinyeong
name: Soysouvanh, Pheophanh
name: Lee, Seunghwan
name: Hong, Ki-Jeong
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2018
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Hemiptera
Coccidae
Ceroplastes
Ceroplastes ceriferus

description: Ceroplastes ceriferus (Fabricius, 1798)
(Figs 6, 7)
Coccus ceriferus Fabricius, 1798: 546.
Diagnosis. Body covered with thick white wax forming a distinct dorsal horn at maturity (Fig. 6A). Dorsum with Ceroplastes - type pores of 4 types present: mono-, bi-, tri- and quadrilocular pores (Fig. 7B); bi- or trilocular pores abundant; anal plates each with 4 apical setae; and dorsal setae variable, usually blunt, evenly distributed on dorsum except for clear areas (Fig. 7A). Marginal setae spinose, each with a pointed apex; with 2–4 setae present between anterior and posterior stigmatic clefts (Fig. 7K). Stigmatic clefts shallow, each with conical or bulletshaped stigmatic spines, arranged in a triangular area composed of about 6 setal rows (Figs 6C, 7C). Venter with multilocular disc-pores present on all abdominal segments, with a few pores present laterad of meta-, meso- and procoxa (Fig. 7F); tubular ducts each with a very narrow inner ductule, present on submarginal area of posterior abdomen and head (Fig. 7G); antenna 6 segmented (Figs 6D, 7L); and legs without tibio-tarsal articulatory scleroses (Figs 6E, 7H) (partially adopted from Hodgson & Peronti 2012).
Material examined. 4 ♀♀, LAOS, Paksong Dist., Champasak Prov., 30.vii.2016, coll. P.P. Soysouvanh, on Persea americana Mill. (Lauraceae).
Hosts. Polyphagous. According to ScaleNet (García Morales et al. 2016), C. ceriferus has been recorded from plants belonging to 80 genera in 52 families. In Laos, it has been recorded on Dracaena sp. (Asparagaceae) and Ficus sp. (Moraceae) (Suh & Bombay 2015).
Distribution. All zoogeographical regions; Oriental Region (India, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Philippines, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam) (Suh & Bombay 2015; García Morales et al. 2016).
Economic importance. Although C. ceriferus may be not a serious pest, some authors note that it can cause damage to numerous ornamental plants by producing honeydew, which fosters the development of sooty mold (Williams & Kosztarab 1972; Hamon & Williams 1984; Hodgson & Henderson 2000). Sooty mold blocks light and air from the leaves, impairing photosynthesis.
Remarks. Ceroplastes ceriferus is closely related to C. pseudoceriferus Green, as indicated by only a narrow genetic distance in the DNA barcode region of COI (Deng et al. 2012; Lee et al. 2012); but these species differ morphologically in the number of marginal setae. Ceroplastes ceriferus has fewer than 15 slender marginal setae between the anterior stigmatic clefts, and about 3 marginal setae between the anterior and posterior stigmatic clefts on each side; whereas C. pseudoceriferus has about 40 marginal setae between the anterior stigmatic clefts, and about 10 marginal setae between the anterior and posterior stigmatic clefts on each side (Gimpel et al. 1974; Hodgson & Peronti 2012).
description: Published as part of Choi, Jinyeong, Soysouvanh, Pheophanh, Lee, Seunghwan & Hong, Ki-Jeong, 2018, Review of the family Coccidae (Hemiptera: Coccomorpha) in Laos, pp. 1-62 in Zootaxa 4460 (1) on page 12, DOI: 10.11646/zootaXa.4460.1.1, http://zenodo.org/record/1459506