Ceroplastes floridensis Comstock
Creators: name: Moghaddam, Masumeh
name: Watson, Gillian W.
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2024
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Hemiptera
Coccidae
Ceroplastes
Ceroplastes floridensis

description: Ceroplastes floridensis Comstock
(Fig. 14, Plate 1H, distribution map Fig. 89E)
Ceroplastes floridensis Comstock, 1881: 331. Cerostegia floridensis (Comstock); De Lotto 1969b: 211. Paracerostegia floridensis (Comstock); Tang 1991: 306. Ceroplastes floridensis (Comstock); Hodgson & Peronti 2012: 27.
Field characteristics: Live adult female with thick, opaque greyish to pinkish-white test not divided into plates, convex, rectangular in young adult but almost hemispherical in older specimens; not forming a dorsal waxy horn in old specimens.
Microscopic diagnosis: Slide-mounted adult female body oval. Stigmatic clefts shallow.
Dorsum. Derm membranous in young females, slightly sclerotized in older specimens; with 1 cephalic, 0 mediodorsal, and 6 lateral clear areas devoid of pores and setae. Setae very short, stout, bluntly pointed, scattered throughout. Pores of 3 types: (i) trilocular pores; (ii) quadrilocular pores numerous, scattered throughout, except for 7 clear areas; and (iii) bilocular pores, scattered, most numerous in submarginal areas. Preopercular pores circular and rather strongly domed, each with a sclerotized basal ring, present in a compact group of 12−20 anterior to anal plates. Tubular ducts and duct tubercles absent. Anal plates twice as long as wide, each plate with 1 subapical and 3 apical setae. Anal ring with 6 long and 2 short setae.
Margin. Marginal setae bristle-shaped, each side with about 8−10 setae between each anterior and posterior stigmatic furrow; stigmatic setae lanceolate with pointed apices, numbering 22−34 in each stigmatic cleft in 3 irregular rows.
Venter. Derm entirely membranous. Pregenital disc-pores mostly each with 10 loculi; abundant around anogenital fold, and across preceding abdominal segments; also a few near bases of most coxae. Spiracular disc-pores mostly each with 5 loculi (occasionally several pores with more than 5), present in irregular bands between each spiracle and margin. Microducts present. Ventral tubular ducts each with inner ductule short and greatly inflated, with a small apical gland, present in a distinct, narrow submarginal band around body except anteriorly on head and in anal cleft area. Setae sparse; submarginal setae less abundant than marginal setae and significantly smaller. Antennae each generally with 6 segments but segment III sometimes with a pseudo-articulation and occasionally with 7 distinct segments. Legs well developed, each without a tibio-tarsal articulatory sclerosis; each claw without a denticle; claw digitules both broad; tarsal digitules obviously longer than claw digitules.
Distribution: Ceroplastes floridensis is a cosmopolitan species of Neotropical origin; in Iran, it is found in Ardabil, Gilan and Mazandaran provinces (Moghaddam 2009).
Host-plants: The scale is highly polyphagous, mostly occurring on woody hosts. In Iran, it has been recorded on Hedera pastuchovii (Araliaceae); Metasequoia glyptostroboides (Cupressaceae); Diospyros kaki (Ebenaceae); Ficus benjamina (Moraceae); Cedrus sp. (Pinaceae); Cydonia oblonga (Rosaceae), and Citrus sp. (Rutaceae) (Moghaddam 2009).
Economic importance: The species is one of the major pests of Citrus in the north of Iran; it also attacks several ornamental plants (Moghaddam 2015).
Natural enemies: Ceroplastes floridensis is attacked by the parasitoid wasps (Hymenoptera) Metaphycus angustifrons Compere (Encyrtidae) and Moralina californica (Howard) (Pteromalidae), and by the entomopathogenic fungi Hirsutella sp. (Ophiocordycipitaceae) and Verticilium lecanii (Zimm.) (Plectosphaerellaceae) (Davoodi et al. 2004; Ostovan & Modaresi 2006). Its predators include the ladybird beetles Chilocorus bipustulatus (L.), Scymnus spapetzi (Mulsant) and Propylaea quatuordecimpunctata (L.) (Coleoptera: Coccinellidae), and the entomophagous fungi Hirsutella sp. (Ophiocordycipitaceae) and Verticilium lecanii (Zimm) (Plectosphaerellaceae) (Davoodi et al. 2004; Ostovan & Modaresi 2006).
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 page 45, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.5542.1.1, http://zenodo.org/record/14385386