Lecanodiaspis Targioni Tozzetti 1869
Creators: name: Hodgson, Chris
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2020
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Hemiptera
Lecanodiaspididae
Lecanodiaspis

description: Key to adult male Lecanodiaspis species (based on the published description of the above 9 species).
1. Hamulohalteres absent. Postoccipital ridge transverse, without posterior extensions laterally.............. L. brabei Brain
- Hamulohalters present. Postoccipital ridge with posterior extensions laterally (apart from L. elytropappi)............... 2
2. Small simple pores present in a group on dorsal surface of head near each scape. Preocular ridges meeting medially. Postoccipital ridge with long posterior arms.................................................... L. baculifera Leonardi
- Small simple pores absent on dorsal surface of head. Preocular ridges not nearly meeting medially. Postoccipital ridge with only short posterior arms................................................................................... 3
3. Postoccipital ridge without lateral posterior extensions. Median prosternal ridge present. Dorsal head setae present. Metapre- coxal ridge absent................................................ L. elytropappi Munting & Giliomee (Fig. 75)
- Postoccipital ridge with lateral posterior extensions. Other characters not in this combination......................... 4
4. Genal tubercles present................................................................................ 5
- Genal tubercles absent................................................................................. 8
5. Metaprecoxal ridge present. Tegular setae absent......................................... L. rufescens (Cockerell)
- Metaprecoxal ridge absent. Tegular setae present............................................................ 6
6. Ventral head setae present................................................... L. hodgsoni Howell & Koszatarab
- Ventral head setae absent............................................................................... 7
7. With 0 or 1 pairs of dorsal head setae. Prosternal median ridge absent................. L. varioseta Howell & Kosztarab
- With 3+ pairs of dorsal head setae. Prosternal median ridge present..................... L. africana Newstead (Fig. 76)
8. Dorsal pleural setae absent from abdominal segment I. Cranial apophysis comparatively long, reaching level of ventral simple eyes. Cranial apophysis with 3 apical branches.............................................. L. acacia (Maskell)
- Dorsal pleural setae present on abdominal segment I. Cranial apophysis comparatively short, not reaching level of ventral simple eyes. Cranial apophysis bifurcate..................................................... L. anomala Green
Notes: 1. Ocelli, when present, are located on all male Coccomorpha on or near the posterior margin of the ocular sclerite and are considered to be absent on adult male Lecanodiaspis sp. Amin et al. (1976) show the ocelli as present in the middle of the gena in their figures and describe them in their text as being on the gena. The position of the ocelli in their figures clearly equates to the dermal tubercle found on other lecanodiaspids by Afifi and Kosztarab (1969). Note that some Chionaspididae also have a genal spot. Whether these are homologous is unknown.
2. Unfortunately, the figures in Amin et al. (1976) are all incorrectly labelled! Thus their Fig. 1, labelled L. baculifera, is in fact of L hodgsoni; Fig. 2, labelled L. hodgsoni, is in fact of L. rufescens; Fig. 3, labelled L. rufescens, is in fact of L. varioseta, and Fig. 4, labelled L. varioseta, is of L. baculifera.
3. Because, in many cases, the number of specimens studied for the descriptions from which the above data was taken was few, the variance and therefore the taxonomic significance of some of these character-states is uncertain.
Comment. Of the 12 genera currently included in the Lecanodiaspididae, adult males of only Lecanodiaspis have been described. These are all very similar and, as the above key suggests, only differ in a few small particulars. As examples of adult male lecanodiaspids, L. africana Newstead and L. elytroppapi Munting & Giliomee are here illustrated (Figs 75, 76).
description: Published as part of Hodgson, Chris, 2020, A review of neococcid scale insects (Hemiptera: Sternorrhyncha: Coccomorpha) based on the morphology of the adult males, pp. 1-264 in Zootaxa 4765 (1) on page 196, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4765.1.1, http://zenodo.org/record/3774174