Editors: Dug Miller & Gary Miller Systematic Entomol. Lab. Plant Sciences Institute Agric. Res. Service, USDA Building 005, Room 137 BARC-West, Beltsville, MD 20705-2350 USA FAX 01 301-504-6482 dmiller@sel.barc.usda.gov

BACK ISSUES

Issues from 1996 to the present can be downloaded from the following web page: http://www.sel.barc.usda.gov/coccoidea/scaleframe.html. It also is possible to search National Coccoidea collection, and download recent publications.

NECROLOGY

Evelyna Danzig wrote a short note indicating that Bachriddin Bazarov died at the end of last year. He worked in Tadzhikistan for most of his career and was quite prolific with 43 papers listed in ScaleNet. He is best known for his work on mealybugs, but also worked on armored scales, soft scales, and eriococcids. He described 33 species in the families that are currently available in ScaleNet. Evelyna indicated that Roman Jashchenko was writing a more detailed account of Bazarov’s life and legacy.

FREE BOOKS

Giuseppina Pellizzari and Yair Ben-Dov indicate that they have extra copies of the Proceedings of previous ISSIS meetings. They would be happy to send them to whomever would like them; for FREE. Contacts are:

ISSIS-X

This meeting is well on its way. It will be held in Adana, Turkey in April 19-23, 2004. Please see the Second Circular on the next page for more details.

01 April 2003

Second Circular

Dear colleagues,

You are cordially invited to participate in the meeting of the X ^th International Symposium on Scale Insect Studies (ISSIS-X) which will be held in Çukurova University in Adana / Turkey from 19 ^th to 23^rd April 2004.

              The purpose of this meeting is to bring together people who work on any aspects of “Scale Insect” studies, such as systematic, life history, ecology and pest management. Hopefully, the meeting will encourage cooperation among participants, allow the presentation of new research discoveries, promote their practical use and highlight research needs.

Location of Meeting

The meeting of ISSIS-X will be held at the congress facilities of the University of Çukurova, in the amphitheater building located on the university campus.

As in previous meetings, there will be poster sessions and formal lectures.

You can find the registration form at the following internet site.

http://www.xissis.net

Registration Fees:

Registration fees include documents of the meeting (distributed on arrival), coffee breaks, three lunches, excursion on Wednesday (21^st April 2004) and a farewell dinner on Thursday night.

Instructions regarding methods of payment will be sent later.

Accommodations

In order to host the delegates and their partners, we have selected accommodation in a range of different price brackets. ALL delegates should fill in the form at the end of this circular and return it (either by post or email). Where the type of accommodation is limited (as in the Guest House) the first delegates applying for these rooms will be offered them. If you have any problems or special requirements, please do not hesitate to contact me, as the Organizing Committee are here to help you. The following accommodations are available:

Invitations

An official invitation to attend the ISSIS X will be sent to any delegate who requires it. If special wording is required in the invitation, please let us know when you ask for your invitation

Action and Timing

1.    Please let us have the title of submitted papers and/or posters by October 2003.

2.    Please let us have full abstract(s) by November 2003.

3.    Manuscripts should be brought to the Symposium in a form ready for submittal. All manuscripts will be refereed and returned to authors for revision, if necessary.

4.    Details regarding formatting and layout of manuscripts will be sent at a later date

Language. It is recommended that English will be the language in which lectures will delivered, posters will be presented, and of the papers to be published in the Proceedings.

Papers, Posters and Abstracts

Oral presentations will be restricted to 20 minutes, including discussion time. The maximum space available for each poster will be 100 x 90cm. Posters will be displayed throughout the Symposium. An abstract will be required for each poster. The same formatting instructions should be used for poster and paper abstract.

Abstracts

Abstracts are required for all papers and posters and will be included in the programme.

Each abstract must include the following as a separate paragraph.

1.    Title: The title should summarize the papers or poster’s content and should clearly identified the subject and purpose of the study. Title: First letters in capitals (i.e. First record of the wax scale Ceroplastes ceriferus (Fabricius) outdoors in Europe (Hemiptera, Coccidea)

2.   Author(s): Give the author’s initials followed by a full stop then followed by the family name in capitals; a comma and with a space before the next author; underline the presenting author (i.e. L. B. ERKILIÇ, I. KARACA, N. UYGUN)

3.    Institutions and Address: The address of the author(s) should be indicated using superscript numbers below first page of the text body as a footnote.

4.    Text body: This should be no longer than 2000 characters.

5.    Key words: Limited to 6 words

6.    Save the document in Microsoft Word for Windows and send the text as an attachment by e-mail.

If you do not use e-mail, please send the text on a diskette using the above instructions.

We would greatly appreciate any suggestion for improving the organization of ISSIS-X.

If you have difficulties or special requests, please do not hesitate to contact me. Further information will be sent with the 3rd Circular.

We are sending this circular to all those contacted about ISSIS IX and also to a few other workers who might wish to attend. We would be grateful if you would circulate this letter to anyone who may be interested.

We are looking forward to meeting you in Adana.

    Best regards

Lerzan ERKILIÇ

(Zirai Mücadele Araştırma Enstitüsü)

Plant Protection Research Institute

P.K.21 01321 Adana/Turkey

Tel: + 90 322 321 9581-82/170 

Fax: + 90 322 322 48 20 

E-mail: lerzane@superonline.com

Mobile phone: 0 533 355 33 74

PRELIMINARY ACCOMMODATION FORM

NEWS FROM AROUND THE WORLD

Editor’s Note: If you have news that you would like to have included in the next edition of the Scale, we would be happy to receive it. E-mails are especially appreciated. The following are given in the order that they were received.

Michael Kosztarab, Blacksburg, Virginia, U.S.A.: THANK YOU AND GOODBYE. After 10 years of "semi-retirement" and more than 30 years of ”managing" the cataloging and indexing of the world scale insect literature, I have turned over this USDA-SEL supported project to Karen Veilleux. Karen did a splendid job on it for over 12 years, leaving very little work for me. I was fortunate to be assisted by talented women who did highly skilled work in our laboratory and made up for my shortcomings throughout my entire professional career. Therefore, I want to thank these ladies: Matilda (Tili), my wife, who did the initial cataloguing for over 16 years, followed by Akke Hulburt and Karen Veilleux. I also received much assistance for 17 years, from Mary Rhoades, who ran our Coccidology Lab. and assisted graduate students with our joint research projects. We have been fortunate to publish research bulletins and books from our cooperative efforts, that included a number of supplements to the scale insect bibliographies, the lists of genera, and, more recently, hard copies of the annual annotated bibliographies on scales for THE SCALE and for ScaleNet on the internet. I intend to remain available for consultation (mkoszt@vt.edu), but because I have no laboratory or access to microscopes, and have donated most of my library, I cannot slide-mount and determine scale insects for colleagues in the future. I would like to express my thanks to Dug Miller, Manya Stoetzel (the aphid literature project) and Louise Russell for sponsoring the projects and my other coccidologist colleagues and friends for the excellent assistance and cooperation received for over 50 years.

Carl-Axel Gertsson, Lund, Sweden: The following information may be of interest and use to readers of the Scale. The largest collection of Swedish scale insects is situated at the Agricultural University of Sweden, Department of Entomology, Uppsala. It is primarily material gathered by the late Prof. Ossiannilsson. Unfortunately, the collection is in a bad condition since Ossiannilsson used many different kinds of mounting media. Most of the slides are cracked and the media has crystalized under the cover slips. Ossiannilsson also used balsam and polyvinyl, and fortunately these slides are in good shape. It is important for as much of this material as possible to be remounted, but there currently are no funds for such an undertaking.

Gillian Watson, The Natural History Museum, Britain, UK: I have recently completed a project called “Armoured scale insects (Diaspididae) - identification and information.” The CD-ROM on armoured scale insects has just become available (more details below). It provides self-contained, illustrated information on the biology, distribution and taxonomy of armoured scales of economic and quarantine importance. Included is guidance on preparation of, and an illustrated identification aid to, armoured scales. It reproduces illustrations from out-of-print publications that have long been inaccessible to most workers, and provides an extensive bibliography. For users in developing countries, it provides access to information that would otherwise be accessible only via time-consuming library loans, if at all. For workers in museums, the CD-ROM saves repeated trips to the library. Details are provided below.

The CD-ROM can be used on PCs or Mac computers. It can be ordered by e-mail from orders@eti.uva.nl or via the Internet at: http://www.eti.uva.nl/Products/CD-catalogue.html [N.B. there is an opportunity to obtain a free CD-ROM on this site, in return for feedback!]

http://www.unesco.org or through good bookshops, using ISBN: 90-75000-48-0.

Samir Awad El-Serwy, Plant Protection Institute, Egypt: A publication that may be of interest. El-Serwy, S. A. (2001/ 2002). Ecology, biology and natural enemies of the red-striped soft scale, Pulvinaria tenuivalvata (Newstead) (Hemiptera: Coccidae), a pest of sugarcane in Egypt. Bulletin of the Entomological Society of Egypt, 79: 13-35. Notes: Pulvinaria tenuivalvata (Newstead) (Hemiptera: Coccidae) has become an important pest on sugarcane in Egypt in recent years. Two sites in Middle Egypt, were sampled from August 1999 to July 2000. By early August, between 25%-47% of plants in old fields and 12%-16% in new fields were infested. By late September all the plants were infested with up to 110 adult females per leaf. Eight generations occurred during the year; a multiple correlation was found between temperature and relative humidity and the generation period. Each female produced 34-1191 progeny, but parasitism reduced fecundity by 39.2%, and development on heavily infested leaves reduced it by 15.3%. No discernable host effect on fecundity was found between females reared on sugarcane and on maize. Five hymenopterous parasitoids were identified attacking P. tenuivalvata: Coccophagus semicircularis (Foerster) (Aphelinidae); Metaphycus flavus (Howard), Microterys sp., Microterys nietneri (Motschulsky) and Diversinervus elegans Silvestri (Encyrtidae) emerging from adult females; the first three species were recorded also emerging from nymphs. Biological control could be retarded by multi- and polyparasitism, and by hyperparasitism by the Pachyneuron muscarum (Linnaeus) (Pteromalidae) and the encyrtid Cheiloneurus sp. Seven insect predators were recorded attacking the scales: Scymnus glivifrons Mulsant and Stethorus punctillum Wiese (Coccinellidae); Phaleria sp. (Phalacridae); Chrysoperla carnea (Stephens) (Chrysopidae); Orius laevigatus (Fieber) (Anthocoridae); Anatrachyntis rileyi (Walsingham) (Cosmopterigidae) and an unidentified Cecidomyiidae. Four predaceous mites were also recorded: Amblyseius swirski Athias-Henroit and Typhlodromus pelargonicus (Phytoseiidae); Agistemus exsertus Gonzaez (Stigmaeidae) and sp. (Anystidae). Cutting of the old infested fields and removal of other host grasses by March, and employment of crop rotation, were found to be useful cultural practices to control this pest.

Greg Hodges, Division of Plant Industry, Gainesville, Florida, U.S.A.: The past year has been busy and brought about much change for myself and for Florida. For myself, I began 2002 by relocating to the peach belt of middle Georgia. I accepted a position as a research scientist at the University of Georgia. My main responsibilities were to conduct research on white peach scale and San Jose scale. My wife took it upon herself to get involved in a study investigating the life history of plum curculio (Conotrachelus nenuphar) while finishing writing her dissertation. In September 2002, my wife and I were once again moving but this time to Gainesville, Florida in a more permanent position with the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services (FDACS), Division of Plant Industry (DPI). On a side note, my wife completed her dissertation and graduated from the University of Georgia in December 2002. For Florida, Dr. Avas Hamon retired from FDACS-DPI in August 2002. He is currently enjoying his retirement at his new home in West Virginia. This past year also saw the introduction of pink hibiscus mealybug (Maconellicoccus hirsutus) into Florida. The first specimens were collected June 6, 2002 on Hibiscus rosa-sinensis from Miami (Dade County) Florida. Since the initial collection, samples have been collected on a variety of hosts throughout Dade and Broward counties in south Florida. Currently controls are focusing solely on the release of parasitoids (Anagyrus kamali and Gyranusoidea indica). The mealybug destroyer (Cryptolaemus sp.) has also been seen feeding on PHMB in many of the infested areas. The year 2002 also marked the return of stellate scale (Vinsonia stellifera) to Florida. This scale was previously eradicated from Florida in 1954. It was collected in Miami Lakes, Dade County on July 16, 2002 on Ixora sp. Since the initial collection, we have had it reported from several different hosts and its current range is limited to Broward and Dade Counties in south Florida. A newly introduced mealybug of bamboo (Palmicultor lumpurensis (Takahashi)) was also recorded for 2002. Division of Plant Industry personnel found this new Continental US record on August 12, 2002 in Lake Buena Vista, Orange County on Bambusa olehammi. Additional finds have occurred within Orange County and in neighboring Seminole County on Bambusa sp. and Arundinaria sp.. Current control methods have been aimed at use of systemics, destruction of infested stalks and drenches of insecticidal soaps into infested sheaths. Lastly, the lobate lac scale (Paratachardina lobata) has established itself in southern Florida and is steadily becoming one of Florida’s worst tree-shrub pests. It currently has been reported from over 130 species of plants ranging from 45 families. Current known distribution in Florida includes, Broward, Collier, Dade and Palm Beach counties. Control of this pest is still being investigated but long-term control will probably have to rely on natural enemies. For further information on our current scale pests in Florida please visit our website: “http://www.doacs.state.fl.us/~pi/enpp/pi-pest-alert.html.” As you can see, Florida has been a busy place this past year with new introductions. I would like to add additional species to our collection to prepare for future “invasions.” I would be more than willing to trade specimens from both our Coccoidea collection as well as our Aleyrodidae collection. You can view many of the species we have on hand at: “http://www.fsca-dpi.org/homoptera_Hemiptera/homopterahemipteraframe.htm.” If you have further questions or requests from our collection, please contact me at: “hodgesg@doacs.state.fl.us"

Yair Ben-Dov, Department of Entomology, Agricultural Research Organization,

Bet Dagan, Israel: My studies during 2002 were centered mainly on various aspects of ScaleNet the joint project with Dug Miller. I have been working on the Diaspididae (subfamilies Aspidiotinae, Comstockiellinae and Odonaspidinae), Margarodidae and Asterolecaniidae. In addition I have been updating the database on the Aclerdidae, Beesoniidae, Carayonemidae,

Coccidae, Dactylopiidae, Kerriidae, Lecanodiaspididae and Pseudococcidae, families that are already available in ScaleNet. Currently I am preparing a hard-copy catalogue of the Diaspididae (subfamilies Aspidiotinae, Comstockiellinae and Odonaspidinae), which I expect to finalize during 2003. Various systematic and nomenclatural issues, that involve some old or almost forgotten taxa, were encountered in the course of the work on ScaleNet. These cases were settled in several notes that I have published jointly with Imre Foldi, Jan Koteja, Salvatore Marotta, Agatino Russo and Douglas Williams.

Ian Millar, National Collection of Insects, Pretoria, South Africa: My key to the South African mealybug genera was recently published in African Entomology, the journal of the Entomological Society of Southern Africa. Until now, there has been no key to all the Pseudococcidae genera that occur here, so this work should make the South African fauna much more accessible to anyone wanting to identify the local mealybugs. Another project which has come to fruition is a study of South African Aclerdidae, which I did as junior collaborator with Chris Hodgson (National Museum of Wales, Cardiff, U.K.). This work was published last year, with Chris as senior author, in Systematic Entomology.

Takumasa Kondo (Demian), University of California, Davis:. I am trying to finish up my dissertation (Ph.D. thesis) at Auburn University, Alabama, USA on a taxonomic review of the subfamily Myzolecaniinae (Hemiptera: Coccidae). The group I work with is very interesting. These myrmecophilous scale insects have become so adapted to a symbiotic life with ants that many morphological characters are reduced or entirely absent, i.e. legs and antennae. The Myzolecaniinae has a worldwide distribution, however I am noticing morphological differences between New World and Old World taxa, especially in the crawler stage or first instar nymphs. Usually New World Myzolecaniinae crawlers have a 5-segmented antenna in contrast with Old World taxa which have 6-segmented antennae. Please visit my Soft Scale web-site at: http://www.auburn.edu/~kondota/scaleinsects.html . Ed’s note: He completed his dissertation at Auburn with Mike Williams and is now working in Davis as part of the Gullan Laboratory.

Jan Koteja, Institute of Applied Zoology, Krakow, Poland: Collecting fossil scale insects is still my main business. On December 2002, the number of registered fossils on the world list exceeded 1990 items. It is remarkable that the number of fossils in private collections (1443 in 24 collections, i.e. 75 %) is much higher than that in the public ones (500 specimens in 15 institutions). My own collection contains 1064 specimens (most Baltic amber inclusions). Obviously, the list is far from complete. The general opinion that the Eocene Baltic amber fauna is almost identical with the recent one is not quite true. There are some peculiar forms not found today, for instance, males that bear a well developed pterostigma (occurring only in the Margarodini s. Morrison), bilobate halteres (unique feature), a tail tuft and a pair of apical processes (unique). Perhaps you have noted the paper co-authored by Douglas Williams (2001) on ants carrying mealybugs (Rhizoecinae) in their swarming flight in the Oligocene/Miocene Dominican Republic amber. Although thousands of ants have been found in Eocene Baltic amber, no one instance of ant-coccid symbiosis has been observed. It means that intimate relations between ants and scale insects originated between these two geological periods, i. e., not earlier than about 30 mill. years ago. Much older is the gall-inducing behaviour which existed already in Lower Cretaceous (130 mill. years ago, indirect evidence from Lebanese amber), and certainly must have originated earlier (for details consult the very interesting paper by Takagi, 2001). My request: Please give more attention to adult males in your studies on recent scale insects, and describe (draw) the wings more accurately. Wings are the main basis of paleoentomology; and the main problem is that we know very little about the extant forms. And please remember that wings are greatly deformed by the KOH-treatment. It is good to draw them from dry or alcohol preserved specimens.

F. William Howard, University of Florida, Ft. Lauderdale, USA: I participated in a short course Nov. 25-Nov. 29 that was designed to increase awareness of Coccoidea, a diverse taxonomic group of insects. Most of the course was taught at the Ministry of Agriculture, Land, and Marine Resources’ Central Experiment Station in Centeno. The 15 students who attended were agricultural officers, scientists or technicians representing agricultural ministries of Antigua, Barbados, Belize, Dominica, Granada, Guyana, Jamaica, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Surinam, and Trinidad & Tobago. Many species of Coccoidea are pests of agriculture and horticulture that cause severe damage to plants. They are among the most difficult insect pests to control. The students learned the basic principles of identifying families and species of scale insects, laboratory procedures for preserving specimens, procedures for shipping them to specialists for identification, storage of specimens, and information retrieval. The course provided participants with information to enhance communication among Caribbean agricultural officers and scientists. A goal of the course was to strengthen ties between the agricultural agencies and the University of Florida. The course was organized by CARINET, a non-profit organization building a network of Caribbean organizations and individuals involved in biosystematics of arthropods, nematodes, microorganisms, non-vascular and vascular plants, and to strengthen taxonomic resources in the Caribbean. Parathachardina lobata (Hemiptera: Coccoidea: Kerriidae), a species native to southern India and Sri Lanka, was found by the Division of Plant Industry (DPI), Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, in southeastern Florida in 1999, and since then has become widely spread in both urban and natural areas of that region. It has come to be known by the vernacular name, lobate lac scale. It is not a pest in its native range, and in fact may be a rare species there. In its new home, it has thus far been found on more than 120 plant species, including natives of southern Florida and exotic species. Infestations are very severe on some hosts. In addition to its damage to ornamental plants in urban areas, it is spreading rampantly in natural areas, including the Everglades. No natural controls have been identified for this species in Florida. Research is being conducted by entomologists at the University of Florida's Fort Lauderdale Research and Education Center, the USDA Invasive Plant Laboratory (which is housed at the Fort Lauderdale Center), and the Division of Plant Industry in Gainesville to elucidate the biology of this species and develop control methods, including chemical control for the short term, and biological control for the long term. An article on this species and its importance in Florida has been posted at http://creatures.ifas.ufl.edu/orn/scales/lobate_lac.htm

Ferenc Kozar, Plant Protection Institute, Budapest, Hungary: My monograph of the Ortheziidae is almost ready for printing. I have spent considerable time and effort trying to find funding for publication costs. I also have been having some difficulty sorting out the large amount of variation that occurs in Orthezia urticae. Because of this, my project on Rhizoecus has not made as much progress as I had hoped.

Chris Hodgson, National Museum of Wales, UK: Amazingly I have now been retired for three and a half years and so have been able to work reasonably full time on scale insects. During this time I have broadened my interests somewhat and now work on several groups other than the Coccidae. The last two years have been quite active. In the Spring of 2001, I was lucky enough to accompany a party from the Museum to the Galapagos Islands and Ecuador to give some training in Coccidology to the technicians on the islands and to collect scale insects. The results of this and a review of the Coccoidea now known from the islands will be published eventually. At the end of last year (2002), Hassan Vahedi, my PhD student working on a revision of the margarodid genus Porphyrophora in the Middle East, graduated. We are working to publish this at the moment, although he is now back in Iran. At the last ISSIS, I outlined some preliminary cladistic analyses of the lecanoid Coccoidea, based on adult male characters. This work is still continuing although, towards the end of last year, I was persuaded by Imre Foldi to join him in a revision of the "Margarodidae" based on adult male characters and this work is also progressing well and is now taking up much more of my time. Preliminary analyses suggest that Phenacoleachia, Puto and Steingelia all fall outside the Margarodidae; also that many of the current groups within the Margarodidae probably justify family status (as has been suggested previously). A number of other papers have been published with a variety of co-authors, perhaps the most significant of which was on some new Aclerdidae from southern Africa (with Ian Millar in Pretoria), which described the first aclerdid genus and species with fully-developed legs, and which also confirmed the inclusion of the genus Rhodesaclerda in this family; the Aclerdidae now has two subfamilies, the Aclerdinae (including the fully-legged genus) and a new subfamily, the Rhodesaclerdinae. Work on the adult males of New Zealand Coccidae has continued (with Rosa Henderson) and all known males, pupae and prepupae have now been described and this is now very close to publication in the Fauna of New Zealand Series. We are yet hoping to produce a similar publication on all the other immature stages (at least 50% done). Current interests lie in phylogeny of the Coccoidea based on adult males; on a revision of Australian Coccidae (with Penny Gullan - has been started but currently in abeyance) and (perhaps) a revision of the eriococcids of South America (with Dug Miller). No doubt other exciting things will come along.....

Evelyna Danzig, Institute of Zoology, St. Petersburg, Russia: Last year I constructed the database for my project on the insects of Europe. It includes 2 files on the systematics and distribution for all European countries, including general subdivisions of Russia. 15 families, 139 genera, 619 species and 24 subspecies are included. The foundation of the project was "ScaleNet" with the addition of new dates. It will be available through the Internet next year and will eventually be published as hard copy. I also am very pleased that we were finally able to publish a paper on a new genus and species of soft scale from Central America with Chris Hodgson and Mike Williams. We began this article many years ago. The 1st part of my revision of the genus Phenacoccus of the former USSR will be published soon, and I hope to finish the second and last part this year. It is my pleasure to introduce my postgraduate student Ilya Gavrilov to the coccidological community. He graduated from the University of Voronezh (Central Russia) and began a study of coccids and aleyrodids for the 1^st course of the University. From that time I have maintained scientific contact with him. His Ph.D in the Zoological Institute is "Systematics and cytogenetics of coccids (Homoptera: Coccinea) of European Russia". Coccids of this region are relatively poorly known and I hope the Ilya’s research will interesting and important new information to science. He finished a review of the fauna of Central Russia with a description of a new species of Longicoccus Danzig (Entom. Obozr., 2003). He also discovered a new species of Antonina on bamboo on the Black Sea coast and is revising Antonina and related genera from Russia (Ann. Zool., 2003). He now is preparing a list of species from the vicinity of Volgograd and will include a description of a new genus and species of mealybug. We are in constant consultation with Doug Williams and Daniele Matile who examine illustrations of new species. Ilya also will revise the genus Mirococcopsis Borchs., a very difficult genus of mealybug. He is quite interested in cytogenetics of European coccid species and is applying cytological characters to his classification systems. He has a strong educational background in genetics and his second supervisor, Valentina Kuznetsova, is a well-known specialist in cytogenetics and karyosystematics of different insect groups. His research will utilize modern cytogenetic techniques such as Ag-NOR and C-Banding to study the karyotypes and chromosome behaviour in mitosis and meiosis. We hope that Ilya’s studies on the numerous and unique chromosomal systems of coccids will broaden our knowledge of the relationships among Coccinea taxa. He has already examinated the karyotypes of Porphyrophora polonica, Trionymus aberrans, Luzulaspis luzulae, Pulvinaria vitis, Gossyparia spuria, Diaspidiotus gigas, and Chionaspis salicis.

Penny Gullan, University of California, Davis, USA: 2002 seems to have whizzed by and the Gullan-Cranston systematic entomology lab at UCD is getting busier. Cory Unruh joined our NSF PEET-funded (Partnerships for Enhancing Expertise in Taxonomy) scale insect team in September 2002 to do a Masters on iceryine margarodids. Currently she is taking various courses and also learning DNA techniques and phylogenetic analysis. Cory would like to include as many iceryine species as possible in her molecular phylogenetic analysis and would especially like to obtain Gueriniella serratulae. So if anyone can collect iceryine species into 95-100%

ethanol for Cory, please send them to her or to Penny Gullan. Ph.D. student Nam Nguyen continued his graduate course work and investigation of mealybug relationships based on morphology. Nam's research will complement the molecular phylogenetic results of Doug Downie, a postdoctoral researcher, and Penny Gullan. Doug has sequenced more than 80 mealybug species and populations for several genes, both nuclear and mitochondrial, as well as several Puto species to use as outgroups. The molecular data are still being analyzed and Doug is racing to complete the work before departing for a faculty position at Rhodes University in Grahamstown, South Africa. We'd like to thank everyone who assisted us by sending mealybug specimens for this molecular phylogeny, but special thanks go to Ray Gill, Dug Miller and Demian Kondo. Meredith Chalfant joined the PEET scale insect team in early 2002 as an undergraduate lab assistant working on Lachnodius (Eriococcidae). She has been using her entomological knowledge and her artistic skills to prepare taxonomic illustrations of the species of Lachnodius from Jack Beardsley's unpublished manuscript on the genus. A second undergraduate lab assistant, Sarah Thrasher, will join the PEET team in April. Like Meredith, Sarah has a strong interest in biological illustration and probably will be working with Demian Kondo on taxonomic illustrations of soft scales. Demian moves to Davis in April as a postdoctoral researcher studying Myzolecaniinae on the PEET funding. If you wish to know more about what members of our lab are doing, then please go to: http://entomology.ucdavis.edu/gullanandcranstonlab/ . During 2002, I worked on a Ferrisia manuscript that describes most instars of a species that has become a pest of pistachio trees in southern California. As part of this study, Doug Downie sequenced a number of Ferrisia samples and species from all over the world, and so thank you to those coccidologists who generously collected and sent Ferrisia mealybugs. As part of this Ferrisia work, I made my first visit to Beltsville to study specimens held in the USNM coccoid collection in Dug Miller's USDA lab. The slide and reprint collections were amazing and I very much enjoyed the Millers' hospitality. Throughout 2002, I also spent a lot of time collecting or soliciting mealybug specimens for the larger mealybug project with Doug Downie and I prepared slide-mounted vouchers of about 100 mealybug samples. In early 2002, Dug Miller, Lyn Cook and I completed a chapter on gall-inducing scale insects for a forthcoming book on gall-inducing arthropods, edited by A. Raman, C.W. Schaefer and T.M. Whithers and to be published soon by Science Publishers, Inc., New Hampshire, USA. In late December 2002, I headed for my old haunt at the Australian National University in Canberra, Australia, to work on manuscripts with Lyn Cook and to do some scale collecting around Canberra. Fieldwork was severely hampered by the horrific bush fires that ravaged Canberra and surrounding forests but, prior to the fires, I did manage to collect specimens for Demian's research on the Myzolecaniinae and Cory's iceryine work. In late January 2003, Peter Cranston and I visited New Caledonia for the first time and made some interesting collections. I've only just started to make slide-mounts, but I was impressed by the diversity of gall-inducing taxa and was delighted to find living eriococcids of Daniéle Matile-Ferrero's genus Chazeauana (in Noumea I even met Dr. Chazeau, in whose honorthis species was named). Also I collected two species of the margarodid genus Tessarobelus. The latter genus was revised in a 1991 publication by one of my first Ph.D. students, Sunita Bhatti, who never saw living specimens of Tessarobelus. One of the species described as new by Sunita is bright pink when alive and truly beautiful. I sent a photograph to Sunita, who now works in Chicago in the IT industry, but she was very pleased to have a memento from her former life as a coccidologist.

Benjamin Normark, Department of Entomology, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, USA: Currently there are two graduate students in my lab working on armored scale insects. Lisa Provencher is finishing a master’s thesis on molecular systematics of the Aspidiotus nerii complex. Matt Gruwell is working on higher-level molecular systematics of Diaspididae

(funded by a USDA-NRI grant) and for his PhD thesis is interested in investigating their endosymbionts. We are very grateful to our many colleagues who have sent us specimens. Lisa presented her work at the Entomology Society of America meetings in 2001 and 2002, and Matt is planning to present some results at the Society of the Study of Evolution meetings this June. A delegation from our lab spent a great day in South Florida collecting scale insects with Dug Miler, Ray Gill, and Demian Kondo in November, and we are looking forward to meeting with Penny Gullan and her other PEET collaborators in Davis this June. In addition to our lab’s molecular systematic work, I have been developing some strange ideas about the origins and adaptive significance of haplodiploidy in scale insects and other taxa. Ultimately my goal is to put the systematic results and the theoretical work together into a coherent picture of the evolution of genetic systems of scale insects, but it’s going to take a lot of years and a lot of help.

Maren Gimpel, Gary Miller, and Dug Miller, Systematic Entomology Laboratory, Maryland, USA: The sad news is that Maren has left the ScaleNet project to pursue her passion for ornithology. She completed the task that she set out to do, i.e., enter all of the initial data for the families that are the U.S. team’s responsibility. She did a wonderful job of managing our end of this project and I can assure you that we miss her enormously. Gary and I continue to update the system, but it is much more productive when there is one person who is dedicated to ScaleNet. As for the future of ScaleNet, we are trying to find funds to add character data, images, and identifications systems. We still have two hard-copy catalogs to complete and hopefully be published by Intercept soon – namely our half of the armored scales (Diapididinae and Luecaspidinae) and the Cerococcidae, Halimococcidae, Kermesidae, Micrococcidae, Ortheziidae, Phenacoleachiidae, Phoenicococcidae, and Stictococcidae. This year the Miller Hotel had few outside residents, but we did have a nice visit with Penny Gullan who came to Beltsville for the first time. We have now completed the first draft of the book on the economic armored scale of the United States and it has been submitted to Cornell University Press. We are hopeful that they will be the publisher and is currently is out for review. The book chapter on scale insects that induce galls with Penny Gullan and Lyn Cook has finally been submitted thanks to major efforts of Penny. Gary and I continue to look at invasive scale insects with a paper in press on the soft scales and a manuscript nearly complete on all of the invasive scale insects in the United States. I am helping with a publication on an gall inducing eriococcid from Brazil with Chris Hodgson and a paper on some interesting new mealybugs from Argentina has been submitted with Cristina Granara de Willink. Douglas Williams and I continue work on our Furcaspis revision, but progress is slow. I had one interesting experience while I was in Puerto Rico participating in a work shop on the papaya mealybug. A chalcidologist (Michael Gates) and I were fortunate to have some extra time to collect around the island. Through the efforts of Pedro Millan of USDA/APHIS we had a wonderful group of guides who took us to localities most likely to have cool scale insects. We were fortunate to find many interesting things, but on the last day (actually about 2 hours before we were to leave) someone broke the window of our rental care and took the ice chest and some other items that were in the back seat. Unfortunately all of the scale collections were in the ice chest. You have to wonder what the thieves thought when they found plastic bags full of little vials with tiny blobs in them. Maybe they were some new kind of drug? Needless to say, they didn’t send them to us here in Beltsville. They also took my record book which had considerable research data for several ongoing papers. Fortunately, this information was mostly available elsewhere as well. This past summer, we have had the pleasure of having Erica Limones working with our laboratory. Erica is a high school student who has been very involved with our new Coccoidea photographic data base/ web page. With more than 1,000 scanned images available, one can easily search the photographic data base, select from a series of thumbnail images, and view a detailed picture. A trial web page is still under construction and there are lots of typos and mistakes (we’re in the process of correcting them) but, you can see what has been done to date if you are interested: http://www.sel.barc.usda.gov:591/scale_slide/slide_frame.htm   You will also see in the photographer credit section that Ray Gill is primarily responsible for many of the photographs.

Douglas J. Williams, The Natural History Museum, Britain: Continues toward his goal of finishing his book on the mealybugs of southern Asia. The illustrations and descriptions are complete and he has nearly finished entering the text of the manuscript in his computer. He is looking forward to finishing the project; it will be a monumental work and will be an enormous help to those of us who have to determine mealybugs from that part of the world. He will be joining us in Beltsville for a couple of weeks before we both go to Davis to join in the PEET session in the Gullan Laboratory.

RECENT LITERATURE

Compiled by Karen Veilleux

We are truly grateful for the outstanding job that Karen does with the scale insect reference file! It is a huge, challenging and tedious job. Without her dedication and careful attention to detail this project would be of much lower quality. We also wish to thank Michael Kosztarab, who spends considerable time each year proofing the manuscript before it appears in The Scale.

The total number of reference records on ScaleNet now is 17,614 (that's 1,387 new records this year). Maybe some of you have been searching ScaleNet to retrieve a list of your own publications when needed. If you do, we would appreciate it if you would draw our attention to any inadvertent errors or omissions that you may notice. Thanks to those of you who have already taken the time to help us improve the database in this way. Many of you have also been sending reprints to Michael Kosztarab, who continues to forward them to me. He asked me to request that these be sent directly to me in the future, either to 710 Cedarview Dr., Blacksburg, VA 24060 or, electronically, to veilleux@vt.edu. I give priority to entering records into the database from actual papers received from the authors directly; other papers are entered as I learn of them.

Results  

Abd Rabou, S. 2001. Parasitoids attacking soft scales (Homoptera: Coccoidea: Coccidea) in Egypt. (In English; Summary In Arabic). Egyptian Journal of Agricultural Research 79(3): 859-880. [AbdRab2001b]
Notes: The parasitoids (including Coccophagus, Encarsia, Marietta, Baeoanusia, Blastothrix, Bothriophryne, Cheiloneurus, Cowperia, Diversinervus, Encyrtus, and Metaphycus spp.) attacking soft scales in Egypt are described. A key to these species is presented.

Abd Rabou, S. 2001. The species of Anagyrus Howard (Hymenoptera: Encyrtidae) recorded from Egypt. (In English; Summary In Arabic). Egyptian Journal of Agricultural Research 79(2): 463-470. [AbdRab2001c]
Notes: Six Anagyrus species recorded for Egypt (A. aegyptiacus, A. greeni, A. kamali, A. pseudococci, A. saccharicola and A. shahidi), which are endoparasitoids of mealybugs (Pseudococcidae), are described and a key to species is provided. Information on host and geographical distribution is included.

Abd Rabou, S. 2002 (2001). The effect of augmentative releases of indigenous parasitoids on populations of Parlatoria oleae (Colvee) (Hemiptera: Coccoidea) in olive groves in Egypt. Bollettino di Zoologia Agraria e di Bachicoltura (Milano) 33(3): 473-481. [AbdRab2002]
Notes: [Special Issue: Proceedings of the ISSIS IX International Symposium on Scale Insect Studies held at The University of Padua, Italy, Sept. 2-8, 2001.] The aphelinid parasitoids, Aphytis paramaculicornis, A. chrysomphali and Encarsia aurantii were mass reared and released at monthly intervals in olive groves infested with Parlatoria oleae at five locations in Egypt. A total of about 115000 adult parasitoids were augmentatively released between March 2000 and February 2001. Although the percentage parasitism of the scale increased in the experimental plots compared with the control plots after parasitoid release, there was no apparent reduction in the scale population at any site. Only E. aurantii populations continued to increase during March to September and this appeared to be the parasitoid best adapted to attack the P. oleae populations when they were near their peak; however, it did not become established at two of the sites. It is concluded that further augmentative releases are unlikely to improve the present biological control of P. oleae at any of these sites.

Abd Rabou, S. 2002 (2001). Biological control of the Mediterranean black scale Saissetia oleae (Olivier) (Hemiptera: Coccidae) on olive in Egypt. Bollettino di Zoologia Agraria e di Bachicoltura (Milano) 33(3): 483. [AbdRab2002a]
Notes: [Special Issue: Proceedings of the ISSIS IX International Symposium on Scale Insect Studies held at The University of Padua, Italy, Sept. 2-8, 2001.] The Mediterranean black scale, Saissetia oleae is the most important pest of olive in Egypt. Indigenous parasitoids of S. oleae from different localities were collected, reared and mass produced; about 113,000 parasitoids were released for augmentative biological control. At three locations in Egypt, several releases of the following indigenous parasitoids were made: Alaptus sp., Baeoanuisa sp., Coccophagus lycimnia, Diversinervus elegans, Metaphycus bartletti, Metaphycus flavus, Metaphycus helvolus, Metaphycus zebratus, Microterys flavus, Parechthrodryinus coccidiphagus and Scutellista caerulea. The indigenous parasitoid Metaphycus bartletti plays an important role in controlling S. oleae in Egypt. Maximum parasitism rates by this species reached 83, 56, and 33% on the Northern Coast, at Mersa Matruh and El-Arish, respectively.

Abd Rabou, S. 2002. The role of Coccophagus scutellaris (Hymenoptera: Aphelinidae) in the biological control of soft scale insects (Homoptera: Coccidae) in Egypt. (In Chinese; Summary In English). Entomologia Sinica 9(3): 39-44. [AbdRab2002b]
Notes: Coccophagus scutellaris is one of the specific parasitoids that attack soft scale insects in Egypt. In the present study, Coccophagus scutellaris was reared from 6 species of soft scale insects. These are Ceroplastes floridensis, Coccus hesperidum, Pulvinaria floccifera [Chloropulvinaria floccifera], P. psidii, Saissetia coffeae and S. oleae. The abundance of Coccophagus scutellaris was monitored from July 1999 to November 2000 in five localities (Beni-Suef, Cairo, Giza, Gharbiya, Northern coast) in Egypt. Coccophagus scutellaris is considered an effective parasitoid of S. coffeae and S. oleae with maximum parasitism rates reaching 26% and 22% in November and August 1999, respectively.

Abd Rabou, S. 2002. Efficacy of the imported parasitoid, Anagyrus saccharicola (Hymenoptera: Encyrtidae) for the biological control of Saccharicoccus sacchari (Hemiptera: Pseudococcidae) attacking sugar cane in Egypt. Sugar Cane International Sept/Oct: 24-26. [AbdRab2002c]
Notes: Saccharicoccus sacchari (Hemiptera: Pseudococcidae) is one of the most important pests attacking sugar cane in Egypt. An attempt was made to control it biologically with the known effective parasitoid A. saccharicola (Hymenoptera: Encyrtidae). A total of 146,163 parasitoid adults was released in five governorates in upper Egypt during March 1999-May 2000. Surveys to evaluate parasitoid effects were conducted during June 2000-June 2001. A. saccharicola established readily and spread rapidly. The rate of parasitism increased gradually from 0.5-13.2, 3.7-19.9, 4.4-24.4, 0.8-26.6 and 8.9-50.0% in Sohag, Qena, Assuit, Beni-Suef and El-Minya, respectively. Climatic conditions seemed to play an important role in promoting the establishment of the parasitoids.

Abdallah, S.A., Al Jboory, I.J., Ali, A.S. & Yousif, E.T. 2001. Susceptibility of wheat varieties to infestation with the soft scale insect Exaeretopus tritici (Williams) (Coccidae: Homoptera) and its control by Cruiser insecticide in Nineveh Province (Iraq). (In Arabic; Summary In English). Arab Journal of Plant Protection 19(2): 113-118. [AbdallAlAl2001]
Notes: Susceptibility of five wheat cultivars (Um Rabee, Intisar, Abu-Ghraib, Qaruniya and Waha) to infestation of the soft scale insect E. tritici and the effect of wheat seed treatment with Cruiser 350 SL [thiamethoxam] insecticide on pest susceptibility were investigated. Results indicated that Um Rabee was the most susceptible cultivar, whereas Qaruniya was the least susceptible. The relative number of living insect pests on the untreated plants was more than that of treated plant by 23.45, 11.86, 8.11, 2.28 and 7.19 times, respectively. The insecticide effect was observed by the fourth week of March where a percentage mortality of 61.16% was recorded. The mortality percentage increased until the third week of April when it reached a maximum of 88.4%. The above wheat cultivars treated by the insecticide provided a percentage increase in yield of 3.74, 2.17, 1.99, 1.89 and 2.46 times, respectively, compared to the untreated control. The treated Qaruniya recor