Species: Nipaecoccus nipae (Maskell) - Catalog
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Common name: Coconut mealybug

Field Characters: Body round; somewhat flat dorsoventally; body red to brown-orange; covered by thick white or yellow-orange wax, without bare areas on dorsum; dorsal ovisac absent; with 10 to 12 pairs of broad lateral wax filaments, posterior pairs longest and thiner; anterior pairs broad and conical, longest filament about one-fourth as long as body. Primarily occurring on foliage of host. Apparently ovoviviparous. Dorsum with 5 to 8 waxy filaments similar in shape and size to those on lateral areas of thorax and head. Specimens turning black in 70% alcohol.

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Validation characters: Dorsal setae conical, often with conical setae in medial area of posterior abdominal segments as large as lateral cerarian setae; without dorsal oral-collar tubular ducts; abdominal cerarii each with 2 widely spaced conical setae and few associated trilocular pores; thoracic and head cerarii indefinite usually with several conical setae but few if any clustered trilocular pores; with fewer than 17 pairs of cerarii; ventral multilocular pores usually on segments V, VI, VII and VIII only, usually arranged in single row on each segment, without pores near lateral margin; without ventral oral-collar tubular ducts near body margin.

Comparison: Nipaecoccus nipae is similar to N. filicis Williams and Granara de Willink and N. pitkini Williams and Granara de Willink by having conical dorsal setae, fewer than 17 pairs of cerarii, thoracic cerarii with clusters of conical setae, reduced numbers of ventral multilocular pores. Nipaecoccus nipae differs from N. filicis by lacking ventral oral-collar tubular ducts in marginal areas of the abdomen and from N. pitkini by having more ventral multilocular pores and by lacking translucent pores on hind femur.

U.S. quarantine notes: This species is polyphagous, occurring on more than 40 families of host plants. It is taken in quarantine from nearly any warm part of the world. Several species of Nipeaecoccus other than N. nipae and N. viridis have been taken at US ports-of-entry including: N. filamentosus (Cockerell) (Puerto Rico on Bucida) and N. gilli Williams and Granara de Willink (Mexico on Dieffenbachia).

References: WilliaGr1992; Willia2004.

All references mentioning: Nipaecoccus nipae

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