Species: Nipaecoccus viridis (Newstead) - Catalog
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Common name: Lebbeck mealybug

Field Characters: Body round or broadly oval; somewhat flattened dorsoventally; purple or blue green; covered by thick white, creamy, or pale yellow wax, without bare areas on dorsum; ovisac covering dorsum; probably with 5 or 6 pairs of lateral wax filaments. Primarily occurring on foliage and fruit of host. Apparently oviparous, eggs purple. Dorsum probably with waxy filaments. 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; with numerous dorsal oral-collar tubular ducts; abdominal cerarii each with 2 closely spaced conical setae and associated trilocular pores; anterior thoracic and head cerarii indefinite; with fewer than 17 pairs of cerarii; ventral multilocular pores usually on all abdominal segments and on head; ventral abdominal multiloculars usually arranged in row on anterior and posterior margin of each segment, with pores near lateral margin; with clusters of ventral oral-collar tubular ducts near body margin.

Comparison: Nipaecoccus viridis is similar to N. zapotlanus (Cockerell) by having dorsal oral collars, 2 setae in abdominal cerarii; and more than 6 pairs of cerarii. They differ by N. viridis having many ventral multilocular pores in lateral areas of the abdomen; these are absent in N. zapotlanus.

U.S. quarantine notes: This species is polyphagous, occurring on more than 35 families of host plants. It is taken in quarantine primarily from southern Asia. 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 viridis

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