Species: Palmicultor palmarum (Maskell) - Catalog

or Close Window if opened from the key.

Common name: Palm mealybug Field Characters: Body round or broadly oval; somewhat flattened dorsoventally; body red-brown; some specimens covered by thick flocculent mealy wax, others with less dense wax, without bare areas on dorsum; ovisac absent; with from 8 to 14 or 15 lateral wax filaments, posterior filaments longest and broadest, sometimes coalescing, filaments on anterior thorax and head shorter and thinner, posterior pair about 1/8 length of body. Primarily occurring on foliage of host.
Click on images for more details
Validation characters: Small discoidal pores on derm surrounding hind coxae; more than 3 conical setae in anal lobe cerarii; dorsal multilocular pores at least on thorax; 14 to 16 pairs of cerarii; dorsal setae filamentous, some longer than conical setae in cerarii. Comparison: Palmicultor palmarum is similar to P. browni Williams and P. guamensis by having discoidal pores near the hind coxa, dorsal multilocular disk pores, and generally occurring on palms. Palmicultor palmarum differs by having more than 3 conical setae in the anal lobe cerarius and few or no large-sized oral-collar tubular ducts in ventrolateral area of body. U.S. quarantine notes: This species is commonly taken at US ports-of-entry on coconut; it is occasionally collected on other palms. It is recorded from nearly all areas of the world where coconuts are grown except that it is not known from Africa. The only other species of Palmicultor that has been taken in quarantine at US ports-of-entry is P. browni from Australia and Tahiti on palms. References: WilliaWa1988a; WilliaGr1992. All references mentioning: Palmicultor palmarum
Return to Find Image Page! or Return to Species List Page!