Editor: Dug Miller

Systematic Entomol. Lab.

Building 005, Room 137

10300 Baltimore Avenue

Plant Sciences Institute

Beltsville Agric. Res. Ctr.

Beltsville, MD 20705 USA

dmiller@sel.barc.usda.gov

Volume XXVIII December 30, 2004

From Chris Hodgson a Questionaire concerning the site for ISSIS 2007: At the ISSIS meeting in Padua in 2001, it was suggested that the 2007 meeting should take place in Egypt. However, that was before the situation in the Middle East had worsened. The International Committee of ISSIS feels that it is important that as many delegates as possible should attend these meetings. Each meeting takes a lot of organisation and a final decision needs to be made at least 2 years prior to the actual meeting. So a decision regarding the venue for the next meeting needs to be made this Spring. Prof. Dr. Amin of Ain Shams University, Cairo, Egypt is keen to hold the meeting there but, in case the present problems in Iraq and Israel/Palestine are still continuing in three months time, Dr. Manuala Branco, Departmento Florestal in Lisbon, Portugal, has kindly agreed to hold the meeting there. In order to help us make the most democratic decision, we would very much appreciate your response to the following questions. Please choose only one answer for each question.

1. If you had a choice, which of the following venues could you attend (choose one):

A. Egypt B. Portugal C. Both D. Neither

2. If it is necessary for you to get permission to attend ISSIS meetings from your employer, would you anticipate having problems in attending a meeting in (choose one):

A. Egypt B. Portugal C. Both D. Neither

3. If it is necessary to apply for a grant to attend the next meeting, either for travel, subsistence or both, would you anticipate having problems if the meeting was held in:

A. Egypt B. Portugal C. Both D. Neither.

4. If you had a choice between the two venues, which would you choose:

A. Egypt B. Portugal C. No preference.

If you have any other comments to make which might affect the choice of site, please add these to your reply. The International Committee would be most grateful if you would either return a copy of this questionnaire by post (to dug Miller at the address given above), or email your choice for each of the above questions to dmiller@sel.barc.usda.gov. In either case, please respond AS SOON AS POSSIBLE and not later than January 30, 2005. Thank you.

Loss of a great coccidologist: Jan Koteja was an innovative scientist and added numerous interesting and exciting bodies of information to the study of scale insects. According to ScaleNet he wrote 114 research papers on scale insects (and there likely are several others in press) and described at least 7 new families, 20 new genera, and 42 new species. He frequently had ideas that didn’t “fit in the box” of tradition; but in many instances his hypotheses have gained wide acceptance in coccidology. His findings in systematics, morphology, phylogeny, and fossils will remain important reading for scientist well into the future. He will be greatly missed.

A message from Pawel Koteja: I am sorry to inform you that my father, Jan Koteja, has died on Aug 19. The funeral will be on Rakowice Cemetery in Krakow, on Aug 24 at 13.00. As you may know, he has been retired for two years, but has worked at home to his last day. I know that he has been in the process of revising and writing manuscripts - some of which, I believe, were contributions to books or special journal issues. He has also worked on several specimens of amber inclusions, some of which came from his colleagues and various museums. Soon after the funeral I will start digging through his computer and drawers to find the connections, and will do my best to return all the materials to the owners. As you guess, it will not be an easy job - especially because my scientific interests were quite distinct from those of my father. I obviously know - since my childhood, indeed - several names of his colleagues (e.g., Ferenz Kozar, Michael Kosztarab, Yair Ben-Dov, Evelyna Danzig, and others), but I have only vague information about his current contacts and commitments. I will certainly be able to find the connections, but it would ease my job if the information about my father's death was distributed through "The Scale" and a mailing list of scale insect specialists you probably have. I would especially appreciate it if those who had sent specimens or collaborated on current manuscripts e-mailed me and helped with identifying the specimens and provided instructions concerning returning of the materials. Some of the borrowed as well as my father's own specimens are partly or perhaps even completely prepared for microscopic examination. I hope somebody may be interested in finishing the job.

Ferenc Kozár, Hungary: Finally in the spring of 2004 my book “Ortheziidae of the World” was published. Now I can return to my research on Rhizoecini mealybugs. To this point in time I have published on one new genus, including a new species. Also four new Ripersiella species have been described from the Australian-Pacific region. A World revision of Ripersiella including eight new species has been submitted. In total, the number of species in this genus has increased to 73. Two new genera of the Rhizoecini are in print and one genus is reestablished. These genera include 9 new species. A new species of Geococcus has also been submitted for publication. I hope to finish a short revision of the genus Rhizoecus, with a description of at least four new species, increasing the total number of species to 83. Currently I am working on the identification of part of Imre Foldi’s Pseudococcidae collection from South America. I also am planning to do more work in on the Eriococcidae.

Gillian on the move: From 7 December 2004, Gillian Watson will be working as Associate Insect Biosystematist (covering Sternorrhyncha and Thysanoptera) at the following address: Plant Pest Diagnostic Center, California Department of Food & Agriculture, 3294 Meadowview Road, Sacramento, California 95832-1448, USA. Tel.: (+) 916 262-1100, Fax: (+) 916 262-1190, Email: gwatson@cdfa.ca.gov

Yair Ben-Dov, Israel: The Catalogue of the Diaspididae (Ben-dov, Y & German, V. 2003. A systematic catalogue of the Diaspididae (armoured scale insects) of the world, subfamilies Aspidiotinae, Comstockiellinae and Odonaspidinae. Intercept Publishers, Ltd. Andover, England, 1111 pp.) was published on December 2003, and is now available for purchase from the Publisher [see short review below]. Subsequently, the database for the genera and species of the above-listed subfamilies have been joined with the Diaspidinae and Leucaspidinae (compiled by Dug Miller). Consequently, the whole Diaspididae family is now available on-line on ScaleNet. I have finalized (cut-off date December 2003) the preparation of the manuscript of The Catalogue of the Margarodidae. The Catalogue will be published in 2005. During 2002 and 2003 I have proceeded inputting data for ScaleNet, the joint project with Dug Miller. I have been adding data on the families Aclerdidae, Asterolecaniidae, Beesoniidae, Carayonemidae, Coccidae, Dactylopiidae, Diaspididae (subfamilies Aspidiotinae, Comstockiellinae and Odonaspidinae), Kerriidae, Lecanodiaspididae, Margarodidae and Pseudococcidae. The website Directory of Scale Insect (Hemiptera: Coccoidea) Systematists, was developed and is now available for users at the URL: This website was developed to provide information on systematists of scale insects, beginning with Carl von Linnaeus (1707-1778) to the present. “Scale Insect” systematists is regarded, in the context of this directory, a person who has been either an author or co-author of a new taxon in the Coccoidea. The Directory presents the following details: For deceased systematists - full names, year of birth and year of death, reference to biography and a portrait (when available); for living systematists the user may retrieve information including full names, affiliation address, e-mail address, URL of website page and a portrait. It is my wish to update and upgrade the Directory, therefore, feedback from colleagues and users will be highly appreciated. If you discover that a particular scale insect systematist is not included in the Directory, or you have new information and corrections to be included, please send the information to .

Rosa Henderson, New Zealand: This year has been notable for travel, first away to Turkey to participate in ISSIS X at Adana, and secondly a reorganised life with a long daily commute across town to work, since the April move into our new Landcare Research building. We have mixed feelings about this building, although on the whole it is a great improvement for the insect collection, e.g. some pluses … pinned insects are now housed in unit trays in flat drawer cabinets instead of upright store boxes… the Coccoidea are all in one area … and there is a dedicated small lab for slide preparation. The minuses of a noisy environment (unlined concrete walls, floors and ceilings) may be lessened if we can get sound-absorbing additions. Surely, everyone enjoyed ISSIS X as much as I did! As well, a developing collaboration with Ben Normark from that meeting promises much for the revision of the NZ Diaspididae. The Normark Lab team at the University of Massachusetts are sequencing the NZ species that I send over, and I hope this information will throw some light on the Leucaspis armoured scales in particular. At this end I am busy collecting (with the help of two enthusiastic friends) and making slides of everything we find, while the list of possible new species grows apace. The NZ Coccidae are not completely forgotten. Chris Hodgson’s and my monograph describing adult males, pupae and prepupae came out in June as “Fauna of New Zealand 51,” and Chris has kindly written up descriptions of the females of two new Umbonichiton species, for a paper that we hope to have published soon. Then there are interesting eriococcids lurking on the descriptions agenda. Life is never dull when studying scale insects!

Jon Martin, London, UK: Major changes are afoot at the Natural History Museum in London. In order to provide space for the building of phase 2 of their Darwin Center project, the existing Entomology building is scheduled for demolition in 2005. General background to these plans is given on the web link http://www.nhm.ac.uk /entomology/move.html. The details of which parts of the Entomology collections will be temporarily transferred to which locations are still being finalised. However, the liklihood is that the Coccoidea collections will be located at a facility near the Wimbledon tennis grounds, about 4 miles (6 kilometers) from the museum itself. This will have implications for intending visitors for the next three years. As part of the preparations for moving this huge collection, the slide collection has now been substantially updated from recent catalogues and the Zoological Record. The dry collection had been in three sections for many decades - a "main" collection (material in shunt boxes, alphabetically arranged), the former Newstead Collection (housed in display drawers, arranged by family / subfamily) and what was euphemistically termed a "supplementary" collection (unarranged but named duplicates of material already on slides). All this dry material has now been melded into the main dry collection, in shunt boxes and other small boxes, in one alphabetical series, not arranged by family. While this was being done, the names were brought up to date following the system of the slide collection. Holdings of dry material have now also been databased at a very basic level - i.e. dry material present in or absent from NHM collection. An inevitable consequence of such a major reorganisation of a collection has been the disposal of much unsorted material in poor condition. However, the same exercise has revealed valuable material, including type material, that has now been fully incorporated into the collection. The cabinets that housed the Newstead and supplementary collections have been released for re-use outside the museum, thus minimising the volume of furniture to be moved in 2005. Jon Martin, the curator with responsibility for the coccoid collections, suggests that 2005 is not likely to be a good year to plan to visit the London NHM's collections. Also, enquiries are likely to be dealt with more quickly if material is already slide-mounted.

Uri Gerson, Israel: Thank you for your message about the new “The Scale.” As you may know, I am now retired (albeit still reasonably active) and have not "touched" scale insects for many years. So the only contribution I can offer is a short chapter from our book (with Bob Smiley and Ron Ochoa), "Mites (Acari) for Pest Control". This chapter (38-4) is attached, for you to decide whether the included information could be of interest to the readers of “The Scale.”

Acarine biocontrol agents as enemies of scale insects

Scale insects (Homoptera: Coccoidea) are major plant pests, causing their damage by feeding, injecting toxins, transmitting plant viruses and excreting honeydew on which disfiguring sooty-mould fungi grow. The most important families are the Diaspididae (armoured scale insects), Coccidae (soft scales), Pseudococcidae (mealybugs) and Margarodidae. Most scale insects (with the notable exception of the mealybugs) are sedentary during most of their lives. After eclosion the first-instar nymphs (‘crawlers’) leave their birth place and, unless blown away by winds, settle at near-by sites, thus often forming colonies. In most cases the settled female insect spends the rest of her life at that location. The post-crawler instars either lose their legs when moulting or, if these appendages are retained, seldom move. The short- lived, winged males lack mouthparts, serving merely to inseminate the females. The colonies, while intensifying scale insect damage at their sites, also increase the probability of being detected by natural enemies (including ABAs). Another factor that facilitates the biological control of individual scale insects is the long life cycle, which prolongs their exposure time. Scale insects usually require several months to raise a generation, a period less than half the time by ABAs, which thus produce more than a single generation on each host scale.

ABAs of armoured scale insects

The body of the Diaspididae is covered by a closely-adhering shield that usually protects them from ABAs. However, as the crawlers hatch they raise a posterior flap of the shield in order to emerge. This portal serves Hemisarcoptes and Saniosulus to gain access to the females' bodies and eggs. The mites then feed on the body of the female scale, its young and eggs. The Diaspididae is the family that has attracted the most acarine parasites and predators, being the only coccoid family that has a specific genus of associated natural enemies (e.g. Hemisarcoptes) that can control its populations (Gerson et al., 1990). Most of the predatory Eupalopsellidae whose prey are known feed on crawlers (although they may be found on the adults), as do some Camerobiidae and Cheyletidae that occur on fruit trees (e.g. Moraes et al., 1989). The small bodies of the crawlers do not suffice for the development of the generalist parasitoid Pyemotidae, which often attack adult diaspidids. Pyemotids are generally rare on scale insects, although De Lillo & Porcelli (1993) recorded parasitoism rates of about 30% on a Cotoneaster-infesting armoured scale in Italy. Stigmaeidae, especially species of Agistemus, may feed on armoured scale crawlers (e.g. Ehara, 1962; Farag et al., 1990), but probably do not affect their populations. Another potential stigmaeid predator of diaspidids is Eryngiopus, because three of its species were found under the shields of pestiferous scale insects (Vacante & Gerson, 1989). Several Phytoseiidae feed, reproduce, and complete their development when offered only diaspidid eggs and crawlers (McMurtry, 1963; Ragusa & Swirski, 1977). At least one, Typhlodromus baccettii Lombardini, seems to have a special relationship with Carulaspis, a cypress- inhabiting diaspidid; almost all scales sampled in the spring at Florence, Italy, had the mites under their shields. The predator devoured the eggs of Carulaspis, but may also feed on available phytophagous mites (Baccetti, 1960). The recent literature on diaspidids as a food source for phytoseiids was reviewed by Schausberger (1998), who demonstrated that three generalists developed and reproduced when given an exclusive diet of crawlers of the San Jose scale, Quadraspidiotus perniciosus (Comstock). Generalist predators in the families Anystidae, Bdellidae, Cunaxidae and Erythraeidae consume diaspidid crawlers (Gerson et al., 1990), but such feeding appears to be opportunistic and there is no evidence that it affects the pests’ populations. The citrus red mite, Panonychus citri, has a negative, non-destructive association with the California red scale, Aonidiella aurantii (Maskell), a major pest of citrus. Orange leaves were infested with adult mites and about 100 crawlers were added almost daily. Half the crawlers settled on leaves that had been infested by the mites for 1-4 days, their settlement rate decreasing thereafter. By day 11 no scales were able to settle, suggesting that the mites had rendered these leaves unsuitable for the crawlers (Ebeling, 1948). The mechanism of this inhibition is not known.

ABAs of Soft scales, mealybugs and other scale insects

Soft scales do not appear to have any specific acarine predators or parasites, but may be parasitised by opportunistic ABAs, such as Pyemotes (Vaivanijkul & Haramoto, 1969). The eggs and crawlers of several soft scale species served as subsistence food for Amblyseius swirskii in the laboratory, but only few became adults and oviposition was negligible (Ragusa & Swirski, 1977). Mycophagous Tydeidae serve as sanitizing agents in citrus grove, because by feeding on the sooty-mould that develops on coccid honeydew they reduce the attendant damage (Mendel & Gerson, 1982). Tydeids may serve a similar function in regard to the honeydew of mealybugs, whose eggs and crawlers provided survival food for phytoseiids. Some species fed on this diet and a few eggs were produced, but none of the progeny developed beyond the protonymphal stage (Ragusa di Chiara & Tsolakis, 1995). The honeydew of mealybugs provided sufficient nutrients for the production of a few eggs by Amblyseius limonicus and enhanced the females’ survival (McMurtry & Scriven, 1965). Larvae and nymphs of Leptus sp. and Bochartia sp. (Erythraeidae) attacked the nymphs and adults of Drosicha mangiferae Green (Margarodidae), a pest of mango in India. The mites parasitised the scales and sucked out their body fluids, causing the hosts to blacken and shrivel. The mites killed about 15-20% of the pests, were active from January to May and later migratedg to the soil (Tandon & Lal, 1976). The trombidiid Allothrombium mitchelli Davis fed on and seemed to reduce the numbers of the beech scale (Cryptococcus fagisuga Lindinger, Eriococcidae) in the eastern USA (Wiggins et al., 2001). This variety of reports suggests that additional natural enemies of scale insects remain to be discovered, especially in the tropics. However, the available evidence indicates that, with the exception of Hemisarcoptes, few ABAs capable of controlling scale insect pests will be found.

Francesco Porcelli, Italy: The study of the interactions between Septobasidium and the Diaspididae is finished. I refrain from providing extensive information because some parts of the research are from the thesis of Carmela Stigliano. She will conclude her work in January and a publication will follow. I have almost finished the first study of the action of Aphanocladium album (fungi) against L. viburni. See the attached picture of an infected scale. This is a joint study with Prof. Ciccarese, a mycologist here from the faculty of agriculture. A study about paternal heterochromatization has just started; we have a lot of material of Unaspis euonymi at hand and this image shows the general structure of the reproductive system. Tuoloidin blue is the intra vitam stain.

Imre Foldi, Paris, France: Since I am now retired and no longer President of the Entomological Society of France, I now have much time to work on scale insects. Indeed, I continue full time and am focusing my research on the Margarodidae and related families. A series of papers are in preparation on the archaeococcoids, starting with the Matsucoccidae of the Mediterranean basin (publication probably in December, 2004), followed by others on the Monophlebidae, the Margarodidae and so on. Hopefully, I will complete a generic revision of the archaeococcoids. Another very exciting research project is a collaborative work with Chris Hodgson on the phylogeny of the Margarodidae sensu Morrison and related taxa based on adult male morphology; the first results were presented by Hodgson at ISSIS-X, Adana, Turkey (2004). We have nearly completed describing and illustrating representative males of most of the higher taxa and hope to obtain a well supported phylogenetic tree in the final analysis. This year (2004), I had the pleasure of a visit from Ferenc Kozár, who has just finished his book on the Ortheziidae of the World, in my laboratory. I very much enjoyed working with him on diverse aspects of scale insects. In addition, I must mention the visit of Douglas Williams (November, 2004) which, as always, was a very pleasant experience.

Lerzan Erkilic, Turkey: ISSIS-X was held in Adana, Turkey on 19-23 April 2004. We have 52 attendances from 14 different countries. During the meeting 10 different sessions were held and 44 presentations were given. Beside oral presentations there were 20 posters on different aspects of scale insect research. We hope that the attendees of the meeting had a nice time during their stay in Adana. We also missed a significant number of colleagues who couldn’t attend for diverse reasons.

Evelyna Danzig, Russia: This year I have finished the second and last part of the revision of the genus Phenacoccus of the former USSR. It includes 49 species. In addition I wrote and published in “Entomologicheskoe Obozrenie” a work on Phenacoccus spp. inhabiting different species of Picea with a discussion of polymorphism of the wide spread species Ph. piceae Loew. I reported on this work at the X Scale Insect Symposium in Adana. I want to say that the traveling in Turkey was very impressive and very well arranged. Now I am close to finishing an investigation on the genus Euripersia which I consider to be a junior synonym of Fonscolombia. It is a very interesting root mealybug characterized by ovoviviparous reproduction. The size of the genus is not large, but it is difficult to find characters to diagnose the genus when compared with Phenacoccus.

Ilya Gavrilov, Russia: I am currently finishing my dissertation (Ph.D. thesis): “Systematics and cytogenetics of scale insects (Homoptera, Coccinea) of European Russia”. It will include keys for all species from the region and neighbouring territories, descriptions of new and little known species, and a cytogenetic review of more than 40 species from 29 genera and 8 families. A recent article was published in "Entomologicheskoe Obozrenie": “The scale insects of Volga area” with descriptions of a new mealybug genus and species – Perystrix ulmaria Gavrilov, 2004. In co-operation with Dr. Valentina Kuznetsova, I am preparing a review of coccid chromosome systems for a special Russian book dedicated to evolutionary and genetic problems. I am also preparing a review of chromosome numbers in scale insects of the world (it will be in English). The review will be useful since most of this kind of information (with the exception of the works of Brown and Nur) is currently scattered in obscure publications.

Chris Hodgson, Wales, UK: Projects completed or almost completed -- With Dug Miller and Samual Goncalves: a new species of Pseudotectococcus from Brazil ( Lundiana 5: 51-72); with Rosa Henderson: the males of the indigenous soft scales of New Zealand (Fauna of New Zealand No. 51); with Rosa Henderson: 2 new species of soft scale from New Zealand (submitted to Zootaxa); with Prof. Takagi: a new gall-inducing coccoid on dipterocarps (almost completed); with Carl-Axel Gertsson: four new species of mealybug and a new species of soft scale from Greenland (about to be submitted); also the description of the males of nine of the 11 coccoid species known from Greenland (about to be submitted). Work in progress: With Imre Foldi: the phylogeny of the margarodids and related families based on male morphology; also the rest of the scale insect families based on male morphology; with Penny Gullan: revision of the Australian Coccidae; with Dug Miller: descriptions of the type species of the eriococcid genera in South America; with Sophia Gounari: the scale insect sources of honeydew used by honeybees for honey production in Greece; with Rosa Henderson: the immature stages of the soft scales of New Zealand.

Penny Gullan, California, USA: Penny's lab at UCD now has three graduate students, Janie Booth, Cory Unruh and Nathaniel (Nate) Hardy, and one postdoctoral researcher, Takumasa (Demian) Kondo, all studying the phylogenetic systematics of scale insects. Cory is studying iceryine margarodids and especially Steatococcus, Janie is working on Matsucoccus, Nate is investigating Australian eriococcids, and Demian is continuing his coccid studies but with some "diversification" into other families. Much of our funding comes from a PEET (Partnerships for Enhancing Expertise in Taxonomy) National Science Fund grant to Penny, with Dug Miller (USDA) and Ben Normark (University of Massachusetts) as collaborators. Check out our lab web page for details of all of our projects and activites: http://entomology.ucdavis.edu/gullanandcranstonlab/ In June 2003, as part of our PEET project, Penny hosted an informal five-day training workshop on scale insect systematics and phylogeny, with emphasis on the morphology of adult females. This workshop, or "Scale Camp", involved almost all PEET project trainees and participants and was held in the Department of Entomology at UCD. Doug Williams (who visited from England for the event), Dug Miller, Ray Gill and Demian Kondo helped Penny with instruction, and Ph.D. student, Patrycja Gazinska (Agriculture University in Warsaw), even traveled from Poland to attend. For more details go to: http://entomology.ucdavis.edu/Scalewebpages/peet/workshop.html Ben Normark hosted a second Scale Camp, held at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, in October 2004, with the theme of molecular phylogenetic analysis. All members of Penny's lab (except Nate who was in India) went to Amherst to participate, and everyone learned a great deal about scale insect DNA data, including how wacky it is! Plus we all had a wonderful time interacting with Ben, postdoc Geoff Morse, and graduate students Matt Gruwell and Rodger Gwiazdowski. Lyn Cook, from the Australian National University in Canberra, Australia, also participated in training at the second Scale Camp and visited UCD afterwards for two weeks to collaborate with Penny. Lyn's expertise in obtaining and analyzing coccoid DNA, especially aligning nucleotide sequences using secondary structure, was very helpful to the students. Members of our lab have been traveling a lot since publication of the last edition of "The Scale" in April 2003. In addition to flying east to the Scale Camp held at University of Massachusetts, there have been two major trips that have involved two or more members of our lab. The first was the Tenth International Symposium on Scale Insect Studies (ISSIS-X) in Adana, Turkey, from April 19-24, 2004. Penny, Cory and Demian traveled to Turkey to attend ISSIS-X, where they each presented a paper. They thoroughly enjoyed ISSIS, the Turkish hospitality and the tour of Cappadocia, and wish to especially thank Lerzan Erkilic and Bora Kaydan. The second big trip was to Australia for the International Congress of Entomology (ICE), which took place in Brisbane in August 2004. Cory and Nate presented posters at ICE on their scale insect research and Penny gave two talks, but only one on scale insects (on coccoid-eucalypt radiations, co-authored with Lyn Cook, of ANU). In January 2004, Penny and Lyn also co-authored an invited talk on their eriococcid research, presented to the IV Southern Connection meeting (an international congress of scientists who study southern hemisphere biology and earth history; go to: http://www.uct.ac.za/conferences/sc2004), held in Cape Town, South Africa. Demian Kondo completed a Ph.D. on soft scale (Coccidae: Myzolecaniinae) systematics at Auburn University, Alabama, in early 2003 and he commenced a post-doctoral position with the PEET project in April 2003. He still primarily works on the phylogenetic systematics of soft scale insects. His major project is a taxonomic revision of a group of coccids that feed only on Macaranga plants in intimate association with Crematogaster ants, but he and Penny have a number of smaller taxonomic projects to describe other scale insect species, including a new Peruvian species of Cryptostigma, a new Colombian lac insect and two new Brazilian mealybug species. Demian spends most of his time drawing and describing scale insects, but prepares some slide-mounts, does a bit of databasing, and has (reluctantly) learnt some molecular techniques. In September 2003, Demian and Peter Cranston went to Jamaica for a week, specifically to collect at the type locality of Ferrisia virgata in Kingston. They ventured into Kingston at the quietest time of the week, early Sunday morning, to avoid attracting unwanted attention as they searched for mealybugs on the street trees. Their success in finding the target mealybugs just goes to show that some type localities remain mealybug-friendly for at least a hundred years! In late 2003, Demian went on a collecting trip (organized by Dr. Elizabeth Arias from UC Berkeley) to a number of forested areas in Chile, where he braved the rain for several weeks to collect scale insects, mainly eriococcids. Cory Unruh, who began her graduate studies in October 2002, is researching the taxonomy and phylogeny of iceryine Margarodidae for her Ph.D. dissertation. She has been preparing taxonomic redescriptions of two Heteromargarodes species (ground pearls), producing a database for Steatococcus species, scoring iceryine margarodids for cladistic analysis of morphological data, and also acquiring and analyzing molecular data on iceryines. Her molecular phylogenetic data from the large subunit ribosomal DNA gene (28S) suggest that the genera Icerya and Steatococcus are not monophyletic. Cory will be testing these first hypotheses of relationships with additional genes and morphological data, and is keen to obtain more iceryine species for her analyses. Please collect and preserve (in 90-100% ethanol) any margarodids that you see and post them to Cory. Thanks to everyone who has sent specimens already. As well as doing lots of lab work, Cory has made trips to Turkey for ISSIS-X (April 2004), to the south-west USA for fieldwork (spring 2004), to Australia for ICE (August 2004), and to Montana and Salt Lake City, USA, for Entomological Society of America meetings. Janie Booth commenced her graduate studies in late September 2003 and is studying the systematics and evolution of the pine-infesting genus Matsucoccus (Margarodidae). During her first academic year, Janie completed a substantial amount of coursework and did several short collecting trips in California and the east coast of the U.S. She also presented a talk on Matsucoccus at the Western Forest Insect Work Conference, held in southern California in late April 2004. Her most valuable data for phylogenetic reconstruction are nucleotide sequences because Matsucoccus is very conservative morphologically. Janie has successfully sequenced the small subunit ribosomal DNA gene (18S) from a number of Matsucoccus samples from around the world (thanks to all of you who have sent specimens), and she has commenced work on several other potentially informative genes. Her preliminary analyses suggest that she will be able to reconstruct relationships among Matsucoccus species successfully using DNA data alone, but she needs many more species yet. Janie is using morphological data from adult females and nymphs to augment and help interpret the molecular data. Check out her Matsucoccus WEB at:

http://entomology.ucdavis. edu/gullanandcranstonlab/MatsucoccusWEB/MAIN.htm

Nate Hardy trained in entomology at Cornell University and joined the Gullan/Cranston lab in July 2003, initially as a volunteer and then as a postgraduate researcher. He worked on a project (begun by the late Dr. Jack Beardsley) on the Australian eriococcid genus Lachnodius, including preparing taxonomic drawings, making a Lucid key to species and reconstructing the phylogeny of Lachnodius and its relatives based on morphology. The project expanded so much that the systematics and evolution of Lachnodius, Opisthoscelis and related Australian eriococcids now forms the topic of his Ph.D. dissertation, which he formerly commenced in October 2004. Nate and Penny will be doing fieldwork in Victoria, Australia, during February 2005, to visit most of Jack Beardsley's former collecting sites. Nate already has visited Australia to attend ICE, where he presented a poster on relationships of Lachnodius and its relatives. In November 2004, Nate traveled to northeast India where he collected some scale insects and helped Gavin Svenson (from the Whiting lab at Brigham Young University, Utah) collect mantids. In Spring 2004, Nate spent a couple of months scoring mealybugs for morphological cladistic analysis to complement previous phylogenetic research on Pseudococcidae that used molecular data (see Downie & Gullan, 2004). Our mealybug phylogeny project is continuing as more specimens become available for both DNA and morphological work. We are especially interested in obtaining first-instar nymphs for as many mealybug species as possible and, in particular need specimens of legless mealybugs (Sphaerococcus and similar taxa), Rhizoecine and Phenacoccinae for DNA work. Two undergraduate students, Meredith Chalfant and Sarah Thrasher, worked with Penny during 2003 as part-time lab assistants funded by the PEET grant. Meredith worked on taxonomic illustrations for the project on Lachnodius. Sarah gathered taxonomic measurements and prepared an illustration of the adult female of a new species of Tessarobelus (Margarodidae) collected by Penny in New Caledonia.

Benjamin Normark, Massachusetts, USA, bnormark@ent.umass.edu. The main project in my laboratory is molecular systematics of Diaspididae. Currently we are writing up three manuscripts: (1) molecular systematics of Diaspididae, using 95 species and 3 genes (first author Geoff Morse); (2) molecular systematics of the Aspidiotus nerii complex (first author Lisa Provencher), and (3) molecular systematics of beech scale, Cryptococcus fagisuga (first author Rodger Gwiazdowski). Matthew Gruwell is doing his Ph.D. dissertation on the primary endosymbionts of diaspidids. I am especially interested in the unusual genetic systems of scale insects and related issues such as: sex ratios, sex determination, genomic imprinting, ploidy levels of bacteriomes/mycetomes, and cytogenetics. I have just received an NSF-CAREER grant that supports work on the

molecular systematics of diaspidids and their endosymbionts for the next 5 years. This grant enables me to recruit an additional graduate student at a generous stipend level, so please alert me to any talented undergraduates interested in the evolution of scale insects. I am also interested in establishing collaborative relationships with colleagues who can provide diverse samples of diaspidids for the phylogeny project. One long-term goal is developing a "DNA-barcoding" capability for molecular identification of armored scales at different life stages. If your job involves identifying diaspidids, and you are interested in helping develop this capability, please contact me.

Dug Miller, Maryland, USA: This year has been a bit traumatic personally, but through the dedication and assistance of several colleagues in the Systematic Entomology Laboratory (particularly Alessandra Rung, Gary Miller, Debra Creel, Nit Malikul, and Michael Schauff) we have been able to make progress on several ongoing research projects. In collaboration with Yair Ben-Dov and Gary Gibson we have completed catalogs on several small families including the Cerococcidae, Halimococcidae, Kermesidae, Micrococcidae, Ortheziidae, Phenacoleachiidae, Phoenicococcidae, and Stictococcidae. These catalogs will be combined in a book in the series published by Intercept and is authored by Miller, Gimpel, and Rung. A great deal of effort was devoted to adding data from Ferenc Kozár’s book on the Ortheziidae. The final volume on the second half of the Diaspididae is currently in manuscript form, but it is so large that even proofing it takes weeks or months. The book on the economic armored scales of the US finally appears that “it will see the light of day,” since it is due to be published by Cornell University Press in the summer of 2005. It contains a color plate, line drawing, and detailed description for each of more than 100 species, and has field keys and keys to slide-mounted adult females. It is set up in the same large format of books like Johnson and Lyon (1976). Our main thrust for the year has been to complete 2 keys in the Lucid system. The family key is in the beta-testing phase and will be on line in the near future; it includes all extant families and provides numerous images of the characters and the structures included in the fairly extensive glossary. Line drawings, automontage images, and habitus images are included. Authors include Miller, Rung, Venable, and Gill. The second key is on the 50 most commonly intercepted mealybug species at US ports-of-entry. Its completion is expected in 2005. Other projects include a revision of the armored scale genus Furcaspis with Douglas Williams, a paper on the eriococcid genera of South America with Chris Hodgson, and new research on the Dysmicoccus bispinosus group of mealybugs. We are doing our best to keep ScaleNet up to date, but the lack of a person dedicated to this task makes it difficult. Karen Veilleux is doing a wonderful job of keeping the reference files in ScaleNet up to date. However, if you see items that need changes or know of publications that need to be added, please let us know. A major project in the collection area is to incorporate the Kosztarab collection which was kindly donated to the US National Museum of Natural History in the fall of 2003. The collection includes more than 20,000 slides and numerous envelopes of dry material. It is an important addition to the collection and we are working diligently on the compilation of a detailed inventory.

Douglas Williams, London, UK: Please don’t hold Douglas responsible for this note; it was written by the lesser dug, i.e. Miller. The major accomplishment for the year was the publication of his new book on the mealybugs of southern Asia; a short review is given below. I can’t write enough about how critically important this work is to our identification services in the USA. We currently are (perhaps “were” after the Tsunami) importing large quantities of tropical fruit from this part of the world, but it was nearly impossible to determine many of the common mealybug species that are intercepted at ports-of-entry. Douglas’s book solves this problem. During the year, Douglas also published at least 3 other papers, 1 on a Rhizoecus associated with Acropyga ants, another on 2 new mealybugs from the Falkland Islands, and a synopsis of the mealybug genus Neochavesia. Who knows what other papers emerged this year. He also took his annual trek to “The States” and worked with Penny Gullan in California on research on the iceryines of Australia. Later he visited with me in Maryland and worked on a joint project on the genus Furcaspis. In November he made a quick trip to France to work with Daniele Ferrero and Imre Foldi. [And this man is retired and celebrated his 70^th birthday several years ago].

Louise Russell to reach the century mark May 6, 2005: I just had lunch with Louise Russell and Matilda and Michael Kosztarab and was amazed at how well Louise is doing at the age of 99. The remarkable thing is that she ate an entire entree of 2 crab cakes, mashed potatoes and gravy, coleslaw, and a salad. Louise lives in her home of more than 50 years by herself, and although she is nearly blind, she takes care of herself with only limited assistance from visitors and neighbors. Manya Stoetzel keeps in close contact with Louise and provides assistance and advice whenever possible. If you are interested in sending Louise a congratulatory note for becoming a centurion, her address is: 9 Sunnyside Road, Silver Spring, Maryland 20910, USA or you can send me a card or note around May 6 and I will present it to her at the celebration that we will be holding here at Beltsville on that day. All are welcome to attend the festivities. Contact me for details. In case there are some who don’t remember Louise, she published a monograph on Asterolecanium in 1941 that still is very useful for making identifications. Most of her career was spent working on aphids and whiteflies. She was employed by the US Department of Agriculture for 47 years and only retired because the mandatory retirement age was 70.

Professor Tremblay honored: Antonio Porcelli drew my attention to some truly fascinating recent research on mealybug endosymbionts including the discovery of bacterial symbionts inside bacterial symbionts that reside inside the bodies of mealybugs. Antonio suggested that a short note should be included in “The Scale” pointing out that one of the involved bacterial genera was named in honor of Professor Tremblay (Tremblaya) in recognition of the important work that he did on scale insect endsymbionts. It also is worth mentioning that a different genus is named in honor of the German coccidologist P. Buchner (Buchnera).

Herdsman ants and their mealybug partners: A new book: Dill, Williams, and Maschwitz 2002. Abhandlungen der Senckenbergischen Naturforschenden Gesellschaft Frankfurt am Main, 557, 373 pp. This wonderful book documents the remarkable symbiosis between Dolichoderus ants and mealybugs in the tribe Allomyrmococcini. The book has 6 chapters including an introduction, an overview of the distribution of the herdsman, taxonomy of herdsman species in Dolichoderus, taxonomy of mealybugs in the Allomyrmococcini, biology, and herdsman without mealybug associates. The publication is printed on quality paper and the illustrations, SEM images, and color images are of very well done. The color photographs of ants with attached mealybugs on their bodies are quite remarkable. The chapter written by Doug Williams “IV The mealybug tribe Allomyrmococcini and its association with herdsman ants of the genus Dolichoderus in southern Asia” gives a detailed treatment of 11 genera and 37 species in the tribe. Characters that diagnose the tribe are unusually heavily sclerotized ostioles and large expanded claw digitules. The line drawings are particularly impressive since most specimens contain large numbers of setae and some of the setae are remarkably long and difficult to draw. The revision includes a list of all species, a key to the genera of the tribe, and detailed descriptions of each of the included species. In all cases the adult female is illustrated, but drawings of first instars and an adult male also are included. This is a very important work on the fascinating interactions of the obligate symbiosis between ants and mealybugs. See http://www.schweizerbart.ed

Mealybugs of southern Asia: Williams 2004. Southdene Sdn. Bhd. Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia and The Natural History Museum, London, UK, 896 pp. This remarkable book is the most recent in a series of six book-length publications written by Douglas Williams since 1985 (others are Australian mealybugs, The scale insects of the tropical South Pacific Region in 3 volumes, and mealybugs of Central and South America). Each of these works is essential for anyone identifying mealybugs or scale insects from the treated area of the world. The copies of these volumes that reside in the library at Beltsville, Maryland are frayed and tattered from heavy use, and the southern Asia volume will be no exception. The work includes 353 species in 61 genera that are recorded from the 17 countries treated as southern Asia. In recent years there has been considerable trade with southern Asia, and many of the mealybug species that were intercepted in quarantine from this area were unknown to science or were misidentified. This caused serious problems since incorrect determinations could allow introduction of new invasive species in any country importing commodities from the area. This book solves this problem and is a must for scale-insect identifiers worldwide. See http://www.edi.co.uk/barlow for more information.

A systematic catalogue of the Diaspididae (Aspidiotinae, Comstockiellinae, Odonaspidinae): Ben-Dov and German. Intercept Ltd., Andover, UK, 1111 pp. Part of the series of catalogues that is being published as a result of the ScaleNet initiative. The volume includes information on 864 species placed in 118 genera.. See http://www.intercept.co.uk for more information.

RECENT LITERATURE

Compiled by Karen Veilleux

Karen continues to do a wonderful job on the ScaleNet literature. I don’t know how we could do it without her. It is a huge, challenging and tedious job and she is great at it.

The total number of reference records on ScaleNet now is 20,666 (that's 3,052 new records since the last Scale). 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. Please send new publications to me directly either to 710 Cedarview Dr., Blacksburg, VA 24060 USA 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. 2003. The species of Coccophagus (Hymenoptera: Aphelinidae), with description of one new species from Egypt. Acta Phytopathologica et Entomologica Hungarica 38(3/4): 351-355. [AbdRab2003]
Notes: The species of the aphelinid genus Coccophagus are primary parasitoids of soft scale insects belonging to the family Coccidae. These soft scale insects infect several economically important fruits or ornamental trees, and several species of Coccophagus have been used in the biological control of different scale insects. This paper reviews the Egyptian species of Coccophagus, namely C. bivittaus, C. ishii, C. lycimnia, C. qenai and C. scutellaris. C. qenai is described as a new species from Egypt. Each species is briefly diagnosed and the known information on host and distribution is given. A key is provided to these species.

Abd-Rabou, S. 2004. The role of augmentative releases of indigenous parasitoid Metaphycus lounsburyi (Hymenoptera: Encyrtidae) in enhancing the biological control of Saissetia oleae (Homoptera: Coccidae) on olive in Egypt. Archives of Phytopathology and Plant Protection 37(3): 233-237. [AbdRab2004]
Notes: The Mediterranean black scale, Saissetia oleae is the most important pest of olive in Egypt. Indigenous parasitoid Metaphycus lounsburyi from different localities in Egypt, were manipulated, reared and mass-produced for classical biological control in Egypt, more than 193,130 parasitoids were released. Several releases were made between May 1999 and April 2001. Increases of the parasitism from 17.4 to 42.0 and from 6.4 to 19.2 during the first year (1999-2000) and the second year (2000-01), respectively, in the Northern Coast. This parasitoid became established in some of the release sites in El-Arish and Matruh Governorates.

Abd-Rabou, S. 2004a. Augmentative releases of indigenous parasitoids of the Mediterranean black scale Saissetia oleae (Oliver) (Hemiptera: Coccidae) on olive in Egypt. Shashpa 11(1): 51-56. [AbdRab2004a]
Notes: The Mediterranean black scale, Saissetia oleae is an important pest of olive in Egypt. Approximately 113,250 indigenous parasitoids of S. oleae from different localities in Egypt, were mass produced and released at three locations, from April 1999 to April 2000. Among all the indigenous parasitoids released, only Metaphycus bartletti established itself on S. oleae with parasitism rates of 83, 56, and 33% in the Northern Coast, Marsa Matruh and El-Arish, respectively.

Abd-Rabou, S. 2004b. Revision of the genus Aphytis (Hymenoptera: Aphelinidae) with descriptions of two new species from Egypt. (In Chinese; Summary In English). Entomologia Sinica 11(2): 149-164. [AbdRab2004b]
Notes: The Egyptian species of the aphelinid genus Aphytis Howard are reviewed. Aphytis azai Abd-Rabou and Aphytis matruhi Abd-Rabou are described as new species from Egypt. Each species is briefly diagnosed and known information on hosts and distributed is given. A. azai sp. nov. is similar to A. melinus but different in the measurement of antennal segments. A. matruhi sp. nov. differs from A. lepidosaphes by the relative length of propodeum, metanotum and scutellum. A key to the Egyptian species of Aphytis is provided. Hosts include Aonidiella aurantii and Lepidosaphes beckii.

Abd-Rabou, S. & Hayat, M. 2003. A synopsis and key to the Egyptian species of Aphytis Howard (Hymenoptera: Aphelinidae) parasitoids of diaspidid scale insects (Homoptera: Diaspididae). Acta Phytopathologica et Entomologica Hungarica 38(3/4): 357-363. [AbdRabHa2003]
Notes: The species of Aphytis have great potential in the biological control of diaspidid pests, and have been used for this purpose, mostly with successful results, throughout the world. This paper provides a key for the identification of the known species from Egypt, and gives a brief synopsis of the hosts and plants from which these parasitoids were collected. Some of the collected Aphytis species appear to be new for the Egyptian fauna, i.e. A. chilensis, A. hispanicus, A. paramaculicornis, A. vandenboschi, A. philippinensis, A. africanus, A. lingnanensis, A. phoenicis, A. aonidiae and A. libanicus.

Abdel-Moniem, A. 2003. Ecological studies on the red-striped sugarcane soft scale, Pulvinaria tenuivalvata (Newstead) (Hemiptera: Coccidae) in Upper Egypt. Archives of Phytopathology and Plant Protection 36(3/4): 161-172. [AbdelM2003]
Notes: The red-striped soft scale P. tenuivalvata is a pest attacking sugarcane (Saccharum officinarum) recently recorded in Upper Egypt governorates. Sugarcane plantations in Upper Egypt were thoroughly inspected for 2 years from January 2001 until December 2002 to record infestation with P. tenuivalvata and its population density. Crops, plants and weeds growing near sugarcane fields were examined to determine the host range of this pest. Soft scale insect pests have become increasingly dangerous on sugarcane in Egypt. These insects occurred from 3 to 8 months on the infested hosts. The red-striped soft scale was active from May to December. Sugarcane, cogongrass (Imperata cylindrica) and Deccan grass (Echinochloa crus-galli) were the hosts, which harboured all insect stages. The infestation was restricted on the lower surface of the leaves and lower numbers were found on the upper surface. Damage to sugarcane included withering of the leaves and reduced yield, with reduction in the sucrose content of the juice. The growth rate of pest population infesting the sugarcane plants in 2001 increased gradually from June to September and decreased from October to December. The same trend was found for the growth rate of population in 2002. At high growth rates, it is advisable to use chemical control. The effect of weather factors on the population density of the P. tenuivalvata (the correlation between the total number of pests and temperature or relative humidity) was positive both years.

Ackacha, M.A., Polec-Pawlak, K. & Jarosz, M. 2003. Identification of anthraquinone coloring matters in natural red dyestuffs by high performance liquid chromatography with ultraviolet and electrospray mass spectrometric detection. Journal of Separation Science 26(11): 1028-1034. [AckachPoJa2003]
Notes: Reversed phase liquid chromatography with diode array detection (DAD) and electrospray mass spectrometric (ESI MSD) methods were developed for the identification of anthraquinone color components of cochineal, lac dye, and madder - red natural dyestuffs. Electrospray mass spectrometry was found to be more suitable than diode array detection for such analysis because of its highe