Pseudococcus odermatti Miller & Williams, 1997

Tanaka, Hirotaka, Choi, Jinyeong & Kamitani, Satoshi, 2025, Taxonomic review of three species of the genus Pseudococcus Westwood, 1840 (Hemiptera: Coccomorpha: Pseudococcidae) found in Okinawa Island, Japan, with description of a new species, Zootaxa 5637 (3), pp. 579-593 : 585-588

Pseudococcus odermatti Miller & Williams, 1997

( Plate 1A , Figs 3 and 4 )

[Japanese common name: Matsuura-kona-kaigaramushi]

Pseudococcus odermatti Miller & Williams, 1997 ; 306.

Material examined. JAPAN: Okinawa I., Urasoe, Iso, Urasoe Dai Park on Murraya paniculata , 14.xi.2020, coll. H. Tanaka, 3 adult females mounted on separate slides (2 ELKU, 1 EUMJ) ; Okinawa I., Onna-son , on Gymnosporia diversifolia , 29.x.2022, coll. J. Choi, 1 adult female mounted singly ( ELKU, DNA extracted voucher specimen, 221029 JP01 ) ; Okinawa I., Nago, Kyoda , on Gymnosporia diversifolia , 17.v.2023, coll. J. Choi, 8 adult females mounted on separate slides (4 ELKU, 4 EUMJ) .

Description (n = 12).

Appearance in life ( Plate 1A ): Live adult female found feeding on leaves and stems of the host-plant; secreting white powdery wax over almost all body surfaces ( Plate 1A ).

Slide-mounted adult female ( Figs 3 and 4 ): Body elongate oval, 2.7–4.0 mm long and 1.5–2.6 mm wide; derm membranous; segmentation recognizable, but not well developed. Anal lobes clearly observable, dorsal surface of each lobe with well-sclerotized plate and ventral surface with long apical seta, 94–183 µm long; anal lobe bar absent. Antenna 415–560 µm long, with 8 segments and many flagellate setae; subapical segment with 1 fleshy seta, apical segment with 3 fleshy setae. Eyes situated on margin, not associated with discoidal pores. Legs well developed, with many flagellate setae; hind trochanter + femur 327–467 µm long; hind tibia + tarsus 352–480 µm long; each claw 24–40 µm long without a denticle. Ratio of lengths of hind tibia + tarsus to trochanter + femur about 0.97–1.16: 1; ratio of lengths of hind tibia to tarsus 2.64–3.90: 1. Paired setose tarsal digitules present, subequal in length, knobbed; claw digitules minutely knobbed. Translucent pores absent from hind coxae, present on hind (=dorsal) surfaces of femora and tibiae, but absent from tarsi; hind trochanters without translucent pores ( Fig. 3 ). Labium 114–160 µm long, shorter than clypeus. Circulus present, well developed, divided by intersegmental line, located between posterior abdominal segments III and IV, 60–222 µm long and 150–257 µm wide. Ostioles present, each with inner edges of lips weakly sclerotized; anterior ostioles each with a total for both lips of 16–35 trilocular pores and 1–8 setae; each posterior ostiole with a total for both lips of 19–34 trilocular pores and 0–6 setae.Anal ring 92–122 µm wide, bearing 6 setae, each seta 130–187 µm long. Cerarii numbering 17 pairs. Anal lobe cerarii (C 18) each situated on well-sclerotized area, usually containing 2 conical cerarian setae (each seta 18–34 µm long and about 9–13 µm wide at base), 2–7 auxiliary setae and concentration of trilocular pores. Penultimate cerarii (C 17) each containing 2 (rarely 1) conical cerarian setae, 1–8 auxiliary setae and concentration of trilocular pores. Cerarii situated further forward generally each with 1–4 conical cerarian setae, few auxiliary setae and concentration of trilocular pores.

Dorsum. Setae flagellate, each 12–64 µm long, distributed segmentally. Trilocular pores, each 2–4 µm wide, evenly distributed. Oral rim tubular ducts, each about 10–13 µm in diameter, numbering 13–49 in marginal and submarginal areas, on midline of posterior abdominal segments and on submedial areas of abdominal segments, occasionally on medial and submedial areas of thoracic segments and head. Oral collar tubular ducts, each about 3–4 µm in diameter, mostly each wider than a trilocular pore, sparsely distributed but mostly concentrated in marginal to submarginal areas. Discoidal pores, each approximately 1 µm wide, sparsely distributed, few present in cerarii and frequently associated with oral rim tubular duct and oral collar tubular duct orifices.

Venter . Setae relatively long and flagellate, each 16–176 µm long; longest setae situated on medial area of head. Multilocular disc-pores, each 7–9 µm wide, present on medial areas of abdominal segments IV‒IX. Trilocular pores, same width as those on dorsum, distributed evenly. Discoidal pores present or absent, if present each approximately 1 µm in diameter, sparsely distributed, frequently associated with orifices of oral rim tubular ducts and largest type of oral collar tubular ducts. Oral rim tubular ducts, each about 7–9 µm in diameter, present in groups of 1‒3 on margins of thoracic and abdominal segments. Oral collar tubular ducts of 3 sizes: (i) large-type ducts, each about 3–4 µm wide, mostly wider than a trilocular pore, present on marginal areas of whole body; (ii) small-type ducts, each about 2–3 μm in diameter, present in transverse row across each of posterior abdominal segments; and (iii) minute-type ducts, each approximately 1–2 um in diameter, mostly narrower than a trilocular pore, present on medial areas of posterior abdominal segments.

Host-plants in Japan. Gymnosporia diversifolia ( Celastraceae ), Citrus spp. ( Tokihiro 2004), Murraya paniculata ( Rutaceae ).

Remarks. Pseudococcus odermatti is similar to P. comstocki ( Kuwana, 1902) in having dorsal oral collar tubular ducts across some segments ( Williams 2004). However, P. odermatti differs from P. comstocki (contrasting character states in P. comstocki in parentheses) as follows: (i) hind coxae lacking translucent pores (hind coxae with translucent pores); and (ii) abdominal segment II lacking multilocular disc-pores (abdominal segment II with multilocular disc-pores).

The molecular phylogenetic analysis also indicated that P. odermatti is closely related to P. comstocki ( Fig. 7 ); however, further detailed morphological and molecular phylogenetic studies are needed to define the taxonomic status of P. odermatti further.

Figures

PLATE 1. Pseudococcus spp. distributed in Okinawa I. A, Pseudococcus odermatti Miller & Williams on Gymnosporia diversifolia, collected in Nago City, Okinawa I. in 2023; B, Pseudococcus okinawaensis Tanaka & Choi, sp. nov. on Pandanus odoratissimus, collected in Onna-son, Okinawa I. in 2021.

FIGURE 3. Pseudococcus odermatti Miller & Williams collected in Okinawa Is. in 2022. A, antenna; B, ventral oral rim duct; C, ventral trilocular pore; D, ventral discoidal pore; E, large-type ventral oral collar duct; F, small-type ventral oral collar duct; G, minute-type ventral oral collar duct; H, hind tibia, tarsus and claw; I, multilocular pore; J, anal lobe cerarius; K, dorsal oral rim duct; L, dorsal oral collar duct; M, discoidal pore; N, dorsal trilocular pore. Scale bars: 200 µm for A and H; 50 µm for J; 10 µm for others.

FIGURE 4. A hind leg of Pseudococcus odermatti Miller & Williams collected in Okinawa I. in 2022. A, anterior (=ventral) surface; B, posterior (=dorsal) surface. Scale bars: 200 µm.

FIGURE 7. Molecular phylogeny of Pseudococcus species inferred by maximum likelihood analysis using IQ-TREE. Concatenated sequences of COI (408 bp) and 18S rRNA (646 bp) were used in this analysis. Ultrafast bootstrap values are shown at each node.