Pseudococcus cryptus Hempel, 1918

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 : 581-585

Pseudococcus cryptus Hempel, 1918

( Figs 1 and 2 )

[Japanese common name: Mikan-hime-kona-kaigaramushi]

Pseudococcus cryptus Hempel, 1918: 199 .

Pseudococcus citriculus Green, 1922: 377 .

Pseudococcus comstocki ; Hambleton, 1935: 106; Lepage 1938: 385; Bodenheimer 1938: 201; Compere 1939: 66; Costa Lima 1939: 5; Klein & Perzelan 1940: 107; Hayward 1941: 81 (misidentification).

Planococcus cryptus (Hempel) ; Silva d’Araujo et al. 1968: 195.

Dysmicoccus cryptus Williams, 1970 (misidentification).

Pseudococcus spathoglottidis Lit, 1992: 1168 .

Pseudococcus mandarinus Das & Ghose, 1996: 17 .

Material examined. JAPAN: Okinawa I., Nago, around Teniya River , on Citrus sp. , 3.vii.2021, coll. J. Choi, 6 adult females mounted singly (6 OIST) ; Okinawa I., Nago, around Teniya River , on Citrus sp. , 3.vii.2021, coll. J. Choi, 1 adult female mounted singly ( ELKU, DNA-extracted voucher specimen, 210703 JP18 A) .

Material examined for comparison. SOUTH KOREA: Jeju Island, on Citrus sp. , 13.ix.2014, coll. J. Choi, 5 adult females mounted singly (5 OIST, from a same sample of DNA-extracted voucher specimen of Pseudococcus cryptus in Choi & Lee 2022).

Description (n = 7).

Appearance in life. Live adult female found feeding on leaves and stems of host-plant; secreting white powdery wax over almost all body surfaces.

Slide-mounted adult female ( Figs 1 and 2 ): Body elongate oval, 1.8–2.2 mm long and 0.9–1.4 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, 112–181 µm long; anal lobe bar absent. Antenna 430–470 µm long, with 8 segments and many flagellate setae; subapical segment with 1 fleshy seta and apical segment with 3 fleshy setae. Eyes situated on margins, not associated with discoidal pores. Legs well developed, with many flagellate setae; hind trochanter + femur 325–344 µm long; hind tibia + tarsus 343–370 µm long; claw 27–33 µm long without a denticle. Ratio of lengths of hind tibia + tarsus to trochanter + femur about 1.0–1.1: 1; ratio of lengths of hind tibia to tarsus 2.5–3.5: 1. Paired setose tarsal digitules present, subequal in length, knobbed; claw digitules minutely knobbed. Hind coxae, femora, and tibiae with translucent pores on hind (=dorsal) surfaces; hind trochanters and tarsi without translucent pores ( Fig. 2 ). Labium 114–117 µm long, shorter than clypeus. Circulus present, well developed, divided by intersegmental line, located between abdominal segments III and IV, 81–160 µm long and 128–164 µm wide. Ostioles present, each with inner edges of lips weakly sclerotized; anterior ostioles each with a total for both lips of 10–22 trilocular pores and 1–5 setae; each posterior ostiole with a total for both lips of 12–19 trilocular pores and 0–4 setae. Anal ring 80–86 µm wide, bearing 6 setae, each seta 108–160 µm long. Cerarii numbering 17 pairs. Anal lobe cerarii (C 18) each present on well sclerotized area, usually containing 2 conical cerarian setae, each seta 20–34 µm long and about 8–13 µm wide at base; 2–5 auxiliary setae and a concentration of trilocular pores. Penultimate cerarii (C 17) each containing 2 conical cerarian setae, 2–5 auxiliary setae and a concentration of trilocular pores. Cerarii situated further forward generally each with 1–4 conical cerarian setae, a few auxiliary setae and a concentration of trilocular pores.

Dorsum. Setae flagellate, each 14–120 µm long, distributed segmentally; longest setae present on head or posterior abdominal segments. Trilocular pores, each 2–4 µm wide, evenly distributed. Oral rim tubular ducts each about 10–12 µm in diameter, numbering 0–3 on marginal areas of thoracic segments and head. Oral collar tubular ducts each about 3–5 µm in diameter, mostly each wider than a trilocular pore, present on marginal areas of thoracic segments and head. Discoidal pores, each 1–2 µm wide, sparsely distributed, frequently associated with oral rim tubular ducts, oral collar ducts and some cerarii.

Venter . Setae relatively long and flagellate, each 16–120 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, sparsely distributed, frequently associated with oral rim tubular ducts and some cerarii. Oral rim tubular ducts, each about 7–10 µm in diameter, present in groups of 1–5 on margins of thoracic segments and on abdominal segments. Oral collar tubular ducts of 3 sizes: (i) large-type ducts, each about 4–5 µm wide, mostly wider than trilocular pores, present on marginal areas of whole body; (ii) small-type ducts, each about 2–3 μm in diameter, present on submarginal to submedial areas of abdominal and thoracic segments; and (iii) minute-type ducts, each about 1–2 um in diameter, mostly narrower than a trilocular pore, present on medial areas of posterior abdominal segments. Discoidal pores, same width as those on dorsum, sparsely distributed, frequently associated with oral rim tubular ducts and some cerarii.

Host-plants in Japan. Citrus sp. ( Rutaceae ) ( Kawai 1980), Fatsia japonica ( Araliaceae ) ( Kawai 1980).

Remarks. The specimens of P. cryptus from Okinawa I., described above, differ slightly from those described by Williams (2004) in lacking dorsal oral collar tubular ducts associated with the abdominal cerarii, whereas Williams (2004) says that P. cryptus has narrower and longer or wide-type dorsal oral collar tubular ducts present next to most abdominal cerarii. This morphological discrepancy is probably due to individual and/or regional intraspecific variation in P. cryptus . The molecular phylogenetic analysis showed that the examined specimens above are closely related to P. cryptus collected on Jeju Island, Korea ( Fig. 7 ). Five South Korean specimens belonging to the same sample as the individual used for our molecular phylogenetic analysis ( Fig. 7 ) were examined in this study and they all have 3 to 5 wide-type oral collar ducts next to the abdominal cerarii (from C 11 to C 18, data not shown). This may indicate that, at least in this and the related species, the presence or absence of oral collar ducts next to the abdominal cerarii may be of limited taxonomic value. However, further morphological and molecular phylogenetic studies are probably needed to confirm the taxonomic significance of this morphological characteristic.

Figures

FIGURE 1. Pseudococcus cryptus Hempel collected in Okinawa I. in 2021. A, antenna; B, ventral trilocular pore; C, ventral oral rim duct; D, ventral discoidal pore; E, large-type ventral oral collar duct; F, small-type ventral oral collar duct; G, minutetype ventral oral collar duct; H, hind tibia, tarsus and claw; I, multilocular pore; J, anal lobe cerarius; K, dorsal discoidal pore; L, dorsal oral rim duct; M, dorsal oral collar duct; N, dorsal trilocular pore. Scale bars: 200 µm for A and H; 50 µm for J; 10 µm for others.

FIGURE 2. A hind leg of Pseudococcus cryptus Hempel collected in Okinawa I. in 2021. 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.