Platylecanium citri Takahashi, 1942

Hodgson, Chris, 2025, Revision of the soft scale genus Platylecanium (Hemiptera: Coccomorpha: Coccidae), with descriptions of eight new species, Zootaxa 5646 (2), pp. 151-198 : 159

Platylecanium citri Takahashi

Platylecanium citri Takahashi, 1942: 23 .

Comments. Platylecanium citri was originally collected at Bangkok Noi, Thailand on Citrus ( Rutaceae ) in March 1940 but does not appear to have been found since. From Takahashi’s (1942) original description, the main features characterising this species appear to be: (i) body asymmetrical and 4 mm long; (ii) submarginal areolations abundant, each small and oval; (iii) antennae rudimentary (each about 40 μm long); (iv) legs absent [probably present but reduced to claws]; (v) stigmatic clefts deep, each with 3 stigmatic spines, each spine about 37 μm long, much longer than a marginal seta; (vi) margin not crenulated; (vii) marginal setae short (each about 12 μm long), setose and sparse, and (viii) anal plates each narrow and pointed, together clearly longer than wide (length about 230 μm; width of single plate about 65 μm).

Platylecanium citri somewhat resembles P. faveolatum sp. nov., described below, in having: (i) a non-crenulate margin; (ii) body less than twice as long as wide; (iii) only 3 stigmatic setae in each cleft; (iv) anal plates together longer than wide, and (v) very short antennae. However, based on Takahashi’s description, P. citri can be easily separated from P. faveolatum in having the anal plates each more than three times as long as the width of a single plate (only about twice as long on P. faveolatum ).