Valid Names Results

Albastaspis formosa (Green, 1904) (Diaspididae: Albastaspis)

Nomenclatural History

• Chionaspis formosa Green 1904c: 462-463. Type data: AUSTRALIA: New South Wales, on Eucalyptus tereticornis, by W.W. Froggatt; Victoria, Goulburn Valley, by C. French. Syntypes, female, Type depository: London: The Natural History Museum, England, UK; accepted valid name Illustr.
• Phenacaspis formosa (Green, 1904); MacGillivray 1921: 352. change of combination
• Chionaspis formosa Green, 1904; Takagi 1985: 45. revived combination (previously published) Notes: Takagi 1985 lists this as a species of Chionaspis, but states that "its generic position is indeterminate."
• Albastaspis formosa (Green, 1904); Wei, Normark, and Normark 2026: 28. change of combination

Common Names

Ecological Associates

Hosts:

Families: 1 | Genera: 1

Geographic Distribution

Keys

• WeiNoNo2026: pp.30-36 ( Adult (F) ) [species of Fioriniina in Australia]
• MacGil1921: pp.352 ( ) [Key to species of Phenacaspis]

Remarks

• Systematics: GenBank accession number GQ325558; elongation factor 1-alpha (EF-1α), GQ403933; cytochrome oxidase I and II (COI–II), GQ425100; and the small ribosomal subunit (16S) of the primary endosymbiont (Uzinura diaspidicola), GQ424942. Misidentified specimens of "Albastaspis formosa" (D2105A, D2106) have appeared in previously published phylogenetic trees, and 1 sequence submitted to GenBank was identified as Pseudaulacaspis sp. D2003A (GQ425100).

  Albastaspis formosa is distinctive in possessing a row of thorn-like, sclerotized dermal spines on the venter along the border between the prothorax and the mesothorax, and in also having a deep, V-shaped notch in the apex of the pygidium between widely separated, divergent L1. The combination of sclerotized dermal spines on the venter of the thorax and a notch in the apex of the pygidium is also seen in A. xanthorrhoeae, A. eugeniae, and A. diffissata, but these all differ in detail. Only A. formosa has a row of large dermal spines along the border between the prothorax and the mesothorax.

• Structure: Female puparium snowy white, 1st pellicle yellow, 2nd pellicle reddish, secretionary area smooth, usually broadly dilated, sometimes narrower and more elongate. Male puparium much smaller and narrower, feebly tricarinate, median carina distinct, lateral carinae obsolescent. Adult female narrowed in front, broadest across median abdominal areas (Green, 1904c). Redescription in Wei, Normark & Normark (2026): Adult female not pupillarial. Scale cover “snowy white … smooth, usually broadly dilated, sometimes narrower and more elongate.” Second exuviae reddish, first exuviae yellowish (Green 1904c). Slide-mounted adult female (n =18) 950–1530 μm long, 500–720 μm wide, broadest at metathorax and abdominal segment I. Body outline near fusiform, slender with the sides of the body roughly parallel, derm membranous except for pygidium.
• General Remarks: Best description and illustration by Green (1904c). Detailed redescription and illustration in Wei, et al., 2026.

Illustrations

Citations