Valid Names Results

Albastaspis pallens (Maskell, 1890) (Diaspididae: Albastaspis)

Nomenclatural History

• Mytilaspis pallens Maskell 1890: 134. Type data: AUSTRALIA: New South Wales, in greenhouse, on unidentified "fan-palm". Syntypes, female, Type depository: Auckland: New Zealand Arthropod Collection, Landcare Research, New Zealand; Washington: United States National Entomological Collection, U.S. National Museum of Natural History, District of Columbia, USA; accepted valid name Illustr.
• Lepidosaphes pallens (Maskell, 1890); Fernald 1903b: 312. change of combination
• Fusilaspis pallens (Maskell, 1890); MacGillivray 1921: 289. change of combination
• Trichomytilus pallens (Maskell, 1890); Lindinger 1933a: 165. change of combination
• Poliaspis pallens (Maskell, 1890); Lindinger 1943a: 149. change of combination
• Albastaspis pallens (Maskell, 1890); Wei, Normark, & Normark 2026: 28. change of combination

Common Names

Ecological Associates

Hosts:

Families: 1 | Genera: 1

Foes:

Families: 1 | Genera: 1

Geographic Distribution

Keys

• WeiNoNo2026: pp.30-36 ( Adult (F) ) [species of Fioriniina in Australia]
• MacGil1921: pp.289 ( Adult (F) ) [Key to species of Fusilaspis] Key as: Fusilaspis pallens
• Leonar1903: pp.31 ( Adult (F) ) [Key to species of Mytilaspis] Key as: Mytilaspis pallens
• Cocker1899f: pp.14 ( Adult (F) ) [Australian species of Mytilaspis] Key as: Mytilaspis pallens

Remarks

• Systematics: Lectotype designated in Wei, Normark & Normark (2026): 1 adult female, Australia, Maskell Collection No. 29 (ANIC). Paralectotypes: 4 adult females on 4 slides: data same as lectotype (USNM). Lepidosaphes pallens is allied to L. phymatodius (=Pseudaulacaspis phymatodius) (Froggatt, 1914).

  Albastaspis pallens is similar to A. maskellalba – which Maskell originally considered to be a subspecies of A. pallens – but A. pallens differs from A. maskellalba by the presence of L3 (absent in A. maskellalba), and frequently also by the presence of pores by the posterior spiracles (consistently absent in A. maskellalba). Specimens of A. pallens that lack pores by the posterior spiracles are also similar to A. kamberra, but A. pallens differs from A. kamberra by having entire or serrulate L1 exceeded by L2 (coarsely serrate L1 about even with L2 in A. kamberra). Specimens of A. pallens that have pores by the posterior spiracles are most similar to A. gloria in having small L1 exceeded by L2 (large L1 about even with L2 in A. brimblecombei, A. neocasuarinae, and A. xanthorrhoeae). See remarks under A. gloria for notes on distinguishing the two species.

• Structure: Female scale cover light greyish-green, elongated, flat, thin; rather widely pyriform in many specimens, exuviae small. Male scale cover resembling that of female, but much smaller and a little more convex; not carinated. Adult female dark brown or purple, cephalic region comparatively large. Adult male dark brown (Maskell, 1890). Redescription in Wei, Normark & Normark (2026): Adult female not pupillarial. Scale cover “light greyish-green, elongated, flat, thin” with “small” exuviae (Maskell 1890). Slide-mounted adult female (n = 4) 1550–1600 μm long, 650–720 μm wide, broadest at metathorax and abdominal segment I. Body outline elongate oval, quite slender with the sides of the body roughly parallel, derm membranous except for pygidium, pygidium narrow and elongate.
• General Remarks: Detailed redescri.ption and illustration in Wei, Normark & Normark, 2026

Illustrations

Citations