Valid Names Results

Aulacaspis australis Brimblecombe, 1959 (Diaspididae: Aulacaspis)

Nomenclatural History

• Aulacaspis australis Brimblecombe 1959b: 395-396. Type data: AUSTRALIA: Queensland, Sandgate, on Bruguiera gymnorhiza, ?/04/1947. Holotype, female, Type depository: Brisbane: Queensland Museum, Queensland, Australia; accepted valid name Notes: Also in QMBA are paratypes T5773 through T5775. Illustr.
• Aulacaspis martini Williams & Watson 1988: 70-72. Type data: PAPUA NEW GUINEA: Morobe P., Buso, on Rhizophora sp., 28/10/1979, by J.H. Martin. Holotype, female, by original designation Type depository: London: The Natural History Museum, England, UK; junior synonym (discovered by TakagiDeMa2011, 7-Jan). Notes: Paratypes also in BMNH.

Common Names

Ecological Associates

Hosts:

Families: 1 | Genera: 2

Foes:

Families: 1 | Genera: 1

Geographic Distribution

Keys

• JoshiMoMe2023: pp.244-245 ( Adult (F) ) [Indian species of Aulacaspis]
• WilliaWa1988: pp.70 ( Adult (F) ) [Key to species of Aulacaspis in the tropical South Pacific]

Remarks

• Systematics: Aulacaspis australis (=martini) is easily identifiable in the South Pacific area in possessing dorsal ducts on the first abdominal segment. Some well known species such as A. thoracica, A. crawii and A. greeni, which have ducts on the first abdominal segment, also have submedian ducts on segment 6. These are lacking in A. martini (Williams & Watson, 1988).
• Structure: Adult female elongate. In some specimens one of the posterior groups of ducts on the first abdominal segment may be absent (Brimblecombe, 1959b). The female test is round and the male test in tricarinate as usual for Aulacaspis species; the second-instar exuvial cast of the female is blackish, but sometimes it is pale coloured and thus may appear 'browish green.' (Takagi & De Faveri, 2009) The adult females show a rather remarkable variation in the shape of the median trullae [lobes] in association with their feeding sites. In the branch-associated specimens these trullae are robust and set close, with a strong basal zygosis, whereas in the leaf-associated specimens they are longer than wide and separated from each other by a distinct space, with the basal zygosis reduced into a pair of sclerotized pieces; in the sample from the bud the median trullae are intermediate between the branch- and the leaf-associated forms in various degrees. (Takagi & De Faveri, 2011)
• Biology: Insects scattered on leaves. Scales subcircular, white. Pellicles brownish green (Brimblecombe, 1959b).
• Economic Importance: Overall, A. australis has little impact on the mangroves because of the high levels of beneficial insects, including a gall midge, predators and entomopathogenic fungi controlling its population, (Kolesik & De Faveri, 2014)
• General Remarks: Detailed description and illustration by Williams & Watson (1988). Detailed redescription in Takagi & De Faveri (2009).

Illustrations

Citations