Valid Names Results

Coccus pseudohesperidum is now Coccus pseudhesperidum (Cockerell, 1895) (Coccidae: Coccus)

Nomenclatural History

• Lecanium pseud-hesperidum Cockerell 1895h: 381. Type data: CANADA: Ottawa, in greenhouse on Cattleya sp.. Syntypes, female, Type depository: Washington: United States National Entomological Collection, U.S. National Museum of Natural History, District of Columbia, USA; accepted valid name
• Coccus pseudohesperidum (Cockerell, 1895); Fernald 1903b: 173. change of combination
• Coccus pseudohesperidum Fernald, 1903; Fernald 1903b: 173. emendation that is unjustified
• Coccus pseadohesperidum (Cockerell, 1895); Tang 1991: 95. misspelling of species epithet
• Coccus pseudhesperidum (Cockerell, 1895); Williams, D.J. 2017a: 213. emendation that is justified

Common Names

• orchid soft scale Gill1988 GillNaWi1977 HamonWi1984

Ecological Associates

Hosts:

Families: 3 | Genera: 14

Geographic Distribution

Keys

• Koszta1996: pp.337 ( Adult (F) ) [Northeastern North America]
• Tang1991: pp.76 ( Adult (F) ) [China]
• Gill1988: pp.26 ( Adult (F) ) [USA, California]
• HamonWi1984: pp.38 ( Adult (F) ) [USA, Florida]
• Borchs1957: pp.294 ( Adult (F) ) [Palaearctic region]
• Zimmer1948: pp.293 ( Adult (F) ) [Hawaii]

Remarks

• Systematics: The hyphen in the original spelling of the specific name Lecanium pseud-hesperidum as published in Cockerell (1895: 381) is at the end of a line and was probably inserted by the printer as a line break. Green’s material is missing the hyphen on the labels. Article 32.5.2 of the International Code of Zoological Nemenclatue (International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature 1999) states that the hyphen must be removed. The correct spelling, therefore, is pseudhesperidum here amended. The spelling pseudohesperidum by Fernald (1903: 173), accepted by subsequent authors, was unjustified. It is not clear where Cockerell’s original slide is deposited. Although some dry material in the United States National Museum collection at Beltsville, Maryland, U.S.A. (USNM) is labelled L. pseudhesperidum, slides marked “Type” in the USNM with original data are labelled Lecanium pseudohesperidum but not in Cockerell’s handwriting. It is probable that these slides were prepared after the original publication and labelled following the spelling in Fernald (1903). (Williams, 2017a)
• Structure: Adult female elongate oval; up to 7 mm long; dorsum of young female yellow with dark brown mottling, while uniformly brown in older females; polygonal, transparent wax plates present on dorsum. See colour photograph in Gill (1988).
• Biology: The species appears to feed and develop on various host plants of the Orchidaceae. However, Gill et al. (1977) indicated an exceptional record from German Iris in USA, North Carolina.
• General Remarks: Description and illustration of the adult female given by Zimmerman (1948), Steinweden (1945), Gill et al. (1977), Hamon & Williams (1984), Gill (1988) and by Kosztarab (1996). Good description of the adult female given by Borchsenius (1957).

Illustrations

Citations