Valid Names Results

Poliaspoides leptocarpi (Brittin, 1916) (Diaspididae: Poliaspoides)

Nomenclatural History

• Odonaspis ? leptocarpi Brittin 1916: 425-426. Type data: NEW ZEALAND: South Island, New Brighton, on Leptocarpus sp.. Lectotype, female, by subsequent designation (BenDov1976a,27). Type depository: Auckland: New Zealand Arthropod Collection, Landcare Research, New Zealand; accepted valid name
• Dycryptaspis leptocarpi (Brittin, 1916); Lindinger 1937: 184. change of combination
• Natalaspis leptocarpi (Brittin, 1916); Ben-Dov 1976a: 27-29. change of combination
• Poliaspoides leptocarpi (Brittin, 1916); Miller & Gimpel 2009: 722. change of combination

Common Names

Ecological Associates

Hosts:

Families: 1 | Genera: 2

Geographic Distribution

Keys

• BenDov1976a: pp.29 ( ) [Key to species of Natalaspis]

Remarks

• Systematics: The presence of numerous dorsal ducts would normally signify a male nymph, however all the slide-mounted ductiferous 2nd-instar nymphs and many of those with fewer ducts or without any dorsal ducts are recorded containing incipient or pharate adult females, not male prepupae. Therefore they are all considered female, and males are absent. The adult female of the non-bamboo feeding P. leptocarpi differs from the other Poliaspoides species in having the antennal tubercle with 3 or 4 setae and both anterior and posterior spiracles without spiracular pores (Ben-Dov, 1976). Its first instar, described by Henderson (2011), is also clearly different from the first instars of P. formosana and P. bambusae. Takagi (1995) doubted whether P. leptocarpi was correctly placed in the genus Poliaspoides (Takagi, 1995, p.37, as Natalaspis leptocarpi) because of these differences and because of the different host plant: P. leptocarpi is monophagous on Apodasmia (=Leptocarpus) similis (Restinaceae), endemic to New Zealand. The differences in the first-instar nymph morphology, highlighted by Henderson (2011), support Takagi’s views. (Ülgentürk & Pellizzari, 2013)
• Structure: Scale of female always found packed closely together. Ventral scale complete, white, remains attached to host; dorsal portion white, elongate. Exuviae yellow and appears to be situated rather to one side. Mounted adult females narrow and elongate, 0.8-1.4 mm long, 0.4-0.8 mm wide. Pygidial margin rounded, serrated, without lobes or plates (Ben-Dov, 1976a).
• Biology: The adult female and eggs are dark grey-purple. The adult female produces a thick white, open-ended cover into which eggs are laid in 2 rows, thus forming an ovisac, with just her posterior covered while she lies mostly naked further in under the leaf sheath. Groups of up to 8 females with ‘ovisacs’ may be packed together under one sheath. No males have been observed. Habitat beneath the leaf sheath on stem nodes, with usually a tell-tale portion of white scale cover(s) visible at the sheath margin, or the sheath appears more swollen than normal; 1st-instar nymphs settle under the lip of the sheath at a previously unoccupied node, the 1st and 2nd scale covers are pale to translucent except that before each moult a sclerotised band forms around the head (absent on the adult female); development time from settled 1st-instar to adult female is apparently fast and the greatest size increase is in the adult stage.
• General Remarks: Detailed description and illustration by Ben-Dov (1976a).

Illustrations

Citations