Vahedi, H.A. 2005 Notes on the biology of Porphyrophora cynodontis (Archangelskaia) (Hemiptera: Coccoidea: Margarodidae) under field and laboratory conditions in Kermanshah, Iran.. Proceedings of the X International Symposium on Scale Insect Studies, held at Plant Protection Research Institute, Adana/ Turkey, 19-23 April 2004. Adana Zirai Muscadele Arastirma Enstitusu. Adana, Turkey 408 pp.

Notes: ABSTRACT : The biology of the hypogeal margarodid Porphyrophora cynodontis, which feeds on grass weeds (but not graminaceous crops) in the Middle East, was investigated between July 2002 and Dec. 2003 in Kermanshah, western Iran, under field and laboratory conditions. Even when the 2nd-instar cysts had been detached from their host plant, thus preventing them from continuing to feed, both 3rd-instar males and adult females emerged from the cysts in the laboratory between late-June and late-July, with peak emergence during the third week in July. With regard to the males, the 3rd-instar was nymphal, somewhat resembling a small adult female; these moulted first into a pupal and then into the adult stage. Mating occurred soon after emergence, when both adult stages could be found above ground. There was only one generation a year. Peak oviposition occurred during the first week in August and lasted 2 weeks; all eggs were laid within a single ovisac. The life span of virgin males and females was longer than those of mated individuals. The crawlers emerged during in the following March, having overwintered in the egg stage, and these dispersed to suitable graminaceous hosts, squeezing between the leaf-bases of the nodes of underground stolons, where they settled and fed. After only about one week, the legs and antennae of the crawlers appeared to shrink and they moulted into the cyst-like 2nd-instar nymphs. At this stage, they secreted a white waxy cyst wall which became gradually thicker as the insect continued feeding and growing. In the field, the maximum growth of the cyst-stage was during late-July. In the male life-cycle, the pupa appeared in late July. Adult males and females appeared during lateJuly and early-August. In Kermanshah, hypogeal margarodids are preyed upon by a soil-inhabiting coccinelid.