Wheeler Jr., A.G., Evans, G.A., & Vandenberg, N.J. 2010 Pseudococcus saccharicola Takahashi (Hemiptera: Pseudococcidae) in the British Virgin Islands: First Western Hemisphere Records, with Records of a Co-occurring Lady Beetle, Hyperaspis scutifera (Mulsant) (Coleoptera: Coccinellidae). . Proceedings of the Entomological Society of Washington 112(4): 565-575

Notes: Pseudococcus saccharicola Takahashi was collected on Guana Island, and nearby Beef Island and Tortola, in the British Virgin Islands (BVI). The records are the first in the Western Hemisphere for this potentially important Old World pest of sugarcane and certain other graminoid crops. Host plants on Guana were Chloris barbata Sw. (swollen fingergrass), C. radiata (L.) (radiate fingergrass), Cynodon dactylon L. (bermudagrass), and Saccharum officinarum L. (sugarcane). A probable mealybug predator associated with colonies of P. saccharicola on all three islands was the hyperaspidine coccinellid Hyperaspis scutifera (Mulsant), previously recorded in the West Indies only from the Leeward Antilles (Curaçao). Both the mealybug and lady beetle are considered adventive in the BVI. Diagnoses and illustrations of both species are provided to facilitate their recognition. Hyperaspis sanctaeritae Dobzhansky, 1941, described from Arizona, USA, is proposed (by N.J.V.) as a junior synonym of H. scutifera (Mulsant 1850).