Valid Names Results

Myrtaspis homalanthi Takagi, 2020 (Diaspididae: Myrtaspis)

Myrtaspis homalanthi Takagi 2020. Type data: SABAH: Plateau, alt. ca.1500m, Mt. Kinabalu, on Homalanthus alpinus, 10/5/1988, by S. Takagi. Holotype, female, by original designation Type depository: Kepong: Forest Research Institute of Malaysia, Selandgor, Malaysia; accepted valid name Illustr.

Families: 1 | Genera: 1

Countries: 1

Systematics: This species is easily recognizable in having a broad body with abundant dorsal macroducts. In this respect it is specialized apparently in association with its gall inhabiting behavior, the gall being no more than a depression on the leaf surface. On the other hand, it has the lobes of the median trullae and lobules of the lateral trullae little differentiated among them in shape and size. In this character it is primitive or generalized, and is connectable with some species of the core group of Myrtaspis (for the core group, see Section 6) in spite of the body shape, which is extraordinary for a species of the genus, and the specialized host association. (Takagi, 2020)
Structure: Adult female. Body broadly obovate at full growth. Median trullae small, as large as mesal lobules of second and third trullae, divergent; their bases widely separated from each other, having no distinct sclerites, confluent with a pair of thick sclerotized folds of ventral derm extending anteriorly. Second and third trullae with both lobules well developed. (Takagi, 2020)
Biology: Each female was found in a small depression on the upper leaf surface, thus inhabiting a shallow pit gall and covering it with a round test.
General Remarks: Detailed description and illustration in Takagi, 2020

Takagi2020: description, diagnosis, distribution, host, illustration, taxonomy, 40-41, 80-81