Valid Names Results

Pennygullania Koteja & Azar, 2008 (Pennygullaniidae)

Pennygullania Koteja & Azar 2008: 158. Type species: Pennygullania electrina Koteja & Azar by original designation . accepted valid name

Systematics: Pennygullania is the type genus of the family Pennygullaniidae Koteja & Azar (2008). Recently, Gavrilov-Zimin & Danzig (2012) synonymised Pennygullaniidae with Pseudococcidae, arguing that the characters used by Koteja & Azar (2008) to define Pennygullaniidae were insufficient to distinguish it from Pseudococcidae. Furthermore, the adult male of Pennygullania has two pairs of glandular pouches on the abdomen, as is the case for adult males in the pseudococcid subfamily Phenacoccinae. However, careful study of Koteja & Azar’s (2008) illustration suggests that there is a ring of at least three pairs of simple eyes on heavily sclerotised ocular sclerites that almost meet on the top of the head, a condition very similar to that in Putoidae. Thus, Hodgson & Hardy, 2013, concluded that there was sufficient evidence to keep these families separate. Vea & Grimaldi, 2015 concluded that their phylogenetic results did not retrieve Pennygullania related to any of the sampled Pseudococcidae and was therefore considered to be in Pennygullaniidae Diagnosis of the type genus: Slim neococcid with two pairs of simple eyes, slender appendages bearing very long setae, solid scutum, trochanter and femur fused, two pairs of strong tail setae (with two setae in each group), penial sheath of coccid s. str. type.
General Remarks: Description and definition, based on alate adult male, by Koteja & Azar (2008).