Valid Names Results

Unaspis mabilis Lit & Barbecho, 2014 (Diaspididae: Unaspis)

Nomenclatural History

• Unaspis mabilis Lit & Barbecho 2014: 1-4. Type data: PHILLIPINES: Luzon, Mount Makiling, Los Baños, Laguna, on Lansium domesticum, 2/14/2014, by N.M. Barbecho. Holotype, female, Type depository: Los Banos: Entomological Museum, Museum of Natural History, University of the Philippines at Los Banos, College, Laguna, Luzon, Philippines; accepted valid name Illustr.
• Unaspis lansivora Watson 2015a: 432. Type data: PHILIPPINES: Luzon Island, Laguna, San Pablo City, on Lansium domesticum leaves, 3/31/2014, by M.V. Navasero.. Holotype, female, by original designation Type depository: London: The Natural History Museum, England, UK; junior synonym (discovered by Watson2015, 450). Notes: Paratypes female: PHILIPPINES, same data as holotype (at BMNH, 2 slides each containing 4 adult females, 1 slide containing 1 adult female and one second instar exuviae, and 3 slides each containing 1 adult female. Illustr.

Common Names

• Lanzones scale insect MedinaVeQu2023

Ecological Associates

Hosts:

Families: 2 | Genera: 2

Geographic Distribution

Keys

• NiuFe2019: pp.579 ( Adult (F) ) [Species of Unaspis]
• Watson2015a: pp.437 ( Adult (F) ) [slide-mounted adult females of Unaspis] Key as: Unaspis lansivora

Remarks

• Systematics: Unaspis mabilis is morphologically closest to U. citri particularly in having relatively large median lobes that are sunken into the pygidium and are divergent but quite close together at their bases. However, U. mabilis has numerous perivulvar pores and macroducts and lacks the general slightly sclerotized nature of the anterior prosoma. (Lit & Barbecho, 2014) Unaspis mabilis resembles U. citri in possessing perivulvar pores and often having 60–70 pygidial macroducts. It differs from U. citri in having more than 18 perivulvar pores (no more than 8 in U. citri); a series of small gland spines, duct tubercles and ducts extending in from the margin on the venter of abdominal segment I and on the metathorax (both absent in U. citri); and the lateral lobes of the prepygidial abdominal segments becoming sclerotized with maturity (they remain membranous in mature U. citri). Unaspis mabilis also resembles U. pseudaesculus in possessing perivulvar pores in 5 groups; lacking gland spines on the mesothorax; and in having median lobes asymmetric and slightly to moderately divergent. It differs from U. pseudaesculus in having a series of small gland spines, duct tubercles and ducts extending inwards from the margin on the venter of abdominal segment I (they are confined to the margin in U. pseudaesculus), posterior spiracle with about the same number of spiracular pores as those by the anterior spiracle (fewer by the posterior spiracle than by the anterior spiracle in U. pseudaesculus), and the lateral lobes of the prepygidial abdominal segments becoming sclerotized with maturity (they remain membranous in mature U. pseudaesculus). (Watson, 2015)

  Phylogenetic analyses revealed that generated COI sequences from U. mabilis form a monophyletic clade with U. yanonensis and U. euonymi, with closer proximity to the former. These findings strengthen the species status of U. mabilis under the genus Unaspis. (Alvarez, et al., 2020)

• Structure: GenBank Accession Number MN114099, MN114100.1

  Scale of female dark gray with whitish border, elongate, somewhat mussel-shaped, with median longitudinal ridge, exuvia of earlier instars, light to dark brown, all at anterior tip of scale cover. Scale of males cottony white, at most a fifth the size of adult female scale. Mounted body of adult female fusiform, with free abdominal segments moderately lobed laterally; derm largely membranous at maturity, except for pygidial area. (Lit & Barbecho, 2014) Scale cover of immature male much smaller than that of adult female, white, felted, tricarinate, with yellow terminal exuviae. (Watson, 2015)

• Economic Importance: The species infesting lanzones trees in the Philippines has been called the lanzones “mussel scale” and was, in fact, referred to in initial pest bulletins as Lepidosaphes sp. (Lit & Barbecho, 2014) It seems likely that mass-rearing locally available Chilocorus beetles on a diet of Aspidiotus destructor (Signoret) reared on squash, has been successful in Mindanao, providing beetles for mass release (Anonymous, 2008). This has apparently reduced the scale infestations of lanzones orchards below the economic threshold. (Watson, 2015a)
• General Remarks: Detailed description and illustration in Lit & Barbecho, 2014. Detailed description and illustration in Watson, 2015a.

Illustrations

Citations