A New Exotic Pest for Florida's Natural Areas: Crypticerya genistae (Hemiptera: Monophlebidae)

Abstract

We report for the first time the presence in Florida and the Continental United States of Crypticerya genistae (Hempel) (Hemiptera: Monophlebidae) (Figs. 1 and 2), an invasive scale insect native to Brazil. Crypticerya genistae was described by Hempel (1912) (as leery a genistae) from specimens collected on Genista scoparia (L.) Lam., Lespedeza striata (Thunb.) Hook. & Arn., and Fragaria L. species from Brazil. There is very little information available on the biology of this insect. It is reported as a pest of vegetable crops including peppers, tomatoes, eggplants and pea nuts (Barbados Ministry of Agriculture (http:// barbados.gov.bb). On Jul 7,2005 USDA-APHIS-PPQ port inspec tors Margarita Lahens and Heather Hursh made the first U.S. collection of C. genistae on a Sesba nia species at Port Everglades in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. The species was officially determined to be I. genistae in Aug 2006 by Cory Unruh and Dr. Penny Gullan by comparing specimens from Flor ida with type specimens of Icerya genistae bor rowed from Brazil. The taxon was moved from Ic erya to Crypticerya in 2007 by Unruh & Gullan (2007) in a revision of the generic classification of the Monophlebidae. This species is not repre sented in Morrison's key (1928) to the Margar odidae. Based on Morrison's key, the species keyed out between Icerya rileyi Cockerell and