Valid Names Results

Ceroplastes bipartitus Newstead, 1917 (Coccidae: Ceroplastes)

Nomenclatural History

• Ceroplastes bipartitus Newstead 1917a: 25. Type data: SOUTH AFRICA: Locality and host plant of type material not indicated.. Syntypes, female, Type depository: London: The Natural History Museum, England, UK; accepted valid name Notes: Lectotype (designated in Hodgson & Peronti, 2012): South Africa, left label: Dept. Agric. Mauritius; right label: Ceroplastes / bipartitus / Newstead / Cotype female With regard to the label “Department of Agriculture, Mauritius” on the lectotype specimens, it is believed (D.J. Williams, pers. comm.) that d'Emmerez de Charmoy either worked or collected in South Africa before becoming Director of the Department of Agriculture in Mauritius and that he took these specimens (and others) to Mauritius with him and then sent them to Newstead from there. Williams considers that Newstead would have written Mauritius on his slides (as he often did), referring to the sender rather than the original collecting site.
• Gascardia bipartita (Newstead, 1917); De Lotto 1965a: 195. change of combination
• Ceroplastes bipartitus Newstead, 1917; Hodgson, Williams & Giliomee 2009: 103. revived combination (previously published)

Common Names

Ecological Associates

Hosts:

Families: 6 | Genera: 5

Geographic Distribution

Keys

• HodgsoPe2012: pp.64-65 ( Adult (F) ) [Key to adult females in the C. longicauda-group.]
• HodgsoWiGi2009: pp.102-104 ( Adult (F) ) [Ceroplastes species of South Africa]

Remarks

• Systematics: Ceroplastes bipartitus is very similar to C. jos, but differs (characterstates of C. jos in brackets): (i) ventral tubular ducts very sparse, possibly even absent on some specimens and not present medially on abdomen (tubular ducts frequent and present medially on abdomen); (ii) loculate microducts mainly with 2 satellite loculi, those with 4 satellite loculi rare or absent (mainly 3 satellite loculi, pores with 4 satellite loculi present but scarce, those with 2 satellite loculi infrequent); (iii) with generally more than 30 stigmatic setae in each cleft, and each group about as wide as long (about 25 or fewer stigmatic setae in a group and each group much wider than long); (iv) dorsal setae about 2x longer than width of basal socket and sharply pointed (subequal to or only slightly longer than width of basal socket, and bluntly pointed), and (v) claw denticle obscure at most (present). C. bipartitus is also close to C. longicauda, differing mainly in having a much shorter caudal process. Qin and Gullan (1995), in their morphological cladistic analysis of the wax scale insects, found only 1 difference in the character-states they scored for C. bipartitus and C. longicauda, and it is possible that C. longicauda is a synonym of C. bipartitus, with C. longicauda representing a more mature adult female where the sclerotisation of the caudal process has expanded more than on C. bipartitus, or that host plant or environmentaleffects have modified the degree of extension of the caudal process. Too little material is available to determine whether this is likely. (Hodgson & Peronti, 2012)
• Structure: "Female test. Colour, in dried specimens, very like pale dirty beeswax. In the young adults the test is broadly oval, somewhat hemispherical and divided into nine plates: 3 bilateral, 1 cephalic, 1 anal and 1 dorsal, the last named with a conspicuous dark brown or blackish, oval spot, with a central elongated patch of pure white wax; the nuclear spots to the lateral plates are smaller and generally much less conspicuous than the dorsal one. Margin over the stigmatic areas with a pair of laterally compressed and somewhat disc-shaped extensions, each extension carrying on its edge a narrow strip of opaque white wax, the tip of which sometimes reaches the dark nuclear spot of the lateral thoracic plate. (Hodgson & Peronti, 2012)
• General Remarks: Detailed description and illustration in Hodgson & Peronti, 2012)

Illustrations

Citations