Valid Names Results

Pseudotectococcus rolliniae Hodgson & Goncalves, 2004 (Eriococcidae: Pseudotectococcus)

Nomenclatural History

• Pseudotectococcus rolliniae Hodgson & Goncalves 2004: 58. Type data: BRAZIL. Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, Zoo. Holotype, female, male, and first instar, by original designation Type depository: Vienna: Naturhistorisches Museum Wien, Austria; accepted valid name
• Pseudotectococcus rollinae Hodgson & Goncalves, 2004; Pfeffer, et al. 2018: 439. misspelling of species epithet
• Pseudotectococccus rolliniae; de Melo Silva, et al. 2023: 2. misspelling of genus name

Common Names

Ecological Associates

Hosts:

Families: 1 | Genera: 1

Geographic Distribution

Keys

• Hodgso2020: pp.19-22 ( Adult (M) ) [Neococcoid higher taxa]

Remarks

• Systematics: Adult male P. rolliniae are rather similar to those of Calycicoccus merwei from South Africa., They both have (i) eight-segmented antennae; (ii) short, stout fleshy setae on the antennae and legs; (iii) fleshy setae on the abdomen; (iv) absence of a dorsal mid-cranial ridge, and (v) a pair of sclerotised longitudinal ridges on abdominal segment VIII. However, Pseudotectococcus has 2-segmented tarsi. (Hodgson, 2020)
• Biology: Pseudotectococccus rolliniae induces galls on stems and leaflets of Annona dolabripetala. This species of Eriococcidae in Brazil was found diapausing through the dry season in stem galls. (Gonçalves et al., 2009) In stem galls, the feeding activity of the nymph causes the cells around the insect’s body to differentiate into a lenticel-like gall, and, when the insect enters dormancy, the stimuli for gall differentiation stop. During the summer (wet season), the second-instar nymphs induce complex leaf galls with several layers of specialized tissues (Gonçalves et al. 2005). Female-induced galls are globoid, light green with two nymphal chambers, an outer and an inner chamber, divided by an intermediate ostiole with trichomes. Male-induced galls are conical, light green with one nymphal chamber. Regarding the secondary metabolites, the peculiar histolocalization of terpenoids in the female gall, besides the defensive functional trait, may act as sex pheromones, attracting the males to copulate with the sessile females. (de Melo Silva, et al., 2023)
• General Remarks: Full descriptions of the adult females and the adult male of P. rolliniae Hodgson & Gonçalves, are given in Hodgson et al. (2004) and Hodgson and Miller (2010) (where the figure is incorrectly labelled as P. anonae Hempel). Illustration and generic diagnosis, based on the adult male morphology of Pseudotectococcus rolliniae is found in Hodgson, 2020.

Illustrations

Citations