#coccidae

[every-day-creechur]

Yew Scale Parthenolecanium pomeranicum

A scale bug native to Europe which feeds by sucking sap from the foliage and stems of Taxus yew trees.

image by Michel Renou

[acarinarium]

While I'm still somewhat active, hey guys I got a macro lens for Christmas, look at my critters boy

[rattyexplores]

Small Starfish-like scale insects

I’m referring to the pointy ones, not the smooth round ones.

Unidentified, genus Ceroplastes

18/03/23

[reanimateobjects]

[drhoz]

#1840 - EDIT: Pulvinaria mesembryanthemi - Pulvinariella mesembryanthemi - Exotic Pigface Scale

EDIT: Now Pulvinaria mesembryanthemi    

Originally described as Coccus mesembryanthemi, and also known as Calypticus mesembryanthemi, Pulvinaria biplicata, Pulvinariella mesembryanthemi, and a remarkable number of mispellings of mesembryanthemi.

***

AKA Iceplant Scale Insect

Spotted growing on the Pigface (Carpobrotus sp.) growing right down at the end of Woodman Point, Perth. 

The actual insect is the brown thing - the rest is her cottony ovisac, which will contain hundreds of tiny crawlers when they hatch.

A Pulvinaria was a couch used by the Roman gods for religious rituals - presumably that’s related to the common name of cottony cushion scales. The species name refers to the preferred hostplants -  Mesembryanthemum is one genus of flowering plants in the family Aizoaceae, and a close relative of Carpobrotus. The scale insect probably arrived in Australia from its native range in southern Africa, but it’s also made it to many other parts of world, especially where the Iceplant was introduced as a highway planting. 

Other related scale insects also derive their binomials from their host plant -Pulvinaria dodonaeae is endemic to Australia and feeds on plants in the genus Dodonaea. Another introduced cottony soft scale found in Australia goes by the name of Pulvinaria hydrangeae.

[animalids]

Soft scale insect (Luzulaspis kinakikir)

Photo by H. Tanaka, D. Sasaki, and S. Kamitani

[nimalings]

#017: Scake

This is Scake ! Based on Scale insects and pancakes ==:)

These tiny bugs feed off of plants! by hugging stems and sucking all the sugars. This in turn makes them extremely sweet, so they're sought after by predators, unfortunately for them. Fortunately, Scake are VERY flat, and removing them from their host plant is virtually impossible, good for them! Another day for them to enjoy having a sweet tooth!

Here’s what they look like from the side!

[rattyexplores]

More Sooty Mold Makers

Ceroplastes rubens

01/06/22