''Maconellicoccus hirsutus'', (also known as the pink, grape or hibiscus mealybug) is a pest of many plants, trees, and shrubs. It infests
hibiscus
''Hibiscus'' is a genus of flowering plants in the mallow family, Malvaceae. The genus is quite large, comprising several hundred species that are native to warm temperate, subtropical and tropical regions throughout the world. Member species ...
,
citrus
''Citrus'' is a genus of flowering plant, flowering trees and shrubs in the rue family, Rutaceae. Plants in the genus produce citrus fruits, including important crops such as Orange (fruit), oranges, Lemon, lemons, grapefruits, pomelos, and lim ...
,
coffee
Coffee is a drink prepared from roasted coffee beans. Darkly colored, bitter, and slightly acidic, coffee has a stimulant, stimulating effect on humans, primarily due to its caffeine content. It is the most popular hot drink in the world.
S ...
,
sugar cane
Sugarcane or sugar cane is a species of (often hybrid) tall, perennial grass (in the genus ''Saccharum'', tribe Andropogoneae) that is used for sugar production. The plants are 2–6 m (6–20 ft) tall with stout, jointed, fibrous stalks t ...
,
annona
''Annona'' (from Taíno ''annon'') is a genus of flowering plants in the pawpaw/sugar apple family, Annonaceae. It is the second largest genus in the family after ''Guatteria'', containing approximately 166 s,
plum
A plum is a fruit of some species in ''Prunus'' subg. ''Prunus'.'' Dried plums are called prunes.
History
Plums may have been one of the first fruits domesticated by humans. Three of the most abundantly cultivated species are not found i ...
s,
guava
Guava () is a common tropical fruit cultivated in many tropical and subtropical regions. The common guava ''Psidium guajava'' (lemon guava, apple guava) is a small tree in the myrtle family ( Myrtaceae), native to Mexico, Central America, the ...
,
mango
A mango is an edible stone fruit produced by the tropical tree ''Mangifera indica''. It is believed to have originated in the region between northwestern Myanmar, Bangladesh, and northeastern India. ''M. indica'' has been cultivated in South a ...
(although,
mango mealybug
Mango mealybug (''Drosicha mangiferae''), is a pest of mango crops in Asia. The nymphs and females suck plant sap from inflorescences, tender leaves, shoots and fruit peduncles.Allahdin GrouMango pests: Mango mealy bug/ref> As a result, the infes ...
is more problematic),
okra
Okra or Okro (, ), ''Abelmoschus esculentus'', known in many English-speaking countries as ladies' fingers or ochro, is a flowering plant in the mallow family. It has edible green seed pods. The geographical origin of okra is disputed, with su ...
,
sorrel
Sorrel (''Rumex acetosa''), also called common sorrel or garden sorrel, is a perennial herbaceous plant in the family Polygonaceae. Other names for sorrel include spinach dock and narrow-leaved dock ('dock' being a common name for the genus '' ...
,
teak
Teak (''Tectona grandis'') is a tropical hardwood tree species in the family Lamiaceae. It is a large, deciduous tree that occurs in mixed hardwood forests. ''Tectona grandis'' has small, fragrant white flowers arranged in dense clusters (panicl ...
, mora,
pigeon pea
The pigeon pea (''Cajanus cajan'') is a perennial legume from the family Fabaceae native to the Old World. The pigeon pea is widely cultivated in tropical and semitropical regions around the world, being commonly consumed in South Asia, Southeas ...
,
peanut
The peanut (''Arachis hypogaea''), also known as the groundnut, goober (US), pindar (US) or monkey nut (UK), is a legume crop grown mainly for its edible Seed, seeds. It is widely grown in the tropics and subtropics, important to both small ...
,
grape
A grape is a fruit, botanically a berry, of the deciduous woody vines of the flowering plant genus ''Vitis''. Grapes are a non- climacteric type of fruit, generally occurring in clusters.
The cultivation of grapes began perhaps 8,000 years ago, ...
vine,
maize
Maize ( ; ''Zea mays'' subsp. ''mays'', from es, maíz after tnq, mahiz), also known as corn (North American and Australian English), is a cereal grain first domesticated by indigenous peoples in southern Mexico about 10,000 years ago. Th ...
,
asparagus
Asparagus, or garden asparagus, folk name sparrow grass, scientific name ''Asparagus officinalis'', is a perennial flowering plant species in the genus ''Asparagus''. Its young shoots are used as a spring vegetable.
It was once classified in ...
,
chrysanthemum
Chrysanthemums (), sometimes called mums or chrysanths, are flowering plants of the genus ''Chrysanthemum'' in the family Asteraceae. They are native to East Asia and northeastern Europe. Most species originate from East Asia and the center ...
,
bean
A bean is the seed of several plants in the family Fabaceae, which are used as vegetables for human or animal food. They can be cooked in many different ways, including boiling, frying, and baking, and are used in many traditional dishes th ...
s,
cotton
Cotton is a soft, fluffy staple fiber that grows in a boll, or protective case, around the seeds of the cotton plants of the genus ''Gossypium'' in the mallow family Malvaceae. The fiber is almost pure cellulose, and can contain minor perce ...
,
soybean
The soybean, soy bean, or soya bean (''Glycine max'') is a species of legume native to East Asia, widely grown for its edible bean, which has numerous uses.
Traditional unfermented food uses of soybeans include soy milk, from which tofu an ...
,
cocoa
Cocoa may refer to:
Chocolate
* Chocolate
* ''Theobroma cacao'', the cocoa tree
* Cocoa bean, seed of ''Theobroma cacao''
* Chocolate liquor, or cocoa liquor, pure, liquid chocolate extracted from the cocoa bean, including both cocoa butter and ...
, and many other plants. The pest forms colonies on the host plant, and if left undisturbed, the colonies will grow into large masses of white waxy coverings on branches, fruiting structures, leaves, and even whole plants, including large trees.
Lifecycle
Both female and male adult hibiscus mealybugs are about one-eighth inch (3 mm) long. Female bodies are pink in color with a white waxy covering. They are wingless and appear as ovoid shapes covered by a mass of white mealy wax. Males have a pair of wings and two long waxy tails and are capable of flight.
The mature female lays eggs in an egg sack of white wax, usually in clusters on the twigs, branches, and bark of the host plant, and also on the plant's leaves and terminal ends. Eggs are initially orange in color but turn pink on maturity. Egg development takes between 3 and 9 days. Eggs are minute, varying from 0.3 to 0.4 mm in length and number as many as 654 eggs per sack. In its egg stage, the hibiscus mealybug disperses most easily by wind. The wax, which sticks to each egg, also facilitates passive transport by animals or man. Reproduction may occur by means of
parthenogenesis
Parthenogenesis (; from the Greek grc, παρθένος, translit=parthénos, lit=virgin, label=none + grc, γένεσις, translit=génesis, lit=creation, label=none) is a natural form of asexual reproduction in which growth and development ...
in the absence of the male.
Newly hatched nymphs are called crawlers and are very mobile. They may disperse over the host, especially toward tender growing parts, or be carried away by wind, man, or animals. The nymphal stages appear much like the female in form, but the female nymphs have three instars, while male nymphs have four instars. The last
instar
An instar (, from the Latin '' īnstar'', "form", "likeness") is a developmental stage of arthropods, such as insects, between each moult (''ecdysis''), until sexual maturity is reached. Arthropods must shed the exoskeleton in order to grow or ass ...
of the male is an inactive stage with wing buds within a cocoon of mealy wax. The nymphal stages may last for as long as 30 days. The hibiscus mealybug can complete its entire life cycle in 23 to 30 days. Under optimum laboratory conditions, there can be as many as 15 generations a year.
Effects and distribution
As it feeds, the hibiscus mealybug injects into the plant a toxic saliva that results in malformed leaf and shoot growth, stunting, and occasional death. Leaves show a characteristic curling, similar to damage caused by viruses. Heavily infested plants have shortened internodes leading to resetting or a "bunchy top" appearance. A heavy, black, sooty mold may develop on an infested plant's leaves and stems as a result of the mealybug's heavy honey-dew secretions. When fruits are infested, they can be entirely covered with the white waxy coating of the mealybug. Infestation can lead to fruit drop, or fruit may remain on the host in a dried and shriveled condition. If flower blossoms are attacked, the fruit sets poorly. In plants such as peanuts, potatoes, and some grasses, the pest has been reported to attack the root systems.
This pest occurs in most tropical areas of the world, including
Asia
Asia (, ) is one of the world's most notable geographical regions, which is either considered a continent in its own right or a subcontinent of Eurasia, which shares the continental landmass of Afro-Eurasia with Africa. Asia covers an area ...
, the
Middle East
The Middle East ( ar, الشرق الأوسط, ISO 233: ) is a geopolitical region commonly encompassing Arabian Peninsula, Arabia (including the Arabian Peninsula and Bahrain), Anatolia, Asia Minor (Asian part of Turkey except Hatay Pro ...
,
Africa
Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...
,
Australia
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...
, and
Oceania
Oceania (, , ) is a region, geographical region that includes Australasia, Melanesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia. Spanning the Eastern Hemisphere, Eastern and Western Hemisphere, Western hemispheres, Oceania is estimated to have a land area of ...
. The hibiscus mealybug arrived in
Egypt
Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediter ...
from
India
India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...
in 1912 and in
Hawaii
Hawaii ( ; haw, Hawaii or ) is a state in the Western United States, located in the Pacific Ocean about from the U.S. mainland. It is the only U.S. state outside North America, the only state that is an archipelago, and the only stat ...
in 1984. Finally, it appeared in
Grenada
Grenada ( ; Grenadian Creole French: ) is an island country in the West Indies in the Caribbean Sea at the southern end of the Grenadines island chain. Grenada consists of the island of Grenada itself, two smaller islands, Carriacou and Pe ...
,
Trinidad
Trinidad is the larger and more populous of the two major islands of Trinidad and Tobago. The island lies off the northeastern coast of Venezuela and sits on the continental shelf of South America. It is often referred to as the southernmos ...
, and
St. Kitts in the 1990s. It is a very serious pest in the
Caribbean
The Caribbean (, ) ( es, El Caribe; french: la Caraïbe; ht, Karayib; nl, De Caraïben) is a region of the Americas that consists of the Caribbean Sea, its islands (some surrounded by the Caribbean Sea and some bordering both the Caribbean Se ...
where it attacks many hosts of economic importance and disrupts Caribbean agricultural trade and commerce. Wingless crawlers, nymphs, and females have been known to travel short distances over the ground to get to other host plants in adjoining fields. Agricultural commerce is also responsible for the pest's spread.
The species had spread to California, Mexico, Central America and to Florida in 2002. The adult female mealybug produces a blend of two compounds that function as a female sex pheromone, highly attractive to males.
[Serrano, M.S., S.L. Lapointe and D.E. Meyerdirk. 2001. Attraction of male pink hibiscus mealybug (Hemiptera: Pseudococcidae) by virgin females. Environ. Entomol. 30(2):339-345] The pheromone can be used to trap males or to indicate the presence of a population of pink hibiscus mealybugs in the field.
References
* APHIS. 1996
The Hibiscus or Pink Mealybug
External links
on the
UF /
IFAS Featured Creatures Web site
Species Profile- Pink Hibiscus Mealybug (''Maconellicoccus hirsutus'') National Invasive Species Information Center,
United States National Agricultural Library
The United States National Agricultural Library (NAL) is one of the world's largest agricultural research libraries, and serves as a national library of the United States and as the library of the United States Department of Agriculture. Located ...
. Lists general information and resources for Pink Hibiscus Mealybug.
{{Taxonbar, from=Q6724900
Pseudococcidae
Grape pest insects
Insects described in 1908