''Marchalina hellenica'' is a scale insect that lives in the eastern

Mediterranean The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western Europe, Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa ...

region, mainly in

Greece Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders ...

and

Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with a small portion on the Balkan Peninsula in ...

. It is an invasive species in

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...

, Australia. It lives by sucking the sap of

pine A pine is any conifer tree or shrub in the genus ''Pinus'' () of the family Pinaceae. ''Pinus'' is the sole genus in the subfamily Pinoideae. The World Flora Online created by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew and Missouri Botanical Garden accepts ...

trees, mainly the

Turkish Pine ''Pinus brutia'', commonly known as the Turkish pine, is a species of pine native to the eastern Mediterranean region. The bulk of its range is in Turkey. Turkish pine is also known by several other common names: Calabrian pine (from a naturalis ...

(''Pinus brutia'') and, to smaller extent, Aleppo Pine (''Pinus halepensis''),

Scots Pine ''Pinus sylvestris'', the Scots pine (UK), Scotch pine (US) or Baltic pine, is a species of tree in the pine family Pinaceae that is native to Eurasia. It can readily be identified by its combination of fairly short, blue-green leaves and orang ...

(''Pinus sylvestris'') and Stone Pine (''Pinus pinea''). It can be found in the cracks and under the scales of the bark of these trees, hidden under the white cotton-like wax it secretes. Its main form of reproduction is

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 developmen ...

. The honeydew it produces is an important source of food for forest

honey bee A honey bee (also spelled honeybee) is a eusocial flying insect within the genus ''Apis'' of the bee clade, all native to Afro-Eurasia. After bees spread naturally throughout Africa and Eurasia, humans became responsible for the current cosm ...

s, which produce pine honey. In Greece and Turkey, about 60% of the honey production is derived from it. It is the sole member of the genus ''Marchalina'', though some authors argue that ''M. caucasica'' which is currently considered a synonym of ''M. hellenica'' may be a distinct species.

References

External links

* Erlinghagen, F. (2001)
Portrait of an insect: ''Marchalina hellenica'' Genn. (Sternorrhyncha: Coccina: Margarodidae), important producer of honeydew in Greece
'' Apiacta'' 36: 131–137. * Margaritopoulos, J.T., Bacandritsos, N. & Pekas, A. N. (2003)
Genetic variation of ''Marchalina hellenica'' (Hemiptera: Margarodidae) sampled from different hosts and localities in Greece
''Bulletin of Entomological Research'' 93 (5 October): 447–453. {{Taxonbar, from=Q8580161 Margarodidae Hemiptera of Europe Insects described in 1883