Stictococcidae is a family of
scale insect
Scale insects are small insects of the order Hemiptera, suborder Sternorrhyncha. Of dramatically variable appearance and extreme sexual dimorphism, they comprise the infraorder Coccomorpha which is considered a more convenient grouping than the ...
s commonly known as stictococcids. There are three
genera
Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial nomenclat ...
containing about seventeen
species
In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...
and members of this family are found only in
Afrotropical
The Afrotropical realm is one of Earth's eight biogeographic realms. It includes Africa south of the Sahara Desert, the majority of the Arabian Peninsula, the island of Madagascar, southern Iran and extreme southwestern Pakistan, and the island ...
regions.
[UDSA Agricultural Research Service]
Hosts
Members of this family have been recorded on thirty-eight different plant families, including various agricultural crops, but are most common on plants in the families,
Annonaceae
The Annonaceae are a Family (biology), family of flowering plants consisting of trees, shrubs, or rarely lianas commonly known as the custard apple family or soursop family. With 108 accepted genera and about 2400 known species, it is the largest ...
,
Euphorbiaceae
Euphorbiaceae, the spurge family, is a large family of flowering plants. In English, they are also commonly called euphorbias, which is also the name of a genus in the family. Most spurges, such as ''Euphorbia paralias'', are herbs, but some, e ...
,
and
Sterculiaceae Sterculiaceae was a family of flowering plant based on the genus ''Sterculia''. Genera formerly included in Sterculiaceae are now placed in the family Malvaceae, in the subfamilies: Byttnerioideae, Dombeyoideae, Helicteroideae and Sterculioideae.
A ...
.
[
]
Description
Adult female stictococcids are similar in appearance to soft scales in the family Coccidae
The Coccidae are a family of scale insects belonging to the superfamily Coccoidea. They are commonly known as soft scales, wax scales or tortoise scales. The females are flat with elongated oval bodies and a smooth integument which may be cover ...
. They are nearly circular, flattened dorsally and have turned up margins. The segments are conspicuous, particularly near the rim. There are small, pale coloured legs and antennae on the underside. The body is covered in seta
In biology, setae (singular seta ; from the Latin word for "bristle") are any of a number of different bristle- or hair-like structures on living organisms.
Animal setae
Protostomes
Annelid setae are stiff bristles present on the body. Th ...
e which are longer at the periphery.[
]
Life cycle
Stictococcids have three female 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 ...
s and five male instars. The first instars are sexually dimorphic, with the females having the anus
The anus (Latin, 'ring' or 'circle') is an opening at the opposite end of an animal's digestive tract from the mouth. Its function is to control the expulsion of feces, the residual semi-solid waste that remains after food digestion, which, d ...
in the center of the body and having well-developed mouthparts, whereas the males have the anus near the posterior end of the body and have no mouthparts.[Richard, C. 1971. ''Contribution à l'étude morphologique et biologique des Stictococcinae (Hom. Coccoidea).'' (In French). ]Annales de la Société Entomologique de France
Annals are a concise form of historical writing which record events chronologically, year by year. The equivalent word in Latin and French is ''annales'', which is used untranslated in English in various contexts.
List of works with titles contai ...
7: 571-609 Most species are associated with ant
Ants are eusocial insects of the family Formicidae and, along with the related wasps and bees, belong to the order Hymenoptera. Ants evolved from vespoid wasp ancestors in the Cretaceous period. More than 13,800 of an estimated total of 22 ...
s who feed on the honeydew they produce.[
]
Genera
* '' Hockiana''
* '' Parastictococcus''
* '' Stictococcus''
References
Scale insects
Hemiptera families
Neococcoids
{{Coccoidea-stub