Carayonemidae is a family of
scale insects commonly known as carayonemids. They typically live among
mosses and
leaf litter
Plant litter (also leaf litter, tree litter, soil litter, litterfall or duff) is dead plant material (such as leaves, bark, needles, twigs, and cladodes) that have fallen to the ground. This detritus or dead organic material and its constituent ...
which is unusual for scale insects. Members of this family come from
Neotropical
The Neotropical realm is one of the eight biogeographic realms constituting Earth's land surface. Physically, it includes the tropical terrestrial ecoregions of the Americas and the entire South American temperate zone.
Definition
In bioge ...
areas of
South and
Central America
Central America ( es, América Central or ) is a subregion of the Americas. Its boundaries are defined as bordering the United States to the north, Colombia to the south, the Caribbean Sea to the east, and the Pacific Ocean to the west. ...
.
[UDSA Agricultural Research Service]
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Life cycle
Very little is known about this family, but in one species, the female scale has four 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 ...
s.[
]
Genera
There are four genera, each with a single known species:
* '' Baloghicoccus costaricaensis''
* '' Carayonema orousseti''
* '' Foldicoccus monikae''
* '' Mahunkacoccus mexicoensis''
''Foldicoccus monikae'' is flattened and leaf-shaped and the adult has six legs and a pair of antennae.
References
Scale insects
Hemiptera families
Neococcoids
{{Coccoidea-stub