Insignorthezia insignis (Browne)

Family

Ortheziidae

Common name

Greenhouse orthezia

Field characters

Body oval or round, dark brown or dark green, legs reddish brown; white wax plates forming marginal and medial longitudinal lines leaving conspicuous bare areas in between; 10 marginal processes shortest on head, increasing in length posteriorly, resting on ovisac posteriorly; 10 or 11 medial plates, curved and arranged in 2 longitudinal lines. Ovisac produced from ventral abdomen carried by female, not attached to host, approximately twice as long as female, ribbed, curved upward. Immatures are same color as adult. Eggs are laid inside ovisac. Males rare or absent. Occurring primarily on the leaves and stems of host.

Validation characters

Head with narrow longitudinal sclerotization medially; wax plates on dorsum arranged in small clusters forming 2 submedial lines of setae with clusters on margins encompassing most of body margin, large bare areas between submedial and marginal wax plates. Other characters: Ovisac band wide, without rows of spines within ovisac band; antennae usually 8-segmented; 7 pairs of abdominal spiracles.

Comparison

Insignorthezia insignis is similar to I. pseudinsignis Morrison by having similar arrangements of wax plates, wide ovisac band, no rows of spines encompassed by ovisac band, 7 pairs of spiracular setae. Insignorthezia insignis differs by having narrow longitudinal sclerotization medially on head (I. pseudinsignis has broad transverse sclerotization on head and thorax).

U.S. quarantine notes

This species was intercepted 178 times on a variety of hosts at U. S. ports-of-entry between 1995 and 2012, with specimens originating from Antigua and Barbuda, Bahamas, Cameroon, Cayman Islands, Colombia, Congo, Costa Rica, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Ethiopia, Grenada, Guatemala, Haiti, India, Jamaica, Mexico, Morocco, Nigeria, Peru, Puerto Rico, Sri Lanka, St. Kitts and Nevis, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago and The U.S. Virgin Islands. We also have examined specimens taken in quarantine from Antigua (Camellia); Azores (Artemisia, Mentha, Thuja); Bahamas (Ipomoea, Verbena); Barbados (Coleus); Belize (unknown plant); Bermuda (Bryophyllum, Campsis, Codiaeum, Coleus, Duranta, Jatropha, Nerium); Brazil (Begonia, Hygrophila, Pelargonium); Costa Rica (Nerium); British West Indies (Camellia); Cuba (Epipremnum, Mentha); Dominican Republic (Citrus, Mentha); Dominica (Coleus); Ecuador (Micromeria); El Salvador (Coleus, Crotalaria, Fernaldia, Lantana); Greece (Coleus); Guatemala (Fernaldia); Haiti (Mentha, Zinnia); Honduras (Begonia, Ocimum); Jamaica (Amaranthus, Coleus, Heliconia, Mentha, Mormodica, Origanum, Thymus); Jordan (Salvia); Mexico (Coleus, Fernaldia, Gardenia, Gladiola, Mentha, Tillandsia); Peru (Pelargonium); The Philippines (Annona); Portugal (unknown plant); Puerto Rico (Ambrosia, Coleus, Hedeoma, Mentha, Trifolium); Sri Lanka (Clerodendron); Trinidad (Coleus). ScaleNet includes hosts in over 40 plant families; it occurs in all zoogeographic regions. One species of Insignorthezia other than I. insignis and I. pseudinsignis (Morrison) has been intercepted at a U. S. port-of-entry, Insignorthezia cacticola (Morrison) (Mexico, on cactus).

Important references

Ezzat1956b; Gill1993; Kozar2004; Morris1925; Morris1952; WilliaWa1990.

Scalenet catalog and citation list

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