| Conchaspididae | |
|---|---|
Scientific classification 
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| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Arthropoda |
| Class: | Insecta |
| Order: | Hemiptera |
| Suborder: | Sternorrhyncha |
| Superfamily: | Coccoidea |
| Family: | Conchaspididae Green, 1896 |
| Genera | |
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Conchaspididae is a small family of scale insects known as false armoured scales because of their resemblance to Diaspididae (but not incorporating exuviae on their body).
Description
Members of the family Conchaspididae secrete a waxy scale, in common with other scale insects, but the secreted scale does not include the exuviae.
Ecology
Five of the 30 species are parasites on palms, but none are considered pests. Conchaspis cordiae infests mahogany trees and has been accidentally introduced to Florida from the Caribbean, but does not appear to cause serious damage.
Taxonomic history
Carl Linnaeus described a single member of the family, now called Conchaspis capensis, in his Centuria Insectorum, but no further species were described until the 1890s. Eleven of the 29 species currently recognised were insects from Madagascar, described by Raymond Mamet. This probably reflects the sampling effort rather than a particular diversity of conchaspidid scale insects on Madagascar.
Conchaspididae was first recognised as a subfamily of the family Coccidae, but it was raised to the rank of family by Gordon Floyd Ferris in 1937.
References
- D. J. Williams (1992). "A new genus and species of Conchaspididae (Hemiptera: Coccoidea) from Florida, remarkable in lacking legs". Journal of Natural History. 26 (6): 1325–1331. doi:10.1080/00222939200770751.
- ^ John L. Capinera, ed. (2008). "West Indies Mahogany Scale, Conchaspis cordiae Mamet (Hemiptera, Conchaspididae)". Encyclopedia of Entomology, Volume 1. Gale virtual reference library (2nd ed.). Springer. pp. 2265–2266. ISBN 978-1-4020-6242-1.
- Gordon Floyd Ferris (1955). "Conchaspididae". Atlas of the Scale Insects of North America, Volume VII. Stanford University Press. pp. 66–68. ISBN 978-0-8047-1667-3.
- F. W. Howard; D. Moore; R. M. Giblin-Davis; R. G. Abad (2001). "Conchaspididae". Insects on palms. CABI Publishing Series. CAB International. p. 189. ISBN 978-0-85199-326-3.
- ^ Yair Ben-Dov (2006). "Conchaspididae". A systematic catalogue of eight scale insect families (Hemiptera: Coccoidea) of the world: Aclerdidae, Asterolecaniidae, Beesoniidae, Carayonemidae, Conchaspididae, Dactylopiidae, Kerriidae and Lecanodiaspididae. Elsevier. p. 183. ISBN 978-0-444-52836-0.
| Taxon identifiers | |
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| Conchaspididae | |
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