Lumps, bumps and weird cottony fluff on your plants are more than just some strange coincidence, they’re probably soft scale insects! Scale range in size from one to five millimeters and, in certain life stages, can be difficult to see without magnification. Their phylogeny within that group, inferred from analysis of small subunit (18S) ribosomal RNA, is shown in the first cladogram. A cladogram showing the major families using this methodology is shown below. In some species, sexual and asexual populations are found in different locations, and in general, species with a wide geographic range and a diversity of plant hosts are more likely to be asexual. Ants will protect brown soft scale from parasitism and predation because they feed on the honeydew that soft scales produce. There are about 8,000 described species. On these, males often feed on the leaves, usually beside the veins, while females select the twigs. The brown soft scale is an exception; it has multiple generations and females and nymphs can be present throughout the year. Scale insects feed on leaves or branches of many ornamental plants grown in landscapes and nurseries. The adult possesses an ovotestis, consisting of both female and male reproductive tissue, and sperm is transmitted to the young for their future use. Fern infested with scale. Volume 7, Part B, Pages 3-442 (1997) Download full volume. It has spread worldwide from Australia.[21][22]. To do this they usually walk, as their ability to fly is limited, but they may get carried to new locations by the wind. Actions for selected chapters. The soft scale insects of Florida (Homoptera: Coccoidea: Coccidae) (Arthropods of … [13] Some ants and scale insects have a mutualistic relationship; the ants feed on the honeydew and in return protect the scales. Adult females typically have soft bodies and no limbs, and are concealed underneath domed scales, extruding quantities of wax for protection. Otherwise, the ants will rush in to save the soft scale insects and move as many as possible to a new, safe location. Soft scale damages the plant by sucking sap from the plant. It … Armored scales have a hard, shield-like cover composed of shed skins and wax that conceals the body but is not attached to the body of the insect. [2] This provides a means for the mealybug to be dispersed widely. [2] Another species of ant maintains a herd of scale insects inside the hollow stems of a Barteria tree; the scale insects feed on the sap and the ants, while benefiting from the honeydew, drive away other herbivorous insects from the tree as well as preventing vines from smothering it. Soft scale insects excrete a large amount of sugary and sticky substance, which adheres on the host plant. The insects suck the juice from plants. Soft scale damages the plant by sucking sap from the plant. Of dramatically variable appearance and extreme sexual dimorphism, they comprise the superfamilyCoccoidea. Most common is white wax scale, seen as large patches of white waxy material along the stems and shoots. Scale insects A difficult problem that can be managed Background Scale insects refer to a large group of insects within the super family Coccoidea. Generally, soft scale insects infesting interior plantscapes have been treated with sprays of dormant or summer oils which work primarily by smothering the insect. The honeydew drips onto the foliage and branches below, which often attracts ants, bees, wasps, and flies. Honeydew may make the plant appear shiny and wet and also attracts flies, ants, bees, and other insect scavengers. The diversity of systems has made scale insects ideal models for research. It is found near the midribs of leaves and on stems. In either case, many such species of crawlers, when they moult, lose the use of their legs if they are female, and stay put for life. The majority of female scale insects remain in one place as adults, with newly hatched nymphs, known as "crawlers", being the only mobile life stage, apart from the short-lived males. They appear as raised bumps on leaves and stems, vary in color and can be scraped off. Soft scales such as brown soft scale and the hemispherical scale are common pests of indoor plants. Avoiding toxic pesticides and creating the right environment for beneficial insect to thrive are important to good scale management. Soft Bugs Order Hemiptera, Suborder Sternorrhyncha This page contains pictures and information about Soft Bugs (Suborder Sternorrhyncha) that we found in the Brisbane area, Queensland, Australia.This soft body bugs suborder includes jumping plant lice, lerp insects, aphids, mealy bugs and scale insects. Soft scale feed directly from the vascular systems of host plants, which can quickly result in a plant that looks like it’s not feeling so hot. In some species the hind wings have hamuli, hooklets, that couple the hind wings to the main wings, as in the Hymenoptera. This catalogue lists 162 genera comprising 1090 species and subspecies which have been described since Linnaeus (1758) until the cutoff date of December 1991. While some specialise on a single plant species (monophagous), and some on a single genus or plant family (oligophagous), others are less specialised and feed on several plant groups (polyphagous). Sign up to get all the latest gardening tips! Scale insects Hard and soft scales Background Scale insects refer to a large group of sucking insects from the order Hemiptera, which includes such groups as aphids, psyllids, stink bugs, shield bugs, whiteflies, pirate bugs and other groups. Severely infested trees look like they are covered with a string of popcorn. Please check this page for more infromation. In the case of hard scale insects, they have a hard and detachable shell that acts as their covering or armor. Soft scales also tend to be larger and to have [18] In 1990, they caused around $5 billion of damage to crops in the United States. [29], Some waxy scale species in the genera Ceroplastes and Ericerus produce materials such as Chinese wax,[30] and several genera of lac scales produce shellac. In order to make up for the shortage of essential amino acids, they depend on endosymbiotic proteobacteria. In Parthenolecanium, males are born from unfertilized eggs but diploidy is briefly restored by fusion of haploid cleave nuclei and then one sex chromosome is lost through heterochromatinization. Soft Scale Insects - Ebook written by Yair Ben-Dov, Chris J. Hodgson. [2], The group is extremely sexually dimorphic; female scale insects, unusually for Hemiptera, retain the immature external morphology even when sexually mature, a condition known as neoteny. The mouthparts are adapted for piercing and sucking. If you’re seeing ants in the same plant as the scale bugs, you’ll have to get the ants under control at the same time that you treat the invaders. Some, such as the cochineal, kermes, lac, Armenian cochineal, and Polish cochineal, have been used to produce red dyes for coloring foods and dyeing fabrics. Contents. [2], Many scale species are serious crop pests. In addition, the lady beetles Rhyzobius (Lindorus) lophanthae, Chilocorus orbus, and C. cacti prey on brown soft scales. The average length is 1/8 inch. Identification of the scale is important as it may aid in better control. Sign up for our newsletter. In contrast, soft scale females retain their legs. These scale insects often produce copious amounts of honeydew. They are usually found on many crops, but have a slight preference for citrus. [6], Scale insects are an ancient group, having originated in the Cretaceous, the period in which angiosperms came to dominance among plants, with only a few groups species found on gymnosperms. [2], In species with winged males, generally only the forewings are fully functional. Scale insects appeared in the Triassic, before their modern food plants, the angiosperms, had evolved; early forms probably fed on gymnosperms. [4], Female scale insects in more advanced families develop from the egg through a first instar (crawler) stage and a second instar stage before becoming adult. Honeydew may make the plant appear shiny and wet and also attracts flies, ants, bees, and other insect scavengers. Scale insects are usually divided into two groups: soft scale, and hard or armored scale. During feeding by soft scale species, excess plant sap is excreted as a sweet, sticky material called honeydew. Some species have certain habitat requirements; some Ortheziidae occur in damp meadows, among mosses and in woodland soil, and the boreal ensign scale (Newsteadia floccosa) inhabits plant litter. Recognition of scale insect families has fluctuated over time, and the validity of many remains in flux,[35][36] with several recognized families not included in the phylogeny presented above: Families known only from fossils are Albicoccidae, Burmacoccidae, Arnoldidae, Electrococcidae, Grimaldiellidae, Grohnidae, Hammanococcidae, Inkaidae, Jersicoccidae, Kukaspididae, Labiococcidae, Lebanococcidae, Lithuanicoccidae, Macrodrilidae,[37] Pennygullaniidae, Serafinidae and Weitschatidae.[38][39]. Insecticidal soap may also be used against scales. Adult females typically have soft bodies and no limbs, and are concealed underneath domed scales, extruding quantities of wax for protection. This is unusual among insects; it most closely resembles the situation in the true flies, the Diptera. Males, in the species where they occur, have legs and sometimes wings, and resemble small flies. Soft scale insects of Florida (Homoptera: Coccoidea: Coccidae) Gainesville, Fla. (P.O. Common Name: Brown soft scale, lecanium scale Scientific Name: Coccus hesperidum Linnaeus, Lecanium sp. Legs are absent in the females of some families, and when present vary from single segment stubs to five-segmented limbs. In addition to this there is also true haplodiploidy with females born from fertilized eggs and males from unfertilized eggs. Honeydew is a mixture of undigested sugar and water passed through the insect's digestive system and deposited onto leaves and stems. The tiny parasitic wasp Anagyrus lopezi, a highly effective biological control of the cassava mealybug, At the same time, some kinds of scale insects are themselves useful as biological control agents for pest plants, such as various species of cochineal insects that attack invasive species of prickly pear, which spread widely especially in Australia and Africa. [7] Edited by Yair Ben-Dov, Chris J. Hodgson. The ladybird Cryptolaemus montrouzieri is known as the "mealybug destroyer" because both adults and larvae feed on mealybugs and some soft scales.   Male soft scale appears grayish to white and can look similar to mealybugs. Where there are several generations in the year, there may be a general retreat onto the twigs as fall approaches. Others produce commercially valuable substances including carmine and kermes dyes, and shellac lacquer. There are more than 20 families of scale insects world-wide including hard or armoured scales (family Diaspididae), soft scale … They are such oddly shaped and immobile pests that they often resemble shell-like bumps rather than insects. This key was built to help identify pest soft scale insects (Coccidae). The insects often have a mutualistic relationship with ants, which feed on the honeydew and protect them from predators. Honeydew, the sticky, sweet secretion that soft scales exude, is a favorite food of some species of ants. Baiting and applying a sticky barrier to affected plants will rid you of the ants, making it easier to control the scale. This elimination is achieved with several variations. O'Connor, J.P., Gertsson, C-A. Download PDFs Export citations. [8] Several other monophagous scale insects, especially those on islands, are threatened by coextinction due to threats faced by their host plants. 1) Azalea bark scale, Eriococcus azalea A scale infestation is indicated by sooty mold on leaves, yellowing of leaves, and twig dieback. The body shape is frequently round or broadly oval but some are elongate, especially grass infesting species; they can be nearly flat or highly convex in lateral view.Wax coverings are thin and transparent, filamentous or powdery, thick and opaque, or even thin and glassy. Next volume. Some species are hermaphroditic, with a combined ovotestis instead of separate ovaries and testes. The scale's activities can result in stress for the plant, causing reduced growth and giving it a greater susceptibility to plant diseases. Species of Hippeococcus have long clinging legs with claws to grip the Dolichoderus ants which tend them; they allow themselves to be carried into the ant colony. [2], Scale insects show a very wide range of variations in the genetics of sex determination and the modes of reproduction. Destroying soft scale is a relatively easy process, except for those ants. Besides sexual reproduction, a number of different forms of reproductive systems are employed, including asexual reproduction by parthenogenesis. The appearance of scale insects will vary depending on their specific type. Soft scale insects small and covered with a waxy-like unseparated layer of secretion. Box 1269, Gainesville 32602) : Florida Dept. [19] It has a strongly convex and irregular in shape. Soft scale is covered with a protective waxy substance and is somewhat easier to kill than hard/armored scale. Female scale insects have no compound eyes, but ocelli (simple eyes) are sometimes present in Margarodidae, Ortheziidae and Phenacoleachiidae. Soft scale (for example pink wax scale and soft brown scale) are usually found on the mid-rib of leaves and stalks of host plants. The goal of this page is to present information common to many scale species and help identify common scales. This key was built to help identify pest soft scale insects (Coccidae). In some Diaspididae and Pseudococcidae, both sexes are produced from fertilized eggs but during development males eliminate the paternal genome and this system called paternal genome elimination (PGE) is found in nearly 14 scale insect families. [23][24], Some types of scale insect are economically valuable for the substances they can yield under proper husbandry. soft scale insects Habitats. You can find a fascinating description of the process through the Ask A Biologist page of Arizona State University at this website. On a tulip tree, ants have been observed building a papery tent over the scales. Of dramatically variable appearance and extreme sexual dimorphism, they comprise the superfamily Coccoidea. These are the young scale insects and they can travel around on the plant and like the adults, feed off of it like an aphid would. Finally, ants farm soft scale insects. [3], Hermaphroditism is very rare in insects, but several species of Icerya exhibit an unusual form. Select all / Deselect all. They became widespread and common in the Cretaceous, and are well represented in the fossil record, usually preserved in amber where they are sometimes associated with ants. Female soft scale insects search for feeding spots on plant parts, including foliage, twigs, and fruits. They come in a range of colors and sizes, but they all result in the same kinds of problems. The environments in which many soft scale insects species are known to live. Scale insects are small insects of the order Hemiptera, suborder Sternorrhyncha. Soft scales are sucking insects that attack a wide variety of plants. A complex of Metaphycus spp. All the families were monophyletic except for the Eriococcidae. See more ideas about scale insects, garden pests, garden pest control. Their closest relatives are the jumping plant lice, whiteflies, phylloxera bugs and aphids. The scale is heavily parasitized by several different species of parasitic wasps. In more primitive families there is an additional instar stage. Those ants will protect the source of their honeydew. 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 covered with wax.In some genera they possess legs but in others, they do not, and the antennae may be shortened or missing. The scale bug is small, oval and flat, with a protective tan to brown shell-like covering (scale). While feeding, soft scale insects excrete a sweet, sticky substance called honeydew. Soft scales are sucking insects that attack a wide variety of plants. The species is a major commercial pest of crops such as Citrus fruits. [2], The first instars of most species of scale insects emerge from the egg with functional legs, and are informally called "crawlers". Sooty mold, a fungus, will often grow on the honeydew causing unsightly dark spots on the leaves and interfering with the plant’s ability to absorb sunlight. Also, soft scale insects can produce “honeydew”, a sticky substance on the bottom of tree leaves that is an ideal place for tree fungus, such as black mold, to grow. 2  Armored scale secretes a hard shell over its body for protection from predators. Only the soft scale bugs produce this liquid, which tends to drip on leaves and objects below it. 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 covered with wax.In some genera they possess legs but in others, they do not, and the antennae may be shortened or missing. [10] Scale insects secrete a large quantity of sticky viscid fluid known as "honeydew". Description: Adults are oval, flattened, slightly convex, reddish-brown scale insects. Segmentation of the body is indistinct, but may be indicated by the presence of marginal bristles. For example, cochineal species are restricted to cactus hosts, and the gall-inducing Apiomorpha are restricted to Eucalyptus. Adult males do not feed, and die within two or three days of emergence. Scale insects are small insects of the order Hemiptera, suborder Sternorrhyncha. The soft scale insects of Florida (Homoptera: Coccoidea: Coccidae) (Arthropods of Florida and neighboring land areas) [Hamon, Avas B] on Amazon.com. A third variant found in Diaspididae involves the paternal genome being completely removed at an early stage making males haploid both in somatic and germ cells even though they are formed from diploids, ie from fertilized eggs. This page was last edited on 31 December 2020, at 20:21. The fungus benefits by metabolising the sap extracted from the tree by the insects. There are many variations on such themes, such as scale insects that are associated with species of ants that act as herders and carry the young ones to protected sites to feed. However, the Diptera and Hemiptera are not closely related, and do not closely resemble each other in morphology; for example, the tail filaments of the Coccoidea do not resemble anything in the morphology of flies. 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