Scientific Name: Poliaspis cycadis

Describer: Comstock

Common Name: Poliaspis cycad scale (PCS)

Title: Poliaspis cycadis (Poliaspis cycad scale) detected for the first time in Florida

Summary:

Significance: The Poliaspis cycad scale (PCS), Poliaspis cycadis Comstock, was detected in Florida for the first time from specimens collected on a cycad (Dioon sp.) in Homestead, Florida in May 2007. After initial identification at the Division of Plant Industry’s Florida State Collection of Arthropods, PCS specimens were confirmed by the Systematic Entomology Laboratory in Beltsville, Maryland. The cycad scale was originally reported in North America in 1883, from plants in a Washington, D.C. conservatory. The scale was not reported again until 1993, from plants in a private collection in Orange County, California. Poliaspis cycadis is similar in appearance to both the false oleander scale (Pseudaulacaspis cockerelli Cooley) and the cycad Aulacaspis scale (Aulacaspis yasumatsui Takagi). The biology of the Poliaspis cycad scale is unknown and there is little information on the economic importance of this scale insect. PSC may be native to the Asian region.

Hosts: Cruciferae: Microsemia sp.; Cycadaceae: Cycas circinalis L., Cycas revoluta, Dioon edule; Ericaceae: Gaultheria depressa Hook.f, Gaultheria rupestris (G. Forst.) R.Br.

References:

Hodges, G. and W. N. Dixon. 2007. The Poliaspis Cycad Scale Poliaspis cycadis Comstock (Hemiptera: Diaspididae): A new exotic scale insect for Florida. 1 June 2007. http://www.doacs.state.fl.us/pi/enpp/ento/poliapsis_cycadis.html