Species Maconellicoccus hirsutus (Green, 1908)

Museums

Regional Maps

• Phenacoccus hirsutus Green, E.E. 1908. Remarks on Indian scale insects (Coccidae), Part III. With a catalogue of all species hitherto recorded from the Indian continent. Memoirs of the Department of Agriculture India, Entomological Series 2: 15-46 [25].
• Pseudococcus hibisci Hall, W.J. 1921. The hibiscus mealy bug (Phenacoccus hirsutus, Green). Bulletin, Ministry of Agriculture, Egypt, Technical and Scientific Service 17: 1-28 [17] [nom. nud.].
• Phenacoccus quarternus Ramakrishna Ayyar, T.V. 1921. A check list of the Coccidae of the Indian region. Proceedings of the Entomology Meetings. India 4: 336-362 [345] [nom. nud.].
• Phenacoccus glomeratus Green, E.E. 1922. The Coccidae of Ceylon. London : Dulau & Co. Vol. 5. [389].
• Spilococcus perforatus De Lotto, G. 1954. Three apparently new mealy bugs from Kenya. Proceedings of the Royal Entomological Society of London 23: 110-114 [114].
• Paracoccus pasaniae Borchsenius, N.S. 1962. Notes on coccid fauna of China. 10. Descriptions of some new species of Pseudococcidae (Homoptera, Coccoidea). Entomologicheskoe Obozrenie (English translation as Entomological Reviews) 41: 583-595 [590].
• Phenacoccus quarternus Shafee, S.A., Khalid, M. & Ahmad, M.J. 1989. Host plants and distribution of pseudococcid pests (Homoptera: Coccoidea) in India. Indian Journal of Systematic Entomology 6(2): 57-70 [65] [nom. nud.].
• Phenacoccus quarternus Varshney, R.K. 1992. A check list of the scale insects and mealy bugs of South Asia. Part–1. Records of the Zoological Survey of India, Occasional Paper No. 139: 1-152 [45] [nom. nud.].

Taxonomic Decision for Synonymy

• Williams, D.J. 1985. Australian Mealybugs. London : British Museum (Natural History) 431 pp. [194] (synonymy of Phenacoccus glomeratus Green, 1922)
• Williams, D.J. 1986. The identity and distribution of the genus Maconellicoccus Ezzat (Hemiptera: Pseudococcidae) in Africa. Bulletin of Entomological Research 76: 351-357 [352] (synonymy of Spilococcus perforatus De Lotto, 1954)
• Williams, D.J. 1996. A brief account of the hibiscus mealybug Maconellicoccus hirsutus (Hemiptera: Pseudococcidae), a pest of agriculture and horticulture, with descriptions of two related species from southern Asia. Bulletin of Entomological Research 86: 617-628 [621] (synonymy of Paracoccus pasaniae Borchsenius, 1962)

Ecological Descriptors

Sap-feeder.

ID Keys

(Williams, D.J., 1996) [621] (female; world); (Williams, D.J., 1985) [191] (female; Australia)

BIOLOGY

The life history was studied by Ghose, S.K. 1972. Biology of the mealybug, Maconellicoccus hirsutus (Green) (Pseudococcidae, Hemiptera). Indian Agriculturalist 16: 323–332. Causes stunted or malformed stems and leaves and can kill the plant. On Hibiscus, this mealybug causes gall-like deformations of the terminal growth characterized by internode shortening, deformed leaves and thickened twigs, see Ghose, S.K. 1972. Morpho-histological changes in some economic plants due to the infestation of mealybug, Maconellicoccus hirsutus (Green) (Hemiptera: Pseudococcidae). Indian Journal of Agricultural Sciences 42: 329–334 and Beardsley, J.W. 1985. Notes and exhibitions. Proceedings of the Hawaiian Entomological Society 25: 27.

STRUCTURE

The dermal pores, ducts and wax secretion were studied by Kumar, V., Tewari, S.K. & Datta, R.K. 1997. Dermal pores and wax secretion in mealybug Maconellicoccus hirsutus (Hemiptera, Pseudococcidae). A pest of mulberry. Italian Journal of Zoology 64(4): 307–311.

ECONOMIC AND CONTROL

In 1997, the pink hibiscus mealybug had invaded the US Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, St. Kitts, Trinidad, Tobago, Grenada and several other Caribbean islands, where damaged coffee, cotton, soybeans, citrus and some other crops (see Charlet, L. 1997. Pink Hibiscus mealybug. IOBC Newsletter 66: 6–7; United States Department of Agriculture. Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service 1997. Pink hibiscus mealybug. Maconellicoccus hirsutus (Green). Progam Aid No. 1605: 2 pp.). The introduction of the entomophagous Coccinellid Cryptolaemus montrouzieri and the parasitoid wasp Anagyrus kamali are recommended (see Etienne, J., Matile-Ferrero, D., Leblanc, F. & Marival, D. 1998. [First record of the mealybug Maconellicoccus hirsutus (Green) in Guadaloupe; present state of this pest of crops in the French Caribbean (Hem., Pseudococcidae).]. Bulletin de la Société Entomologique de France 103: 173–174). For 11 sets of interacting species near Madang, Papua New Guinea, coccoids attended by relatively inoffensive ants were more heavily parasitized than those attended by more aggressive ants. This has not been demonstrated previously. Ant exclusion experiments for four of these sets showed that this correlation was due to active protection of the coccoids from both predation and parazitation, though the precise form and effectiveness of this protection differed between different sets of interacting species. See Buckley, R.C. & Gullan, P.J. 1991. More aggressive ant species (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) provide better protection for soft scales and mealybugs (Homoptera: Coccidae, Pseudococcidae). Biotropica 23(3): 282–286.

GENERAL

Good description and illustration of the adult female given by Morrison, H. 1920. The nondiaspine Coccidae of the Philippine Islands, with descriptions of apparently new species. The Philippine Journal of Science 17: 147–202, Betrem, J.G. 1937. Morphology and systematics of some of the principal mealy bug species of Java. (Hom. Cocc.). Archief voor de Koffiecultuur in Nederland Indie 11: 1–118, Ezzat, Y.M. 1958. Classification of the scale insects, family Diaspididae, as known to occur in Egypt [Homoptera: Coccoidea]. Bulletin de la Société Entomologique d'Egypte 42: 233–251, Williams, D.J. 1958. A new species of Eurycoccus Ferris (Homoptera: Pseudococcidae) from Israel. Proceedings of the Royal Entomological Society of London B: Taxonomy 27: 22–24; Williams, D.J. 1985. Australian Mealybugs. London : British Museum (Natural History) 431 pp., Williams, D.J. & Watson, G.W. 1988. The Scale Insects of the Tropical South Pacific Region. Part 1. The armoured scales (Diaspididae). London : CAB International Institute of Entomology 290 pp. and by Williams, D.J. 1996. A brief account of the hibiscus mealybug Maconellicoccus hirsutus (Hemiptera: Pseudococcidae), a pest of agriculture and horticulture, with descriptions of two related species from southern Asia. Bulletin of Entomological Research 86: 617–628. Data on the distribution, external appearance, host plants, life cycle, damage and control is available at web site: http://gnv.ifas.ufl.edu/~insect.

Common Name References

Brookes, H.M. 1964. The Coccoidea (Homoptera) naturalised in South Australia: A second annotated list. Transactions of the Royal Society of South Australia 88: 15-20 (Cited also by and ) (Hirsutus Mealybug)

Charlet, L. 1997. Pink Hibiscus mealybug. IOBC Newsletter 66: 6-7 (Cited also by ) (Pink Hibiscus Mealybug)

Mani, M. & Thontadarya, T.S. 1987. Development and feeding potential of coccinellid predator, Cryptolaemus montrouzieri Muls. on the grape mealybug, Maconellicoccus hirsutus (Green). Journal of Biological Control 1(1): 19-22 (Grape Mealybug)

Matile-Ferrero, D., Étienne, J. & Tiego, G. 2000. [The introduction of two important pests for French Guiana: Maconellicoccus hirsutus and Paracoccus marginatus (Hem., Coccoidea, Pseudococcidae)]. Bulletin de la Société Entomologique de France 105(5): 485-486 (La Cochenille De L'hibiscus)

Naumann, I.D., Ingram, R.J. & Floyd, R. 2002. Australian Insect Common Names, based on CSIRO Handbook of Australian Insect Names. 6th edn 1993. http://www.ento.csiro.au/aicn/. (Hibiscus Mealybug)

History of changes