Genus Cystococcus Fuller, 1897

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Genus Cystococcus Fuller, 1897

Cystococcus Fuller, C. 1897. Some Coccidae of Western Australia. Journal of Western Australia Bureau of Agriculture 4: 1344-1346 [1346] [this genus was considered by Cockerell, T.D.A. 1902. South African Coccidae. – II. Entomologist 35: 111–114, Fernald, M.E. 1903. A catalogue of the Coccidae of the world. Bulletin of the Hatch Experiment Station of the Massachusetts Agricultural College 88: 1–360 and Hoy, J.M. 1963. A catalogue of the Eriococcidae (Homoptera: Coccoidea) of the world. New Zealand Department of Scientific and Industrial Research Bulletin 150: 1–260 to be a junior synonym of Ascelis, but the concept of Gullan, P.J. & Cockburn, A. 1986. Sexual dichronism and intersexual phoresy in gall-forming coccoids. Oecologia (Berlin) 68: 632–634 is that they are distinct, but closely-related genera].
Type species:
Cystococcus echiniformis Fuller, 1897 by monotypy.
Secondary source:
Cockerell, T.D.A. 1902. South African Coccidae. – II. The Entomologist 35: 111-114; Fernald, M.E. 1903. A catalogue of the Coccidae of the world. Bulletin of the Hatch Experiment Station of the Massachusetts Agricultural College 88: 1-360; Hoy, J.M. 1963. A catalogue of the Eriococcidae (Homoptera: Coccoidea) of the world. Bulletin of the New Zealand Department of Scientific and Industrial Research 150: 1-260; Gullan, P.J. & Cockburn, A. 1986. Sexual dichronism and intersexual phoresy in gall-forming coccoids. Oecologia (Berlin) 68: 632-634.

Distribution

States

New South Wales, Northern Territory, Queensland, Western Australia

IBRA and IMCRA regions (map not available)

IBRA

Qld: South Eastern Queensland (SEQ)

STRUCTURE

Forming some of the largest and most conspicuous of all coccoid galls on Australian Eucalyptus and Melaleuca species by eriococcids, see Beardsley, J.W. 1984. Gall-forming Coccoidea. In, Ananthakrishnan, T.N. (ed). Biology of gall insects. New Delhi : Oxford & IBH. Publ. Co. 400 pp..

BIOLOGY

"Females of Cystococcus cause large woody subspherical galls to develop on the stems of their bloodwood eucalypt hosts. The male offspring complete their development within the maternal gall where they feed on a layer of white nutritive tissue lining the gall cavity. Male development within the maternal gall is not unusual among gall-forming eriococcids since at least three other taxa display similar habits… The coupling of sexual dichronism and development of male offspring within the maternal gall facilitates an extraordinary form of phoresy, in which the newly emerged female first instar nymphs are transported out of the maternal gall on the modified abdomens of their adult brothers. The males leave the gall through an orifice, 0.5–1.7mm in diameter, which is plugged by the sclerotized apex of the mother's abdomen until the completion of parturtition. The adult male lives less than 48 hours, as in other members of the Coccoidea" See Gullan, P.J. & Cockburn, A. 1986. Sexual dichronism and intersexual phoresy in gall-forming coccoids. Oecologia (Berlin) 68: 632–634.