Beesoniidae is a family of
scale insect
Scale insects are small insects of the Order (biology), order Hemiptera, suborder Sternorrhyncha. Of dramatically variable appearance and extreme sexual dimorphism, they comprise the infraorder Coccomorpha which is considered a more convenient g ...
s commonly known as beesoniids. They typically cause
gall
Galls (from the Latin , 'oak-apple') or ''cecidia'' (from the Greek , anything gushing out) are a kind of swelling growth on the external tissues of plants. Plant galls are abnormal outgrowths of plant tissues, similar to benign tumors or war ...
s on their plant
hosts
A host is a person responsible for guests at an event or for providing hospitality during it.
Host may also refer to:
Places
* Host, Pennsylvania, a village in Berks County
* Host Island, in the Wilhelm Archipelago, Antarctica
People
* ...
. Members of this family mostly come from southern Asia.
The family name comes from the type genus ''
Beesonia'' which is named after the entomologist
C.F.C. Beeson who obtained the specimens from which they were described and named.
Host species
In the Old World, this members of this family are found on oaks in the genus ''
Quercus
An oak is a hardwood tree or shrub in the genus ''Quercus'' of the beech family. They have spirally arranged leaves, often with lobed edges, and a nut called an acorn, borne within a cup. The genus is widely distributed in the Northern Hemisp ...
'' and trees in the genera ''
Shorea
Fruit of a ''Shorea'' species
''Shorea'' is a genus of about 47 species of mainly rainforest trees in the family Dipterocarpaceae. The timber of trees of the genus is sold under the common names lauan, luan, lawaan, meranti, seraya, balau, bang ...
'' and ''
Dipterocarpus
'' D. retusus'' in Köhler
''Dipterocarpus'' is a genus of flowering plants and the type genus of family Dipterocarpaceae.
''Dipterocarpus'' is the third-largest and most diverse genus among the Dipterocarpaceae. The species are well known for ...
'' in the family
Dipterocarpaceae
Dipterocarpaceae is a family (biology), family of flowering plants with 22 genera and about 695 known species of mainly lowland tropical forest trees. Their distribution is pantropical, from northern South America to Africa, the Seychelles, India ...
. The New World species target
palm
Palm most commonly refers to:
* Palm of the hand, the central region of the front of the hand
* Palm plants, of family Arecaceae
** List of Arecaceae genera
**Palm oil
* Several other plants known as "palm"
Palm or Palms may also refer to:
Music ...
s (Arecaceae).
[
The Australian '' Beesonia ferrugineus'' forms galls on branches of '']Melaleuca
''Melaleuca'' () is a genus of nearly 300 species of plants in the myrtle family, Myrtaceae, commonly known as paperbarks, honey-myrtles, bottlebrushes or tea-trees (although the last name is also applied to species of '' Leptospermum''). They ...
'' (Myrtaceae
Myrtaceae (), the myrtle family, is a family of dicotyledonous plants placed within the order Myrtales. Myrtle, pōhutukawa, bay rum tree, clove, guava, acca (feijoa), allspice, and eucalyptus are some notable members of this group. All ...
). However, the genus and family placement of ''B. ferrugineus'' has been questioned.
Life cycle
Most scales in this family have four female instar
An instar (, from the Latin '' īnstar'' 'form, likeness') is a developmental stage of arthropods, such as insects, which occurs between each moult (''ecdysis'') until sexual maturity is reached. Arthropods must shed the exoskeleton in order to ...
s and five male instars. Members of the genus ''Gallacoccus'' have only three female instars however.phoresis
Phoresis or phoresy is a temporary commensalistic relationship when an organism (a phoront or phoretic) attaches itself to a host organism solely for travel. It has been seen in ticks and mites since the 18th century, and in fossils 320 ...
).
Genera
* '' Beesonia''
References
{{Taxonbar, from=Q1935946
Scale insects
Hemiptera families
Neococcoids