''Hemiberlesia lataniae'', the latania or palm scale, is a species of armored scale insect in the family

Diaspididae Diaspididae is the largest family of scale insects with over 2650 described species in around 400 genera. As with all scale insects, the female produces a waxy protective scale beneath which it feeds on its host plant. Diaspidid scales are far mo ...

. It was first described by the French entomologist Victor Antoine Signoret in 1869 using ''

Latania lontaroides ''Latania lontaroides'' is a species of palm tree. It is endemic to Réunion. It is also used as an ornamental plant. Its common names include the Red Latan, ''latanier de la Réunion'', and ''latanier rouge''. The armored scale insect '' Hemi ...

'', a species of palm tree

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found only in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also foun ...

Réunion Réunion (; ; ; known as before 1848) is an island in the Indian Ocean that is an overseas departments and regions of France, overseas department and region of France. Part of the Mascarene Islands, it is located approximately east of the isl ...

as its

host 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 * ...

; since then, it has been found on

avocado The avocado, alligator pear or avocado pear (''Persea americana'') is an evergreen tree in the laurel family (Lauraceae). It is native to Americas, the Americas and was first domesticated in Mesoamerica more than 5,000 years ago. It was priz ...

trees growing in South Africa, Australia, Israel, the United States, and on a range of other plants in many parts of the world.

Description

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 have a domed, waxy covering which protects the soft-bodied insect below. Armored scales retain the

exuviae In biology, exuviae are the remains of an exoskeleton and related structures that are left after ecdysozoans (including insects, crustaceans and arachnids) have molted. The exuviae of an animal can be important to biologists as they can often be ...

(shed cuticles) from the first one or two nymphal stages, and sometimes faecal matter and fragments of the host plant, incorporating these into a hard, protective cover. The adult female palm scale has no wings or legs and is somewhat variable in appearance depending on where it is living; if feeding on leaves, the scale cover is circular and convex, and its colour tends to be greyish-white, while on twigs, branches and fruits, the cover is usually brownish and only moderately convex. The exuviae are yellowish-brown and are a noticeable feature near the centre of the scale. Male scale covers are oval, and adult males are small insects with legs and a single pair of wings. They have no mouthparts and only live for a day or two.

Distribution and hosts

The palm scale has a wide range of host plants and has a nearly

cosmopolitan distribution In biogeography, a cosmopolitan distribution is the range of a taxon that extends across most or all of the surface of the Earth, in appropriate habitats; most cosmopolitan species are known to be highly adaptable to a range of climatic and en ...

, having spread around the world, mostly on ornamental plants. It is known to use members of at least 78 different plant families as hosts, particularly favouring

Rosaceae Rosaceae (), the rose family, is a family of flowering plants that includes 4,828 known species in 91 genera. The name is derived from the type genus '' Rosa''. The family includes herbs, shrubs, and trees. Most species are deciduous, but som ...

Arecaceae The Arecaceae () is a family (biology), family of perennial plant, perennial, flowering plants in the Monocotyledon, monocot order Arecales. Their growth form can be climbing palm, climbers, shrubs, tree-like and stemless plants, all commonly k ...

and

Euphorbiaceae Euphorbiaceae (), the spurge family, is a large family of flowering plants. In English, they are also commonly called euphorbias, which is also the name of Euphorbia, the type genus of the family. Most spurges, such as ''Euphorbia paralias'', ar ...

. It is a major pest of

kiwifruit Kiwifruit (often shortened to kiwi), or Chinese gooseberry, is the edible berry (botany), berry of several species of woody vines in the genus ''Actinidia''. The most common cultivar group of kiwifruit (Actinidia chinensis var. deliciosa, ...

citrus ''Citrus'' is a genus of flowering trees and shrubs in the family Rutaceae. Plants in the genus produce citrus fruits, including important crops such as oranges, mandarins, lemons, grapefruits, pomelos, and limes. ''Citrus'' is nativ ...

coconut The coconut tree (''Cocos nucifera'') is a member of the palm tree family (biology), family (Arecaceae) and the only living species of the genus ''Cocos''. The term "coconut" (or the archaic "cocoanut") can refer to the whole coconut palm, ...

, ''

Melia azedarach ''Melia azedarach'', commonly known as the chinaberry tree, pride of India, bead-tree, Cape lilac, syringa berrytree, Persian lilac, Indian lilac, or white cedar, is a species of deciduous tree in the mahogany family (biology), family, Meliace ...

'' (chinaberry),

guava Guava ( ), also known as the 'guava-pear', is a common tropical fruit cultivated in many tropical and subtropical regions. The common guava '' Psidium guajava'' (lemon guava, apple guava) is a small tree in the myrtle family (Myrtaceae), nativ ...

and

grape A grape is a fruit, botanically a berry, of the deciduous woody vines of the flowering plant genus ''Vitis''. Grapes are a non- climacteric type of fruit, generally occurring in clusters. The cultivation of grapes began approximately 8,0 ...

Biology

In some parts of the world, only female insects are present, and they breed by

parthenogenesis Parthenogenesis (; from the Greek + ) is a natural form of asexual reproduction in which the embryo develops directly from an egg without need for fertilization. In animals, parthenogenesis means the development of an embryo from an unfertiliz ...

. The female scales insert their mouthparts into the host plant's vascular tissues and suck the sap. They have no legs and do not move about as adults. The yellow eggs are retained by the female under her scale and hatch after a few hours. The newly emerged nymphs crawl away and disperse, losing their legs at their first moult after about two weeks. The second nymphal stage lasts another two or three weeks before moulting to the adult stage. The organism may have a mutualistic relationship with a fungus, Septobasidium, which can protect them from predators such as aphelinid wasps and lady beetles like Aphytis diaspidis and Chilocorus stigma, and overgrow the colony completely obscuring them from view entirely, but this may stunt the growth of scale insects infected by the fungus as a side effect.

Description

Distribution and hosts

Biology

References

Further reading