We are pleased to announce a new mealybug Featured Creatures!

a mealybug, Phenacoccus multicerarii Granara de Willink Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, Division of Plant Industry (FDACS-DPI) inspector Lisa Hassell collected the mealybug Phenacoccus multicerarii, a new continental record, from a retail nursery in Fernandina Beach (Nassau County, on 15 June 2011). On a return visit to the store, the mealybug was observed in high numbers on numerous host plants. On 28 June 2011, an additional find was made at a nursery in Apopka that had exchanged plant material with the nursery in Jacksonville. No further infestations were reported until October 2012, when a heavy infestation was discovered on a residential planting of Plectranthus scutellarioides (L.) Dodd (= Solenostemon scutellarioides, common coleus) in Cooper City (Broward County).

Author: Ian Stocks, Taxonomic Entomologist, Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, Division of Plant Industry.

Originally published as DPI Entomology Circular 422

http://entnemdept.ufl.edu/creatures/ORN/MEALYBUG/phenacoccus_multicerarii.htm

Thanks to Dr. Jennifer Gillett-Kaufman (gillett@ufl.edu ) for her submission of this UF-IFAS Featured Creatures Publication!

0