Conchaspididae

Conchaspididae
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Insecta
Order:	Hemiptera
Superfamily:	Coccoidea
Family:	Conchaspididae Green, 1896
Genera [1]
Asceloconchaspis Williams, 1992 Conchaspis Cockerell, 1893 Fagisuga Lindinger, 1909 Paraconchaspis Mamet, 1959

Conchaspididae is a small and relatively unstudied family of scale insects.^[2]

Description

Members of the family Conchaspididae secrete a waxy scale, in common with other scale insects, but the secreted scle does not include the exuvia.^[3]

Ecology

Five of the 30 species are parasites on palms, but none are considered pests.^[4] Conchaspis cordiae infests mahogany trees and has been accidentally introduced to Florida from the Caribbean, but does not appear to cause serious damage.^[2]

Taxonomic history

Carl Linnaeus described a single member of the family, now called Conchaspis capensis, in his Centuria Insectorum, but no further species were described until the 1890s.^[5] Eleven of the 29 species currently recognised were insects from Madagascar, described by Raymond Mamet. This probably reflects the sampling effort rather than a particular diversity of conchaspidid scale insects on Madagascar.^[5]

Conchaspididae was first recognised as a subfamily of the family Coccidae, but it was raised to the rank of family by Gordon Floyd Ferris in 1937.^[5]

References

1. ^ "A new genus and species of Conchaspididae (Hemiptera: Coccoidea) from Florida, remarkable in lacking legs". Journal of Natural History 26 (6): 1325–1331. 1992. doi:10.1080/00222939200770751. 
2. ^ ^{a b} John L. Capinera, ed (2008). "West Indies Mahogany Scale, Conchaspis cordiae Mamet (Hemiptera, Conchaspididae)". Encyclopedia of Entomology, Volume 1. Gale virtual reference library (2nd ed.). Springer. pp. 2265–2266. ISBN 9781402062421. http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=i9ITMiiohVQC. 
3. ^ Gordon Floyd Ferris (1955). "Conchaspididae". Atlas of the Scale Insects of North America, Volume VII. Stanford University Press. pp. 66–68. ISBN 9780804716673. http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=RAurAAAAIAAJ. 
4. ^ F. W. Howard, D. Moore, R. M. Giblin-Davis & R. G. Abad (2001). "Conchaspididae". Insects on palms. CABI Publishing Series. CAB International. pp. 189. ISBN 9780851993263. http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=IL5jorrwFLYC. 
5. ^ ^{a b c} Yair Ben-Dov (2006). "Conchaspididae". A systematic catalogue of eight scale insect families (Hemiptera: Coccoidea) of the world: Aclerdidae, Asterolecaniidae, Beesoniidae, Carayonemidae, Conchaspididae, Dactylopiidae, Kerriidae and Lecanodiaspididae. Elsevier. pp. 183. ISBN 9780444528360. http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=qBAHchSfZJIC.