Mealybugs of the genus Ferrisia Fullaway, especially two polyphagous species F. malvastra (McDaniel) and the striped mealybug F. virgata (Cockerell), are well known as plant pests. The most recent taxonomic synopsis of Ferrisia, by D.J. Williams in 1996, recognized 10 species based on morphology of the adult females. There is a history of problems in distinguishing Ferrisia species, especially the biparental F. virgata that has many synonyms and several unnamed electrophoretic forms, and also was confused with the parthenogenetic F. malvastra for many years. Here we use a combination of morphological and molecular data to recognize one new species of Ferrisia and to conclude that F. virgata is a species complex. The new species, known from California and southeastern USA, is polyphagous and newly recognized as a pest of pistachio and almond orchards in central California. A larger phylogenetic study involving analysis of nucleotide sequence data from fragments of three nuclear genes (EF1-a, 28S, and 18S) from 68 species of 36 genera of Pseudococcidae supported the monophyly of Ferrisia and placed it as sister to the genus Anisococcus Ferris in a well supported clade. These two Nearctic plus Neotropical genera have not previously been considered closely related based on morphology of adult females, but species of both taxa have one or more small auxiliary pores associated with the orifice of the dorsal ducts.
Species 1: Heteroptera Pseudococcidae Ferrisia virgata (striped mealybug)
Keywords: phylogeny
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