Z MISC. PUBLICATION 42 4, U. S. DEFT. OF AGRICULTURE 



provide descriptions and illustrations adequate for the identification of 

 the included species and a classification of these species based primarily 

 on a critical si udy of their morphology. 



Most of the previous taxonomic work on the genus has consisted 

 of individual descriptions or redescriptions of species, the nearest 

 approach to a comprehensive work being that of Green, in that part 

 of The Coccidae of Ceylon (J$) ' published in l ( .»o<>. where L6 spe- 

 cies and 2 varieties were discussed and illustrated. Some of the 

 minute anatomical structures that have proved useful were first de- 

 scribed by Morrison and Morrison (73) in L927, in a paper which 

 included redescriptions <>t" tic Maskell species of the genus. Of the 

 92 specific or varietal nana- definitely assignable to Asterolecamum 

 prior to the preparation o\ this publication, 26 were proposed by 

 Green. 8 by Cockrell, 5 by Kuwana, ."> by Brain, ."> by Takahashi, and 

 the remainder by a number of other authors. In the present study 1!) 

 of the 92 names have hern suppressed, 4 varietal name- have been 

 retained, and the remaining name- have been accepted as repre- 

 senting valid species. Eighty-three new species have been recognized, 

 and their descriptions arc included in the paper. Other new species 

 doubtless await discovery and description, and it i- hoped that the 

 present study will have established a sound working basis for their 

 proper placement in the genus. 



ECONOMIC IMPORTANCE 



Some specie- of Asterolecanium arc well known as destructive 

 insects, and others are potential enemies of economic plants. In 

 the descriptions of bambusoi and milinns published in 1869 {0. pp. 

 $61-262)) Boisduval warned that bamboos might suffer seriously 

 from severe infestations of these species, and his prediction has been 

 fully realized in the present-day abundance and destructiveness of 

 bambusat and mUiaris in many of the bamboo-growing areas of the 

 world. Since L836, when Audouin i /. pp. xxix ■>■. >-.,■) wrote of the 

 damaged condition of oak trees in the Bois de Boulogne, caused by 

 a scale insect unquestionably belonging to Asterolecanium, species 

 c/oin..- under the name- of quercicola <>r variolosum have been recog- 

 nized as serious pests of oak- in Europe, Africa. New Zealand, and 

 the United States. With reference to <<>iji<te in Kenya, James made 

 the following statement in 1933 (S3, p. l&l) : 



Heavy infestations of A. <-<>ff<<i< n<»r only destroy the crop of the current 

 season bur so war]) and distort the crop-bearing wood as seriously to lower 

 the future reproductive power of the trees, in facl there is no known scale 

 pest of coffee in the Colony which produces such deleterious after-effects. 



Asterolecanium pustulans, which infests many different plants, 

 and is widely distributed in tropical and semitropical area-, is recog- 

 nized as one of the most destructive species of the <>-enu<. Judging 

 from the intensity of infestation and the unhealthy condition of 

 their host plants, several of the new species described in this paper 

 are, or may prove to be, detrimental to agriculture. Although the 

 seriousness of the damage done by certain species is recognized, the 

 economic loss caused by the group as a whole is probably greatly 

 underestimated, because of the inconspicuousness of the insects. 



4 Italic numbers in parentheses refer to Literature Cited, p. 232. 



