54 MISC. PUBLICATION 1015, U.S. DEPT. OF AGRICULTURE 



Schrader. Froggatt, 1921a : 156. accepted the genus as valid, but placed its type- 

 species as a synonym of Brachyscelis potniformis Froggatt, 1S92. There appears 

 to be no recent contribution to its status. 



Dactylaspis Ferris, 1937, Atlas of the Scale Insects of Xorth America 

 (ser.l) [v.l]:SI-26. 



type-species : Dactylaspis dactylifera Ferris, 1937, by original designation. 



The describer placed four species in this genus and assigned it to the Diaspi- 

 dini. Balachowsky, 1954e : 23. listed it as belonging to his group Lepidosaphe- 

 dina, but subsequently (p. 172) included it in a group of genera which he assigned 

 to his Diaspidina chionaspiform. 



Dactylopius O. G. Costa, 1835, 6 Fauna del Regno di Xapoli, Famiglia 

 de* Coccinigliferi, o de' Gallmsetti, Emitteri Xapoli, pp. 2, 15. 



type-species : f Coccus adonidum [Linnaeus 175S] by subsequent designation 

 of Targioni-Tozzetti, 1866: 129, or Dactylopius coccus Costa, 1S35, by sub- 

 sequent designation of Cockerell, 1902k: 453. (This is Coccus sativus 

 Lancry, 1791, according to Lindinger, 1949 : 211.) 



Aside from the complications surrounding the fixation of the proper date of 

 publication for this genus, our examination of its beginnings showed serious 

 complications in other areas. Costa, footnote (page 2) stated unequivocally that 

 he was substituting this name for the nomenclatorially less exact name Diapros- 

 teci, which he, 182Sa : 7, had proposed along with two other currently accepted 

 genera, for the reception of coccids having the body divided into 13 segments, 

 each with lateral appendages, such as Coccus adonidum. Since this is the only 

 coccid species he mentioned under Diaprosteci, it is type by monotypy. Since 

 Costa, 1835: 2, deliberately substituted Dactylopius for Diaprosteci, the type- 

 species of Dactylopius would stand as Coccus adonidum by substitution. How- 

 ever, adonidum received only the briefest incidental mention in the Fauna Xapoli 

 paper, and nearly all of the discussion under Dactylopius in this paper related to 

 two species which Costa called Dactylopius coccus [the Mexican cochineal] and 

 Dactylopius polonicus [the Polish cochineal]. 



The first subsequent comment on Dactylopius and Diaprosteci seems to have 

 been made by Westwood, 1S40 : 447, who accused Costa of promoting nomencla- 

 torial confusion through proposal of these names [West wood substituted Dia- 

 prostocetus for Diaprosteci], but made no direct critical effort to establish the 

 status of either genus. Targioni-Tozzetti, 1S66 : 129, made the first type-species 

 designation for this genus that has been encountered, citing adonidum as the 

 proper type-species. His proposal fitted the sequential pattern from Diaprosteci 

 through Dactylopius but was predicated on his assignment of Coccus cacti of 

 authors, non Linnaeus, as the type-species of the genus Coccus Linnaeus, a con- 

 cept already rejected (see Coccus). At the same time he ruled out the use of 

 the genus name Pseudococcus Westwood, 1840, for this mealybug concept on the 

 grounds of prior publication of Dactylopius. Signoret and subsequent authors 

 followed this association for some 60 years so that many species currently placed 

 in the Pseudococcidae were originally described under the generic name 

 Dactylopius. 



The next pronouncemenl on type fixation apparently was by Qockerell, r.H)2k : 

 453-454, who allegedly reviewed the history of Dactylopius and stated: "D. 



See footnote on Calimmata Costa. 



