Long-tailed mealy bug

The long-tailed mealy bug (Pseudococcus longispinus) is a tropical species which inhabits above-ground parts of plants. It mainly injures crops which are grown in greenhouses and tropical houses. Because of morphological properties it is resistant to the influence of chemicals, and this complicates its control.

Biology. Life cycle.

The female is wide-oval, greenish, 2–3.6 mm in length, 1.1–2.0 mm in width. It is covered with white powdery wax, through which the body on a back side is looked transparent. There are 17 pairs of thin white filaments along a lateral edge of the body. Herewith the hind pair sometimes is longer than all the body. The antennae are 8-segmented. They are thin and long. The abdominal stoma is single, big. The multicellular glands are allocated near a vaginal rima (cleft). The fungi-shaped glands are on the back side only. The cerarium consists of 17 pairs. The female is viviparous. She doesn't form an ovisac (egg pouch) but excretes white waxen filaments which protect emerging larvae.

The male has typical constitution for insects. Its body is thin, oblong and separated into a head, a thorax and a segmented abdomen. The antennae are thread-shaped. The eyes are simple. The abdomen consists of 11 segments. There is one pair of discoid glands on the last segment of the abdomen from which 2 white waxen tail filaments are detached.

Life mode

he species is a typical sucking phytophage insect. The females and larvae feed only. Herewith the character of injuries depends on the intensity of their infestation by pest and the place of injury. The pest mode of life is mainly not motile. The pest generally colonizes internodes, crutches and cracks of rind.

Symptoms of injuries

The spittle of Coccidae contains ferments which influence negatively on the biochemical compound of plants. It particularly changes the quantity and the quality of plant ferments, nitrogen and carbohydrate exchange, the intensity of respiration process and nutriment accumulation. As a result of plant injuries, leaves and fruits fall, branches and shoots dry up, the quality and the quantity of yield decline. Under the mass reproduction of insects the plants perish.

The mealy bugs consume more plant sap than they need for nutrition. The surplus of carbohydrates is excreted in the form of honeydew. It is settled by saprophyte fungi. The plants become black and sticky. It causes the disturbance of plant respiration, the deterioration of ornamental and merchandisable qualities.