#Pulvinariella

[drhoz]

#1840 - Pulvinariella mesembryanthemi - Exotic Pigface Scale

AKA Iceplant Scale Insect

Spotted growing on the Pigface (Carpobrotus sp.) growing right down at the end of Woodman Point, Perth. 

The actual insect is the brown thing - the rest is her cottony ovisac, which will contain hundreds of tiny crawlers when they hatch.

A Pulvinaria was a couch used by the Roman gods for religious rituals - presumably that’s related to the common name of cottony cushion scales. The species name refers to the preferred hostplants -  Mesembryanthemum is one genus of flowering plants in the family Aizoaceae, and a close relative of Carpobrotus. The scale insect probably arrived in Australia from its native range in southern Africa, but it’s also made it to many other parts of world, especially where the Iceplant was introduced as a highway planting. 

Other related scale insects also derive their binomials from their host plant -Pulvinaria dodonaeae is endemic to Australia and feeds on plants in the genus Dodonaea. Another introduced cottony soft scale found in Australia goes by the name of Pulvinaria hydrangeae.

#Pulvinariella #coccidae #cottony scale #introduced species #scale insect