Post by koeiyabe on Jan 3, 2016 2:58:51 GMT
Oahu Mealybug
Opuhe Mealybug (Phyllococcus oahuensis)
The Opuhe Mealybug was scientifically described in the year 1912, and was originally known only from the island of O’ahu, however, it was later (1948) recorded from herbar material of its host plant, the Opuhe (Urera glabra ((Hook. & Arn.) Wedd.)), a member of the nettle family, that is endemic to the Hawaiian main islands, which had been collected in the year 1910 on the island of Lana’i.
The species may well have occured on all of the larger Hawaiian islands.
The Opuhe Mealybug formed coin-shaped galls on the upper surface of the leaves of its host plant, which again sometimes grew together to form smaller clumps.
The reasons for its (alleged) extinction are not known to me, however, Elwood C. Zimmerman writes in the year 1948 in ‘Insects of Hawaii’.:
“It is heavily parasitized by a small chalcid wasp of undetermined identity.”
That indicates that this mealybug species may have been extirpated eventually by a – very probably intentionally imported for pest control – chalcid wasp species.
theholoceneextinctionevent.wordpress.com/tag/phyllococcus-oahuensis/
www.iucnredlist.org/details/17120/0
Opuhe Mealybug (Phyllococcus oahuensis)
The Opuhe Mealybug was scientifically described in the year 1912, and was originally known only from the island of O’ahu, however, it was later (1948) recorded from herbar material of its host plant, the Opuhe (Urera glabra ((Hook. & Arn.) Wedd.)), a member of the nettle family, that is endemic to the Hawaiian main islands, which had been collected in the year 1910 on the island of Lana’i.
The species may well have occured on all of the larger Hawaiian islands.
The Opuhe Mealybug formed coin-shaped galls on the upper surface of the leaves of its host plant, which again sometimes grew together to form smaller clumps.
The reasons for its (alleged) extinction are not known to me, however, Elwood C. Zimmerman writes in the year 1948 in ‘Insects of Hawaii’.:
“It is heavily parasitized by a small chalcid wasp of undetermined identity.”
That indicates that this mealybug species may have been extirpated eventually by a – very probably intentionally imported for pest control – chalcid wasp species.
theholoceneextinctionevent.wordpress.com/tag/phyllococcus-oahuensis/
www.iucnredlist.org/details/17120/0
