#NewSpecies!
New scale insect from #china just came in:

Paraputo liboensis

Treatment: https://treatment.plazi.org/id/9D1487ED-BB14-9B69-FF9A-B394FBC0F80C
Publication: https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.5590.1.8
#Zootaxa #ParaputoLiboensis

#FAIRdata
#science #OA #openaccess #biology #taxonomy #ecology #biodiversity #nature #wildlife #conservation #animals #invertebrates #entomology #insects #hemiptera #bugs #scaleinsects

#NewSpecies!
New pit scale from #china just came in:

Pauroaspis chuanensis

Treatment: https://treatment.plazi.org/id/415887C0-FFC7-FFAB-FF15-FE9953C0AE44
Publication: https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.5604.2.8
#Zootaxa #PauroaspisChuanensis

#FAIRdata
#science #OA #openaccess #biology #taxonomy #ecology #biodiversity #nature #wildlife #conservation #animals #invertebrates #entomology #insects #hemiptera #bugs #scaleinsects #pitscales

My friend and colleague just released 2 pre-prints on #symbiosis in #scaleinsects
please check out their great work.

https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.10.23.619971v1

https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.10.23.619753v1

Tiny wasp helps save one of world’s rarest birds from extinction https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/oct/08/tiny-parasitic-wasp-rarest-species-bird-extinction-wilkins-bunting

"The Wilkins’ bunting lives on Nightingale Island (#TristanDaCunha group). It eats the fruit of the Phylica arborea, the island’s only native tree... invasive #ScaleInsects secrete honeydew, which encourages the growth of a sooty #mould that weakens and eventually kills P. arborea... a small parasitoid wasp prevents the insects from breeding... Scientists believe that the #wasps have helped save the #birds"

I found the most amazing scale insects (superfamily Coccoidea) on a tree today!!! Big, close to pea-sized, and salmon-coloured, and tended by carpenter ants.

I pried up the edge of an already damaged one with a leaf-stem, and some babies came out!!

#bugstodon #insects #ScaleInsects #Hemiptera #Sternorrhyncha #Coccoidea #Hymenoptera #Formicidae #Camponotus #macro @bugid

I found a new kind of scale insect on pine needles! Anyone know what it might be? I think the tree is red pine, but not sure. Attached a pic of the needles for reference.

#Arthropoda #insects #ScaleInsects @bugid

One wonders if the scale insects get nervous when one of their neighbors suddenly collapses into a bloom of zombie fungus.

#Ophiocordyceps #Fungus #ScaleInsects #Death