Page 19 - Volume 6, Issue 2, July 2013
Basic HTML Version
© Benaki Phytopathological Institute
1
Laboratory of Biological Control, Department of En-
tomology and Agricultural Zoology, Benaki Phy-
topathological Institute, 8 St. Delta Str., GR-145 61 Ki-
fisia (Athens), Greece.
2
Department of Entomology, Agricultural Research
Organization, The Volcani Center, Bet Dagan, 50250,
ISRAEL.
Corresponding author:
Hellenic Plant Protection Journal
6:
67-68, 2013
SHORT COMMUNICATION
First record of
Rhodania occulta
Schmutterer (Hemiptera:
Pseudococcidae) in Greece
P.G. Milonas
1
, G.K. Partsinevelos
1
and Y. Ben-Dov
2
Summary
The mealybug
Rhodania occulta
has been recorded for the first time in Greece. Adult fe-
males were collected from leaves sheaths of
Lolium
sp. (Poaceae) at Parnitha mount in Attica. This is the
first record of the genus
Rhodania
in Greece.
The genus
Rhodania
(Hemiptera: Pseudo-
coccidae) includes the following six species
that are distributed in the Palaearctic re-
gion:
Rh. aeluropi
Williams & Moghaddam,
2007;
Rh. festucae
Hadzibejli, 1959;
Rh. fla-
va
Goux, 1936;
Rh. hypogea
Leonardi, 1908;
Rh. occulta
Schmutterer, 1952 and
Rh. porif-
era
Goux, 1934 (Gavrilov-Zimin, 2011; Ben-
Dov
et al.
, 2013). All stages of these mealy-
bug species feed on roots and at leaf-bases
of grasses (Poaceae) that belong to the gen-
era
Agrostis
,
Corynephorus
and
Festuca
(Ko-
sztarab and Kozar, 1988).
Rhodania occulta
has been recorded in
Germany (Schmuterrer, 1952), Netherlands
(Reyne, 1957) and Poland (Koteja & Zak Oga-
za, 1966). This is the first record of the spe-
cies in the Mediterranean region and in
Greece in particular (Milonas
et al
., 2008).
In Greece,
Rh. occulta
was collected in
January 2007, at Parnitha mount, Attica, off
leaves of
Lolium sp
. (Poaceae). The popula-
tion consisted of adult females, suggesting
that it overwinters at this stage. Specimens
are deposited at the Biological Control Lab-
oratory of BPI Greece and at the Depart-
ment of Entomology, Agricultural Research
Organization, in Israel
Adult females of
Rh. occulta
are elongate
oval, light yellow and approximately 1.9 mm
long, 0.95 mm wide; the antenna is 6-seg-
mented. It develops one generation per
year. In central Europe adult females over-
winter and lay their eggs at the end of April-
early May. Eggs hatch after two weeks and
nymphs reach maturity in September. They
feed on the underside of the leaf-blades or
at the base of stem of grasses (Kosztarab
and Kozar, 1988; Schmutterer, 1952).
The present new records of
R. occul-
ta
and the host plant species may indicate
that this mealybug species is more common
in Greece and in Europe than the current re-
cords suggest. Further studies are required
to determine its distribution in Palaearctic
region.
Literature cited
Ben-Dov Y., Miller, D.R. and Gibson G.A.P. 2013 -
ScaleNet: a database of the scale insects of
the world. Available from
.
usda.gov/scalenet/scalenet.htm (accessed May
2013).
Gavrilov-Zimin, I.A. 2011. Mealybugs of the genus
Rhodania
Goux, 1934 (Homoptera: Coccinea:
Pseudococcidae) from Russia and neighbouring
countries
Zoosystematica Rossica
20(1):40-44.
Goux, L. 1934. Notes sur les coccides [Hem.] de la
France. (10e note). Étude d’une espèce nouvelle
constituant un genre nouveau.
Bulletin de la So-
