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GREEN'S MEALYBUG Pseudococcus citriculus Green -- Homoptera,
Pseudococcidae (Contacts) ---- CLICK on Photo to enlarge & search for Subject Matter with Ctrl/F. GO TO ALL: Bio-Control Cases First found in
Israel in 1937, green's mealybug has spread from its presumed origin in East
Asia to Hawaii, Paraguay and Brazil (Rivnay 1968, Kennett et al. 1999). Bodenheimer (1951) verified it as a
distinct species and not related to Psuedococcus
comstocki (Kuwana). Rivnay (1968) found Green's mealybug to be
attacked by many predators and parasitoids in Israel during 1939-40, some of
which also are known to attack citrus mealybug. However, none of these produced acceptable biological control. Before Green's mealybug was definitely known
as a separate species, parasitoids were obtained from Japan from P. comstocki (Kennett et al. 1999). Clausenia purpurea Ishii and Allotropa burrelli Muesebeck were numerous in the shipments (Rivnay
1942). Although A. burrelli
did not reproduce on P. citriculus, C. purpurea did rear satisfactorily and became readily
established. Rivnay (1946) considered
that although several local parasitoids were highly competitive, C. purpurea became the dominant species. However Bodenheimer (1951) believed that of
the natural enemies, Scymnus
spp., Clausenia, Leptomastidea, Leptomastix, and Anagyrus, actually were
satisfactory and that biological control would have resulted even without the
introduction of C. purpurea. Nevertheless, Rosen (1967) and DeBach
(1974) concluded that C. purpurea was the only
parasitoid responsible for the complete control of P. citriculus. For
greater details pertaining to the biological control efforts, and biologies
of host and natural enemies, please see the following (Bodenheimer 1928,
Goncalves 1940, Klein & Perzelan 1940, Mason 1941, 1943; Rivnay &
Perzelan 1943, Clancy 1944, Haeussler & Clancy 1944, Flanders 1959,
Murakami et al. 1967). REFERENCES: [Additional references may be found at: MELVYL
Library ] Bodenheimer,
F. S. 1928. Contributions
towards the knowledge of the citrus insects in Palestine. I. Preliminary report on the work of the Palestine
breeding laboratory at Petahtikwa, 1924-27.
Palestine Citrog. 1: 3-16. Bodenheimer,
F. S. 1951. Citrus Entomology
in the Middle East. W. Junk, Publ.,
The Hague. 663 p. Clancy, D. W.
1944. Hyperparasitization of Clausenia purpurea Ishii, an important parasite of the Comstock
mealybug. J. Econ.
Ent. 37: 450-51. DeBach, P.
1974. Biological Control by
Natural Enemies. Cambridge Univ.
Press, London, New York. 323 p. Flanders, S.
E. 1959c. Pseudococcus citriculus Green and its parasites. J. Econ. Ent. 52: 880-82. Goncalves,
C. R. 1940. Observacoes sobre Pseudococcus
comstocki (Kuw. 1902)
atacando citrus no Baixada fluminense. Rodriguesia 4: 179-98. [in
Portuguese]. Haeussler, G. J. & D. W. Clancy. 1944.
Natural enemies of Comstock mealybug in the eastern states. J. Econ. Ent. 37: 503-09. Kennett, C. E., J. A. McMurtry & J. W.
Beardsley. 1999. Biological control in subtropical and
tropical crops. In: Bellows,
T. S. & T. W. Fisher (eds.), Handbook
of Biological Control: Principles and
Applications. Academic Press, San
Diego, New York. 1046 p Klein, H. Z.
& J. Perzelan. 1940. A
contribution to the study of Pseudococcus
comstocki in Palestine. Hadar 13:
107-110. Mason, F. R.
1941. Notes on mealybugs and
their parasites. In:
Ann. Rept. Dept.
Agric. & Fisheries (Palestine) for year ended Mar. 31, 1941: 4-15. Mason, F. R.
1943. Notes on mealybugs and
their parasites. In:
Ann. REpt. Dept.
Agric. & Fisheries (Palestine) for year ended Mar. 31, 1942: 10-12. Murakami,
Y., R. Morimoto & H. Kajita. 1967.
Possibility of biological control of Pseudococcus comstocki
in Japan. Mushi 39: 85-96. Rivnay, E.
1942. Clausenia purpurea
Ishii, a parasite of Pseudococcus
comstocki Kuw. introduced
into Palestine. Bull. Soc. Fouad ler
Ent. Egypte 26: 1-19. Rivnay, E.
1946. The status of Clausenia purpurea Ishii and its competition with other parasites of
Pseudococcus comstocki Kuw. in
Palestine. Bull. Soc. Fouad ler Ent.
Egypte 30: 11-19. Rivnay, E.
1968. Biological control of
pests in Israel (a review 1905-1965).
Israel J. Ent. 3: 1-156. Rivnay, E. & J. Perzelan. 1943.
Insects associated with Pseudococcus
spp. (Homoptera) in Palestine, with notes on their biology and economic
status. J. Ent. Soc. So. Africa
6: 9-28. Rosen, D.
1967. Biological and
integrated control of citrus pests in Israel. J. Econ. Ent. 60:
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