Ceroplastes sp.

Barnacle Scale at Eden, NSW

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Identification history

	Ceroplastes sp.	8 Dec 2019	KimPullen
	Unidentified	18 Nov 2019	HarveyPerkins

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User's notes

About 5 mm across.

5 comments

JackieMiles wrote:

19 Nov 2019

My garden pests book suggests this is Chinese wax scale, Ceroplastes sinensis. Doesn't say if it is native or introduced, but includes Melaleuca armillaris in the list of plants it attacks. It looks a bit like that is what yours is on.

HarveyPerkins wrote:

19 Nov 2019

Yes - it was on a young sapling at the very edge of the large patch of Melaleuca ericifolia.

HarveyPerkins wrote:

19 Nov 2019

It's amazing what you can find out when you've got a name! I found the info at these two links very interesting.
https://nzacfactsheets.landcareresearch.co.nz/factsheet/InterestingInsects/Chinese-wax-scale---Ceroplastes-sinensis.html and
http://idtools.org/id/scales/factsheet.php?name=6880
This scale is clearly very widespread and feeds on a very wide range of plants (from 50+ families), but neither of these links suggests what its natural pre-globalisation range might have been - but given the name, presumably eastern Asia.

JackieMiles wrote:

19 Nov 2019

Yep, sounds like it is not all fussy. I have a vague recollection of seeing it on our citrus occasionally. I think if you crush it, your fingers get stained red. I didn't like the statement about needing a specialist to identify it, although the photos of sinensis in the NZ reference looked a better match to yours than did those of destructor. Not sure what the other options are.

PaulWhitington wrote:

2 Dec 2019

Wouldn't it be safer to leave this one at the genus level? - given the statement in the idtools.org document that it resembles another species and that the differences they describe between the two appear subtle.

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