Mealybug Characteristics and Detailed Description of Damage Symptoms

There are many kinds of scale insects. Do you know about the mealybug? What are its damaging habits? What does it look like? Let's take a look together.

Damaging habits: It can occur on poinsettia year-round, and infestations are especially severe in poorly ventilated facilities. Many insects gather and grow on the undersides of leaves, secrete white waxy filaments, and induce sooty mold, making it one of the most serious of the several scale insects that damage poinsettia. Host plants also include sugar apple, citrus, coffee, mulberry, tea plant, coconut, cotton, hibiscus, ivy, laurel, oleander, tobacco, sugarcane, and some plants in the Solanaceae family.

Morphology:

Nymph: Elongate oval, with a somewhat pointed and smaller tail end, flattened, with the head, thorax, and abdomen fused, abdominal segments distinct, body length about 0.4 mm, pale yellow, legs and antennae distinct, and a pair of long bristles on the anal plate.

Adult: The female adult is similar in form to the nymph, with a body length of about 4.5 mm, and the body is covered with a layer of white waxy powder. The male has a pupal stage; the pupa is light brown, with body segments clearly visible and wing buds, hidden in white cotton-like secretions. The male adult has a black head and thorax, a brown abdomen, a narrow and slender body about 1.1 mm long, and wings.