Pseudococcus citriculus Green and Its Parasites

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Abstract
The citrus-infesting mealybug Pseudococcus citriculus Green has frequently been misidentified as P. conistocki (Kuw.), a species not known to reproduce on citrus. P. citriculus is widely distributed in East Asia and appears in certain regions to be held at low densities by entomophagous insects. Early importations into California of the parasites of this mealybug were released for the control of Planococcus citri (Risso). The life history of Coccophagus pseudococci Comp., like that of C. gurneyi Comp. parasitic in Pseudococcus gahani Green, is peculiar in that the unfertilized egg hatches only when the body fluids of the parasitized mealybug are consumed by a companion parasite. Pseudococcus citriculus parasitized by Coccophagus pseudococci has been obtained from citrus and Pandanus but only in the vicinity of Taipo Market in South China. The continuing successful control of P. citriculus on citrus in Palestine by Clauscnia purpurea Ishii may be dependent on the absence of the hyperparasite Lygocerus sp.

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