Unique Biological Aspects of the Genus Casca and a Description of a New Species (Hymenoptera: Aphelinidae)1
- 1 January 1966
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Oxford University Press (OUP) in Annals of the Entomological Society of America
- Vol. 59 (1) , 79-82
- https://doi.org/10.1093/aesa/59.1.79
Abstract
Species of the genus Casca Howard are unique among the endoparasitcs of armored scale insects in that (1) larval development within full-grown hosts is generally gregarious, (2) the male adult emerges from its host after the emergence of the female (the interval between the emergence of the 2 sexes not exceeding the time required for the completion of embryonic development in the female-producing fertilized egg), and (3) embryonic development in the male-producing unfertilized egg, in contrast to the female-producing egg, is inhibited by the body fluids of the coccid host. Circumstantial evidence indicates that embryonic development in the unfertilized egg is not inhibited if that egg is deposited within a previously deposited fertilized egg. The male larva in several species apparently develops within the body fluids of the coccid host as a primary parasite. The adult progeny of the mated female, as in several other aphelinid genera, is entirely female. A species of Casca structurally inseparable from Casca chinensis Howard is described as a new species, C. albacincta.This publication has 0 references indexed in Scilit: