A biosystematic study ofAspidiotus neriiBouché (Homoptera: Diaspididae), with the description of one new species

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Abstract
Uniparental (UP) and biparental (BP) populations of the oleander or ivy scale, Aspidiotus nerii Bouchè, were reared under similar conditions. Development of the UP population was always slower than that of the BP scales. UP females usually produced less than half the number of progeny the BP females had, and the patterns of development and oviposition were quite dissimilar. The shield of UP females was slightly, but consistently, darker than that of BP females, and the latter never colonized Pittosporum undulation, the only host-plant on which UP population occur in Israel. These criteria are used to describe the uniparental population as Aspidiotus paranerii Gerson sp. nov. and to differentiate it from A. nerii. As the biology of A. paranerii clearly differs from that of a Californian uniparental sibling species of A. nerii, it is argued that the latter may have a series of such parthenogenetic relatives.