Austraspis foye Normark, Normark, and Amouroux, sp. n.

Description. Occurring on the leaves or bark of the host; adult female partially enclosed within second-instar exuviae; first exuviae retained at anterior margin of second exuviae. Slide-mounted adult female without gland spines; without regularly arranged plates (though a few unsclerotized lobules may appear plate-like); with all 8 abdominal segments free, or with abdominal segments VII and VIII apparently fused; dorsal ducts 2-barred, minute; antenna with multiple setae; quinquelocular pores present near anterior and posterior spiracles; sclerotized lobes (trullae) always bilobulate or multilobulate, never unilobulate; lobe present on each on each of abdominal segments VI–VIII, present or absent on each of segments II–V; ventral submargin of cephalothorax with row of gland tubercles.

Distribution. Chile, from Coquimbo (30.3°S) to Tierra del Fuego (53.7°S).

Included species. Austraspis foye, sp. n.; Austraspis llanquihue, sp. n.; Austraspis pehuen, s p. n.; Austraspis relicta, sp. n.

Etymology. The name is taken from the Latin adjective australis, southern, and the Greek feminine noun aspis, shield. It reflects 2 facts about the type localities of the included species: all of them are in Chile, the southernmost country in the world, and one of them is at 53.7° S latitude, one of the southernmost localities from which scale insects have ever been collected.

Remarks. The proliferation of multilobulate lobes seen in Austraspis is unique and should permit separation from all other genera. But to date, Austraspis species have been misidentified in collections. Like another extraordinary taxon from the Americas, Thysanaspis dennorum Normark and Okusu, specimens of Austraspis have languished in collections under the name Protodiaspis sp. Austraspis indeed resembles Protodiaspis in having minute 2-barred ducts present and plates absent, and also resembles some Protodiaspis species in having abdominal segments V and VI free, pores by the anterior spiracles present, a row of duct tubercles present on the ventral submargin of the cephalothorax, and gland spines absent. Some Austraspis species resemble some Protodiaspis species in having the lobules of L2 well separated, or in having lobules serrate along the apical margin. But Austraspis consistently differs from Protodiaspis in having multisetose antennae (antennae unisetose in Protodiaspis) and in having bilobulate or multilobulate L1 (L1 at most unilobulate in Protodiaspis) and multilobulate L2 and L3 (at most bilobulate in Protodiaspis).

Early in the present investigation, one of us (BBN) misidentified an Austraspis specimen as Lopholeucaspis sp. Austraspis indeed resembles Lopholeucaspis in having multisetose antennae, a row of duct tubercles on the ventral submargin of the cephalothorax, 5-locular pores near the anterior spiracles, and small 2-barred ducts. But Austraspis differs from Lopholeucaspis in having multilobulate lobes (all lobes unilobulate in Lopholeucaspis) and pores by the posterior spiracle (absent in Lopholeucaspis), in lacking plates and perivulvar pores (both present in Lopholeucaspis), and in being only partially enclosed within the exuviae of the second instar (Lopholeucaspis fully enclosed within a puparium).