Ceroplastes rubens Maskell, 1893

(Figs 12, 13)

Ceroplastes rubens Maskell, 1893: 214.

Diagnosis. Body covered with reddish brown wax without a distinct dorsal horn at maturity (Fig. 12A). Dorsum with Ceroplastes - type pores of 3 types present: mono-, bi- and trilocular pores (Fig. 13C); monolocular pores frequent; anal plates each with 1 discal seta and 3 apical setae (Fig. 13E); and dorsal setae blunt, sparsely present on dorsum except for clear areas (Fig. 13B). Marginal setae numbering 2–4 between anterior and posterior stigmatic clefts on each side (Fig. 13H). Stigmatic clefts deep, each with a very large and bluntly conical medial seta, and two round lateral setae, plus smaller round setae arranged in 1 or 2 rows (Figs 12C, 13A). Venter with multilocular disc-pores present on all abdominal segments, with a few pores present laterad of meta- and mesocoxa (Fig. 13F); tubular ducts absent; antenna 6 segmented (Figs 12D, 13K); and legs very short and poorly developed, each with tibia and tarsus fused (Figs 12E, 13G) (partially adopted from Hodgson & Peronti 2012).

Material examined. 1 ♀, LAOS, Hadsayfong Dist., Vientiane Capital, 18.i.2016, coll. P.P. Soysouvanh, on Mangifera sp. (Anacardiaceae); 5 ♀♀, Khong Dist., Champasak Prov., 30.vii.2016, on Ixora sp. (Rubiaceae) (same collector).

Hosts. Polyphagous. According to García Morales et al. (2016), C. rubens has been recorded from plants belonging to 168 genera in 79 families. In Laos, it has been recorded on Dracaena sp. (Asparagaceae) (Suh & Bombay 2015).

Distribution. All zoogeographical regions; Oriental Region (India, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Philippines, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam) (Suh & Bombay 2015; García Morales et al. 2016).

Economic importance. Yasumatsu (1958) considered C. rubens to be an economically important pest of various plants; in addition, it has been described as a major pest of citrus in Australia (Loch 1997) and Japan (Yasumatsu 1958; Itioka & Inoue 1996).

Remarks. Ceroplastes rubens is most similar to C. reunionensis Ben-Dov & Matile-Ferrero but Hodgson & Peronti (2012) provided diagnostic characters to distinguish these two species, based on the distributions of their stigmatic spines and on their distributional ranges. Ceroplastes rubens has 4 rows of stigmatic setae and a worldwide distribution, whereas C. reunionensis has 5 rows of stigmatic setae and is only known from the island of Réunion in the Indian Ocean.