Paratachardina Pseudolobata (Coccoidea: Kerriidae): Bionomics in Florida (Report‪)‬

Paratachardina pseudolobata (Kondo & Gullan) (Coccoidea: Kerriidae) was found for the first time in Florida in 1999 (Hamon 2001). The first specimens were found in Broward County on a single infested hibiscus shrub, Hibiscus rosa-sinensis L., in a residential area by Rita J. Carpenter, District Plant Inspector with the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, Division of Plant Industry (DPI). It was initially identified by Avas Hamon (DPI Bureau of Entomology) as Paratachardina lobata (Chamberlin); the identification was confirmed by D. R. Miller (Systematic Entomology Laboratory, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Beltsville, MD). The infested plant was destroyed, but additional infestations were found in Miami-Dade and Broward Counties in 2000 and on 17 sites in Palm Beach, Broward, and Miami-Dade counties in 2001. Within the next few years, it became widely disseminated in southeastern Florida and was recognized as a severe pest of many species of woody plants in both urban landscapes and natural areas. As of Jun 2009, the species was distributed in all Florida counties south of Lake Okeechobee, with scattered records in coastal areas north to St. Lucy and Indian River counties. Avas Hamon received specimens of this same species from New Providence, Bahamas, in 1992 (personal communications). In 2005, this species was found in the central region of Cuba (Novoa et al. 2007) and has been known for an undetermined number of years on Christmas Island (Australia) in the Indian Ocean (Abbott & Green 2007; Kondo & Gullan 2007). It is obviously an adventive in these localities. The scale was identified as P. lobata, native to southern India and Sri Lanka.