The Madeira mealybug, Phenacoccus madeirensis Green, 1923 (Hemiptera: Coccomorpha: Pseudococcidae) is a highly polyphagous, invasive pest species that is actively extending its geographical range. There has been some uncertainty as to how to separate it reliably from a less invasive species, P. gossypii Townsend & Cockerell, 1898, due to the occurrence of intermediate morphologies. In this study, molecular and morphological analysis of Phenacoccus mealybugs intercepted on fresh plant material entering California provided evidence that there is a complex of undescribed cryptic species around P. madeirensis.

The life cycle of Stenocolus scutellaris includes oviposition in summer, larval growth and overwintering for at least two years, pupation in late spring and adult emergence in summer. the larval food mainly includes FPOM, shredded wood, algal filaments and associated debris; adults do not feed. The geographic distribution is in California's Central Valley counties, in the Sacramento/San Joaquin River systems. Various parts of the morphology of the egg, larva, pupa and adult are described and illustrated. The larval “gills” are shown to be osmoregulatory structures, not respiratory structures.

The insect fauna of the Galápagos Islands is considered among the most pristine in the world and is well-studied in the preserved areas. However, introduced species are numerous and damaging, particularly in disturbed areas such as agricultural zones. In this study, we examined the arthropod diversity in two agricultural sites on Santa Cruz Island, Galápagos; a shaded mixed coffee plantation and an abandoned avocado plantation. We combined three sampling techniques to obtain a detailed picture of the invertebrate fauna in the leaf litter and in the lower arbustive zone. We then compared the two sites to assess the variation in arthropod fauna depending on the degree of disturbance. During the study, we collected individuals belonging to 96 taxa within the classes Arachnida, Insecta, Malacostracea and Diplopoda. More than half of the species were either endemic or native, but introduced species constituted the great majority (83.5%) of the sampled specimens. The invasive fire ant Solenopsis geminata Fabricius, 1804 was present in the majority of the samples and constituted almost half of the specimens collected. Although the faunal composition and species richness was similar in both sites, the evenness of species distribution was lower in the more disturbed avocado plantation. The same site hosted more S. geminata, fewer native species, and fewer predatory species than the shaded coffee plantation. We discuss these results by stressing the potential importance of non-intensive agricultural zones for the conservation of biodiversity and the possible impacts of S. geminata on native invertebrates in the Galápagos Islands.

Phenacoccus aceris (Signoret, 1875), the apple mealybug, is a vector of little cherry virus 2 (LChV2), a causal pathogen of little cherry disease. Sweet cherry (Prunus avium Linnaeus) (Rosaceae) trees infected with LChV2 produce cherries of small size, poor color, and poor flavor, making the fruit unmarketable. Little cherry disease was first observed in British Columbia, Canada in 1933, where it had a dramatic impact on sweet cherry production, and was recently detected in Washington, U.S.A. cherry orchards. In 2014–2016, a natural infestation of P. aceris was monitored in an apple orchard located in Washington State University's Sunrise Orchard near Rock Island, Washington (47°18′45.14″N 120°04′08.31″W). Heavy parasitism was observed on overwintering nymphs and ovipositing female P. aceris, followed by a reduction in P. aceris crawlers. The emerged wasps were identified as the encyrtid Anagyrus schoenherri (Westwood, 1837). This is the first report of A. schoenherri parasitizing P. aceris in a Washington apple orchard, which represents an extension of the geographic distribution of A. schoenherri to the Nearctic Region. Reduction in P. aceris densities, one of the key vectors of LChV2, is potentially important for the sweet cherry industry in the Pacific Northwest. Historically, declining P. aceris populations in British Columbia were attributed to the establishment of a platygastrid parasitoid Allotropa utilis Muesebeck, 1939, suggesting that biological control could play a major role.