Contribution to the knowledge of the scale insects (Hemiptera Coccoidea) from the Aosta Valley (Italy)

Abstract

The paper presents the results of a survey on the scale insect fauna
carried out over different years in the Alpine Aosta Valley (Italy). A total of 54
species have been collected in this Italian region. Of these, 7 are new for the
Italian fauna: Neomargarodes festucae Archangelskaja, Chaetococcus sulci
(Green), Peliococcus marrubii (Kiritshenko), Rhodania porifera Goux, Eriococcus
placidus Green, Rhizopulvinaria saxatilis Canard and R. spinifera Borchsenius.
Two other species previously recorded from the Aosta Valley as Rhizoecus caesii
Schmutterer and Mirococcopsis nagyi Kozar proved their pertinence respectively
to Rhizoecus pratensis Borchsenius & Tereznikova and Volvicoccus volvifer Goux.
The opportunity is taken to synonyrnize Antoninella inaudita Kiritshenko, 1938,
n. syn. with Antoninella parkeri (Balachowsky, 1936) n. comb. The peculiar
climate of the Aosta Valley allows the establishment of several thermophilous or
xerophilous species, some of which are considered rare species, such as Neomargarodes
festucae, Antoninella parkeri, Chaetococcus sulci, Rhizoecus albidus
Goux, Rhodania porifera, Peliococcus marrubii, Volvicoccus volvifer, Cerococcus
cycliger Goux, Rhizopulvinaria artemisiae (Signoret), R. spinifera, Quadraspidiotus
labiatarum (Marchal).