mealybug

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mealybug

mealybug common name for certain unarmored scale insects that exude a granular white secretion, giving them a mealy appearance. Many are common greenhouse and crop pests. Adult females are wingless, with oval, segmented bodies and well-developed legs. The females and young feed on various parts of plants with their sucking mouthparts. Adult males have no mouthparts and do not feed. In egg-laying species the female produces several hundred eggs in a mass covered with waxy threads. In other species the young are born alive. The most serious pests are mealybugs that feed on citrus; other species damage sugarcane, grapes, pineapple, coffee trees, ferns, and orchids. Mealybugs are classified in the phylum Arthropoda , class Insecta, order Homoptera, family Pseudococcidae.

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"mealybug." The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. 2008. Encyclopedia.com. 5 Dec. 2009 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>.

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mealybug

A Dictionary of Zoology | 1999 | | Â© A Dictionary of Zoology 1999, originally published by Oxford University Press 1999. (Hide copyright information) Copyright

mealybug See COCCIDAE.

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MICHAEL ALLABY. "mealybug." A Dictionary of Zoology. 1999. Encyclopedia.com. 5 Dec. 2009 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>.

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MICHAEL ALLABY. "mealybug." A Dictionary of Zoology. 1999. Retrieved December 05, 2009 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O8-mealybug.html

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Coccidae

A Dictionary of Zoology | 1999 | | Â© A Dictionary of Zoology 1999, originally published by Oxford University Press 1999. (Hide copyright information) Copyright

Coccidae (scale insects, mealybugs; order Hemiptera, suborder Homoptera) Family of homopterans which feed on plant sap, and some species of which are pests. Females are wingless. Males have a single pair of wings and do not feed; usually they are very small. The newly hatched nymphs (crawlers) are the main dispersal stage, and are blown about by the wind. Most older nymphs and females are sedentary, except in the mealybugs and their relatives, in which some mobility is retained. There are about 4000 species occurring mainly in the tropics. The Coccidae belong to a group that is usually split into about 12 families (see also LACCIFERIDAE).

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Free newspaper and magazine articles

	Mealybugs may have met their match: insect predators and parasites home in on this growing menace. Magazine article from: Agricultural Research; 4/1/2005
	Sex potion ensnares mealybugs.(pink hibiscus mealybug) Magazine article from: Agricultural Research; 4/1/2005
	Expression of feeding symptoms from pink hibiscus mealybug (Hemiptera: Pseudococcidae) by commercially important cultivars of hibiscus.(Report) Magazine article from: Florida Entomologist; 6/1/2009

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	USDA: Mealybug Threatens Florida Newspaper article from: U.S. Newswire; 8/1/2002; 602 words ; ...released today by the USDA: FEATURE - MEALYBUG THREATENS FLORIDA Intro: USDA is fighting...Bob Ellison reports. The pink hibiscus mealybug presents a serious and expensive threat...natural enemies of the pink hibiscus mealybug, parasitic wasps, to fight the threat...
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