Florida Entomologist (1997) 80, 328-334

Gregory A. Evans and Paolo A. Pedata (1997)
Parasitoids of Comstockiella sabalis (Homoptera: Diaspididae) in Florida and description of a new species of the genus Coccobius (Hymenoptera: Aphelinidae)
Florida Entomologist 80 (3), 328-334
Abstract: Coccobius donatellae Pedata and Evans, spec. nov. is described and illustrated from specimens reared from Comstockiella sabalis (Comstock) on palmetto palm (Sabal palmetto) in Florida. Coccobius donatellae is the most common parasitoid that attacks this host in Florida and is believed to be the same species reported in the literature as " Physcus sp." that was introduced into Bermuda from Florida in the 1920's. Evidence suggests that earlier reports of Encarsia portoricensis (Howard) as a parasitoid of the palmetto scale are based on erroneous identifications of what were probably Coccobius donatellae males. Recent collections in Florida confirm Aphytis diaspidis (Howard), reported previously as Aphytis fuscipennis, and Encarsia citrina (Craw) as parasitoids of C. sabalis. Intraspecific variation occurring in C. donatellae and in Coccobius testaceus (Masi), is discussed.
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Database assignments for author(s): Paolo Alfonso Pedata

Research topic(s) for pests/diseases/weeds:
biocontrol - natural enemies
Research topic(s) for beneficials or antagonists:
identification/taxonomy
surveys/distribution/isolation

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Pest and/or beneficial records:

Beneficial	Pest/Disease/Weed	Crop/Product	Country	Quarant.
	Comstockiella sabalis		Bermuda Islands
	Comstockiella sabalis	Sabal (genus)	U.S.A. (SE)
Aphytis diaspidis (parasitoid)	Comstockiella sabalis	Sabal (genus)	U.S.A. (SE)
Coccobius donatellae (parasitoid)	Comstockiella sabalis	Sabal (genus)	U.S.A. (SE)