(Morgan, 1889)
Diagnosis
Scale cover of adult female in life circular, highly convex, almost black, with dark central exuviae and a thick ventral scale MORLOL8.jpg . Scale cover of male similar in colour but smaller and more elongate than female, with subterminal exuviae MOLOL.jpg . Exposed body of adult female creamy white MORLOL5.jpg .
Body of slide-mounted adult female pyriform, membranous, anterior margin of cephalothorax rounded MOLOS.jpg and MORLOL6.jpg . Pygidium broad (subtended by an angle of more than 90°); median lobes only present, these large, with well-developed basal scleroses, and set close together without any plates between them; small paraphyses present in positions of second and third lobes. Plates large, mostly fringed along their margins rather than just at their tips MOLONGP1.jpg . Marginal setae each more than 2x as long as a median lobe MORLOL7.jpg .
Host range
Morganella longispina is a polyphagous species that has been recorded from hosts belonging to 26 plant families (Borchsenius, 1966). It frequently infests the bark (Williams and Williams, 1988) and is often found on Citrus (Nakahara, 1982). Hosts include species of: Arthrocarpum, Artocarpus, Averrhoa carambola, Bauhinia, Calodendrum, Camellia, Cananga, Carica papaya, Cedrela, Celtis, Citrus spp., Coffea, Cupania, Dendrobium, Elaeagnus, Eriobotrya, Eucalyptus, Eugenia, Ficus spp., Fraxinus, Gleditsia, Grammatophyllum, Hibiscus rosa-sinensis, Jasminum, Lagerstroemia, Ligustrum, Macadamia, Malus sylvestris, Mangifera indica, Mespilus, Michelia, Morus, Nerium, Olea, Peddiea, Persea americana, Platanus, Prunus spp., Psidium, Punica granatum, Salix, Sterculia, Tecoma stans, Theobroma cacao and Tristania.
Affected plant stages: vegetative growing, flowering and fruiting stages
Affected plant parts: on branches MORLOL1.jpg and MORLOL4.jpg , occasionally on fruit MORLOL8.jpg
Biology and ecology
The biology and ecology of M. longispina have not been studied. Crawlers are the primary dispersal stage and move to new areas of the plant or are dispersed by wind or animal contact. Mortality due to abiotic factors is high in this stage. Dispersal of sessile adults and eggs occurs through human transport of infested plant material.
Symptoms
On fig, feeding punctures of M. longispina cause tumerous cankers on twigs, and branches become desiccated and tend to break off (Cohic, 1955).
Economic impact
in French Polynesia, Morganella longispina was recorded damaging grapefruit, lemon and fig by Cohic, 1955; Reboul, 1976, recorded damage also to Carica papaya, Lagerstroemia flos-reginae, mango and Psidium cattleianum. In New Caledonia, Cohic, 1956 and 1958, mentioned it as particularly damaging to Bauhinia and Jasminum, which it sometimes killed; it was often associated with the fungus Fusarium juruanum. The species is a minor pest of Citrus in Brazil and China, but more often is a pest of ornamental plants, e.g. in Florida (Hamon, 1981).
Detection and inspection methods
Examine the bark of the hosts listed above for circular, highly convex, almost black scale covers, each with dark central exuviae and a thick ventral scale MORLOL1.jpg .
Natural enemies
Parasitoids:
- Encarsia koebelei, in Hawaii
- Pteroptrix perkinsi, in Hawaii
Distribution
See Morganella longispina distribution.
Microscopic examination of slide-mounted adult females is required for authoritative identification to species.
Clavaspis herculeana (Cockerell and Hadden) (clavate scale) CLAHES.jpg is a species not included in the key, which could be misidentified as M. longispina. However, C. herculeana has quite an acute pygidium with very simple, unfringed plates CLAHEP.jpg, whereas in M. longispina the pygidium is broad and the plates are very elaborately fringed MOLONGP1.jpg. Clavaspis herculeana is a rather inconspicuous species that has probably been undercollected. It is tropicopolitan and polyphagous, and is known from USA (Florida, Hawaii, Texas), Mexico, many Caribbean islands (e.g. Jamaica, Trinidad), most Central and South American countries (e.g. Panama, Colombia, Argentina (Corrientes, Missiones, Rio Negro), Brazil (Sao Paulo)), Ascension Is, Guinea, Kenya, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, South Africa, Zimbabwe, West Malaysia, Philippines, Cook Is, Fiji, New Caledonia, Society Is, Tonga, Western Samoa and Australia on species of Acacia, Aleurites, Annonaceae, Bauhinia, Cassia, Citrus, Condalia, Erythrina, Faramea, Ficus, Gossypium, Grevillea, Jasminum, Leguminosae, Macadamia, Malus sylvestris, Mangifera, Mimosa, Morus, Muehlenbeckia, Myristica, Olea europaea, Pithecellobium, Plumeria, Pyrus, Rosa, Solanum, Spondias, Vitex and Xylosma (Silva et al., 1968; Nakahara, 1981; Nakahara, 1982; Williams and Watson, 1988; Williams and Williams, 1988; Miller, 1996; CSIRO, 2001; Kondo, 2001). See also genus Clavaspis, kingdom Animalia. CLAHERCL.jpg
Morganella longispina could be confused with species of Oceanaspidiotus, but differs by never having any second or third lobes. In contrast, Oceanaspidiotus species always has these lobes developed to some degree (see also genus Oceanaspidiotus, kingdom Animalia).
Comments
Some members of the genus Morganella originate from Africa and others from the Neotropical region; it is unclear which of these land masses Morganella longispina came from. It is a tropicopolitan species that extends into some temperate areas (Williams and Watson, 1988). The species has not been recorded from Europe.
Asia
China: present, no further details (Danzig and Pellizzari, 1998)
Fujian: present, no further details (Tao, 1999)
Guangdong: present, no further details (Tao, 1999)
Hong Kong: present, no further details (Nakahara, 1982)
Inner Mongolia: present, no further details (Tao, 1999)
Yunnan: present, no further details (Tao, 1999)
India: present, no further details (Nakahara, 1982)
Indonesia: present, no further details (Nakahara, 1982)
Japan: present, cannot read any further details (Kawai, 1980; Tao, 1999)
Philippines: present, no further details (Nakahara, 1982)
Sri Lanka: present, no further details (Nakahara, 1982)
Taiwan: present, no further details (Wong et al., 1999)
Africa
Algeria: present, no further details (Nakahara, 1982; Danzig and Pellizzari, 1998)
Egypt: present, no further details (Danzig and Pellizzari, 1998)
Cameroon: present, no further details (Nakahara, 1982)
Mauritius: present, no further details (Williams and Williams, 1988)
Mozambique: present, no further details (Nakahara, 1982)
Rodrigues: present, no further details (Williams and Williams, 1988)
Sao Tomé: present, no further details (Nakahara, 1982)
Seychelles: The Natural History Museum collection, London, UK
South Africa: present, no further details (Nakahara, 1982)
Western Hemisphere
Antigua: present, no further details (Nakahara, 1982)
Bahamas: present, no further details (Nakahara, 1982)
Barbados: present, no further details (Bennett and Alam, 1985)
Bermuda: fairly common and widespread (Hodgson and Hilburn, 1991)
Brazil: present, no further details (Nakahara, 1982)
Guanabara: present, no further details (Silva et al., 1968)
Paraná: present, no further details (Claps et al., 2001a)
Rio de Janeiro: present, no further details (Claps et al., 2001a)
Rio Grande do Sul: present, no further details (Claps et al., 2001a)
Santa Caterina: present, no further details (Claps et al., 2001a)
Sao Paulo: present, no further details (Claps et al., 2001a)
Chile
Easter Island: present, no further details (Claps et al., 2001a)
Costa Rica: present, no further details (Nakahara, 1982)
Dominican Republic: present, no further details (Nakahara, 1982)
Guatemala: present, no further details (Nakahara, 1982)
Guyana: present, no further details (Nakahara, 1982; Danzig and Pellizzari, 1998)
Haiti: present, no further details (Nakahara, 1982)
Jamaica: present, no further details (Nakahara, 1982)
Mexico: present (Miller, 1996)
Puerto Rico: present, no further details (Nakahara, 1982)
St Martin: present, no further details (Nakahara, 1982)
Trinidad and Tobago: present, no further details (Nakahara, 1982)
USA
Florida: present, no further details (Nakahara, 1982)
Hawaii: present on Oahu, Hawaii and Kauai (Heu, 2002)
Oceania
Australia: present, no further details (CSIRO, 2001)
Cook Is: present (Williams and Watson, 1988)
Fiji: present (Williams and Watson, 1988)
Marquesas Is: present, no further details (Nakahara, 1982)
New Caledonia: present, no further details (Cohic, 1958; Nakahara, 1982)
New Guinea: present, no further details (Nakahara, 1982)
Papua New Guinea: present (Williams and Watson, 1988)
Samoa: present, no further details (Nakahara, 1982)
Society Is: present, no further details (Doanne and Hadden, 1909)
Solomon Is: Guadalcanal (Nakahara, 1982)
Tahiti: present, no further details (Williams and Watson, 1988)
Tonga: present (Williams and Watson, 1988)
Tuamotu Is: present, no further details (Doanne and Hadden, 1909)
Western Samoa: present (Williams and Watson, 1988)