Category Archives: Eriococcidae

Raining Sugar

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Subtitle: Gumtree scale insects, honeydew & and a tiny black ladybird

Many sap-sucking insects produce honeydew, but gumtree scale insects take it to a whole new level. These scale insects produce vast amounts of honeydew. Check out how it attracts lots of other insects, including ants and flies.

Gumtree scales (Eriococcus spp.) are members of the felt scale family Eriococcidae. You can see why they are called ‘felted’ scale by the female gumtree scales – they look like they live in a felted sac. These native insects are common in the Australian bush and they are not pests in natural bushland.

There is a little surprise in this video in the form of a tiny black ladybird (ladybug) beetle – the gumtree scale ladybird (Rhyzobius ventralis) – a specific predator of gumtree scale insects.

In the video I refer to other videos about a couple of related felted scales:
Kunzea felted scale
and
Tea-tree flower gall scale

I hope you enjoy this video. Please let me know what you think in the comments..

Plant, scale & thrips

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I love telling interesting insect stories and this one is a ripper! It involves a native plant, a species of scale insect and a thrips. It all starts with some white, waxy material that is quite common on a particular native plant in my area.

The story refers to the work of a couple of legendary entomologists:
William Miles Maskell and Laurence Mound

The scientific paper by Laurence Mound I refer to can be read here.

Have you ever seen this white waxy material on native plants?

 

Flower galls, scale insects, & other curiosities

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My latest YouTube video:”Flower galls, scale insects & other curiosities”.

Have you noticed strange lumps and bumps on the leaves and stems of various plants including Australian natives? It’s probably a type of gall.

The insect (Eremococcus turbinatus) in this video is a species of felt scale (Eriococcidae) that induces flower galls in tea-tree (Leptospermum spp.). I just love finding hidden insects like this. Aren’t those galls amazing?

Galls form in response to invasion of plant tissue by various organisms. Galls can be caused by certain species of wasps, flies, beetles, psyllids, coccids (scales), thrips, moths and aphids, as well as by nematodes, mites, bacteria or fungi.

Gall-inducing insects (adults and juveniles) are usually very small, rarely more than a few millimeters in length, but the galls they induce are much more obvious. In other words the insects are ‘hidden in plain sight’.

I hope you enjoy the video. Please leave a comment if you do. I would particularly like to hear from anyone who has seen these galls!