Citrus Mealybug

• GeneralIt coats itself in a cottony white wax and secretes honeydew that draws ants.
• It lives in mutualism with ants: they protect it from its predators and carry it to fresh shoots in exchange for the sugary honeydew, so controlling the ants is often the first step in controlling the mealybug.
• Its most widely used natural enemy is the Australian beetle Cryptolaemus montrouzieri, whose larva mimics the cottony look of its prey in order to get close.
• Its sex determination system is among the strangest in the animal kingdom: the males completely inactivate the set of chromosomes inherited from their father.
• The female lays her eggs in a cottony mass of white wax, the ovisac, which makes the branches look as though they were covered in cotton wool.
• Females and nymphs are wingless and coated in wax; the males are tiny, winged and gnat-like, and do the plant no harm.
• The first nymphal stage, the crawler, is the only genuinely mobile one and the one that colonises new plants; it also travels on the wind, on birds' feet and on machinery.
• It is controlled with the ladybird Cryptolaemus montrouzieri and with the parasitoid Leptomastix dactylopii, specific to this species.
• In California it is recommended that Argentine ants be controlled in citrus groves, because they protect the mealybug and interfere with its natural enemies.

Habitat & environment

Citrus, vines and house plants

Gestation / incubation

The eggs hatch in between 2 and 10 days; the full cycle takes about 30 days

Litter / clutch size

From 300 to 600 eggs per female, in groups of 5 to 20

Sources consulted: University of Florida, Featured Creatures; CABI Compendium; UMass Extension