Major Pest of Lanzones

LANZONES MUSSEL SCALE INSECT

Scientific Unaspis mabilis

Unaspis mabilis Lit & Barbecho (Hemiptera: Diaspididae) has recently been described as a species of armored scale insect infested with lanzones. Significant infestations in North Cotabato were first detected in 2004. It was estimated that infestations had caused losses of millions of pesos in agricultural produce and hundreds of thousands of trees had already been invaded in the municipality of North Cotabato alone.

Scale of female dark gray with whitish border, elongate, somewhat mussel-shaped, with median longitudinal ridge, exuvia of earlier instars, light to dark brown, all at anterior tip of scale cover. Scale of males cottony white, at most a fifth the size of adult female scale. Mounted body of adult female fusiform, with free abdominal segments moderately lobed laterally; derm largely membranous at maturity, except for pygidial area. The scale cover of the juvenile male is much smaller than that of the adult female with yellow terminal exuviae, white, felted, tricarinate.

Damages on Crops