Seasonal Phenology of the Cryptic Mealybug, Pseudococcus cryptus (Homoptera: Pseudococcidae) Based on Attraction of Adult Males to a Sex Pheromone Trap

The cryptic mealybug, Pseudococcus cryptus, has been increasingly damaging citrus, particularly those plants grown in plastic greenhouses. This study was conducted to monitor the seasonal phenology of adult male cryptic mealybugs and to determine the timing for control using a sex pheromone trap. Adult males responded to a synthetic sex pheromone and trap color. An increasing number of males were attracted to the traps with increasing concentrations of sex pheromone up to 5 mg. The males occurred annually four times and had three cohorts at a time due to different overwintering developmental stages. After overwintering the adult males began to in mid-late April. A positive correlation was observed between the number of adult males caught in traps and the mean density per twig of all motile stages except first stage nymphs of the cryptic mealybugs. The peak time for the first nymph to occur was estimated from the maximum attraction time of the males, and the cumulative degree days (DD) was 350 DD, similar with the preoviposition period.