Subject: Found at work
Location: Victoria, Melbourne
May 22, 2013 8:39 pm
Hi, just wondering if anyone knows what this is please?
Signature: Kim
Hi Kim,
The first time we received a photo of a Snowball Large Mealybug in the genus Monophlebulus, we had no idea what it was as it looked so very primitive, and Eric Eaton eventually identified it as a Giant Scale Insect. Several years later when we received another photo, we learned that the Snow Ball Large Mealybug in the genus Monophlebulus at which time Karl who frequently contributes to our site did some wonderful research. There is a nice photo on Life Unseen and the Brisbane Insect Website has some marvelous photo of members of this genus with the white cottony covering found on so immature Hemipterans. We have taken the liberty of making the grammatically confusing common name more acceptable by using the compound word and moving the adjective in front of the noun: Giant Snowball Mealybug has a much better ring to it. As Karl noted in the previous posting, Ground Pearl is a name for the encysted nymph that is noted on the North Carolina Cooperative Extension Department of Entomology Ornamentals and Turf page.