Mealybugs ( Hemiptera: Coccomorpha: Pseudococcidae) on ornamental plants in eastern Mediterranean region, Turkey

Insect pests have been spreading very fast in recent decades due to of the increase in trade of plant species. Because scale insects (Hemiptera: Coccomorpha) are often cryptic in habit they can escape detection during quarantine inspection of plants and became one of the most important invasive pest species all over the world. In this study, Pseudococcidae samples were collected from ornamental woody plants and shrubs occurring in the parks and recreation areas in Adana, Mersin and Hatay between 2011 and 2017. Specimens were taken twice a week during the spring and summer seasons of the three-year study and a total of 356 samples were collected. As a result, seven species belonging to three genera were determined as follows: Peliococcus salviae (Hadzibejli, 1963), Planococcus citri (Risso, 1813), Planococcus ficus (Signoret, 1875), Planococcus vovae (Nasonov, 1909), Phenacoccus madeirensis ( Green, 1923), Phenacoccus solani (Ferris, 1918), Phenacoccus solenopsis ( Tinsley, 1898).