Aussies of international reknown

The Cottony Cushion Scale (Icerya purchasi), pictured below, is one of Australia’s more infamous exports. It is an Hemiptera i.e. a sap-sucking bug that has a liking for many Australian woody plants (particularly Pittosporum) but loves citrus plants in general. Both the adult and the nymph insects suck on sap of the leaves and woody material of the food plants. The adult, pictured, is reddish-brown in colour and crusted with waxy secretions.

This insect is a true hermaphrodite having both male and female organs within one body. When the female is ready to breed she will attach herself to a piece of vegetation and extrude a white egg case several times the size of her body (pictured above). This case contains hundreds of eggs. The nymphs when hatched disperse and find another site at which to suck sap. After each moult the nymphs move on leaving their ‘cottony cushion’ shell attached to the plant.

The Cottony Cushion Scale has caused a lot of damage to the citrus industry in the United States. A particular species of Australian ladybird imported into the US has been successful in controlling the scale.

Who said we aren’t an exporting nation.