Adult Male Giant Scale Insect (Drosicha sp., Monophlebinae, Margarodidae)

            As if the males of this genus were not strange enough to look at, males and females are worlds apart in terms of appearance (see comments for female image).

Pu'er, Yunnan, China     

To say the least, scale insects are strange. I have included this brief overview as an indicator of this reality and because more specific information seems very hard to come by in the mainstream.....
Adult females resemble immature stages: they are soft-bodied and lack wings, have compound eyes and obvious segmentation. The last three developmental stages (pre-pupa, pupa, adult) in male scale insects do not feed. Adult males usually live for less than a day; they are listless and slow. They may be dipterous (one pair of wings) or wingless, have compound eyes, or a variable number of simple eyes aranged in a line around the head, or dorsal and ventral pairs. Many scale insect species have done away with males completely, reproducing asexually. Scales have the greatest diversity of sperm structure and sex determining chromosome systems of any known group of organisms. One group has a placenta-like structure in the female that is used to feed first-instar males. Another is hermaphroditic - the only known example among insects. Most scale insects produce a waxy secretion that either coats the body or protects it beneath a domicilelike structure (called a scale cover). Secretions vary from a thin translucent sheet to a thick, wet mass, to a powdery bloom.

Taken in: 中國 / 云南省 / 思茅 (show map)

Taken on: June 3, 2013

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Monophlebinae

Margarodidae « less

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Camera: Sony DSC-R1, f/16.0, 1/160 sec, 60mm, ISO 160 (more info) (hide info)

Camera:	Sony DSC-R1
Aperture:	f/16.0
Exposure Time:	0.006 sec (1/160)
Focal Length:	60mm
ISO:	160
Exposure Bias:	0 EV
Flash:	On, Fired
Exposure Program:	Manual
Exposure Mode:	Manual
Metering Mode:	Center-weighted average
White Balance:	Manual
Light Source:	Flash
Color Space:	sRGB
Software:	QuickTime 7.7.1
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