The tubercularis species group of Aulacaspis (Sternorrhyncha : Coccoidea : Diaspididae)

Eight species of the scale insect genus Aulacaspis are recognized as belonging to the tubercularis species group: A. tubercularis, A. alisianCl, and six new species, A. Geula, A. ra ipingensis, A. alyx;ae, A. sClIrru/ae, A. scaphocalycis, and A. lagl.l17ae, the first of the new species occulTing in Malaysia, Singapore, and the Phi lippines, the last in Luzon, and the other four in Malaya. A. tubercularis and A. aeu/a are represented by abundant material and broadl y variabl e in morphological cha racters, and the species concepts adopted in this study are tentati ve. A. laip iflgel1sis is c losely related to A. (leu/a, and dist inguished from the latter as another species rather tentatively. The other fOLir of the new species appear distinct so fa r as represented by the avai la ble materia l. As a corollary of the collection data, A. /ubereularis should origina lly have been a Himalayan species occurring on Lauraceae almost excl usively; it should have adapted itself to mango trees somewhere at the foot of the Himalayas, and then 10 mangroves in eastern As ia . A. alisiana, occurrin g in Taiwan and continental China, may be an allopatric counterpart of the Himalayan stock of A. Ilibercularis. A. acWa is also closely related to A. tubercular;s, from which it should have derived somewhere in westem Malesia. The new species other than A. Geufa appear to be more or less related to the latter, from which they may have emerged directly or indirectly.