The scale insects (Hem.: Coccoidea) of Behbahan county and their morphological characters

Scale insects as plant pests, in Behbahan, located in Khuzestan province, Southwest of Iran, were investigated between 2010 and 2012. A total of 21 species of scale insects were identified as follows: Diaspididae (8 species), Pseudococcidae (6 species), Coccidae (4 species), Eriococcidae (2 species) and Phoenicococcidae (1 species). Taxonomic characters of all species are briefly discribed and illustrated. For each species, data are recorded. Of these, the genus Paracoccus Ezzat and McConnell and the species Acanthococcus aceris (Signoret) are new records for the fauna of Iran. In addition, 9 other species are new to Khuzestan (*). The economic important species are discussed briefly. The identified species are as follows:
DIASPIDIDAE: Aspidiotus nerii* (Bouche), Diaspidiotus armenicus* (Borchsenius), Lepidosaphes malicola* Borchsenius, Melanaspis inopinata* (Leonardi), Parlatoria blanchardi (Targioni-Tozzetti) P. crypta (McKenzie), P. oleae (Colvee) and Salicicola? kermanensis Lindinger. PSEUDOCOCCIDAE: Chorizococcus sp.*, Nipaecoccus viridis (Newstead), Paracoccus sp., Phenacoccus sp.*, Planococcus citri (Risso) and Trabutina serpentina (Green). COCCIDAE: Coccus­ hesperidum (Linnaeus), Eulecanium tiliae*(Linnaeus), Parthenolecanium corni*(Borchsenius) and Saissetia oleae*(Olivier). ERIOCOCCIDAE: Acanthococcus aceris (Signoret) and Eriococcus spurius (Modeer). PHOENICOCOCCIDAE: Phoenicococcus marlatti (Cockerell).