First record of Pulvinaria regalis CANARD, 1968 (Hemiptera: Coccomorpha: Coccidae) in Poland

Abstract

Pulvinaria regalis has been recorded for the first time in Poland. This species was observed in large numbers on Acer pseudoplatanu, A. platanoides, Aesculus hippocastanum, Robinia pseudacacia, Tilia × euchlora and T. cordata in urban areas. Basic diagnostic information for this species and a key to separate the species of Pulvinaria recorded in Poland is provided. Aspects of the distribution, biology and economic importance of P. regalis are also discussed.

Identification of Polish cochineal (Porphyrophora polonica L.) in historical textiles by high-performance liquid chromatography coupled with spectrophotometric and tandem mass spectrometric detection

“…Polish cochineal ( Porphyrophora polonica L.) is a scale insect that used to be fairly widespread over the Palearctic region (mainly Poland, Ukraine, Belarus, Germany, and Czech Republic, but also France, Hungary, Switzerland, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and even Mongolia and China) [ 1 , 2 ]. For centuries, Polish cochineal was the most important source of the European red dye with a very long and interesting history of use, but currently it is considered an extremely rare species, and hence it is protected in many countries [ 1 ]. It is most probably the reason why this dye, obtained from Polish cochineal, has not been studied for the last 25 years.…”

“…The red dye obtained from Polish cochineal was known in Europe and the Mediterranean countries since antiquity [ 3 ], but it gained importance in the Middle Ages [ 2 ]. In the 15th and in the first half of the 16th century it was exported from Poland to Italy, the Netherlands, France, England, Turkey, and even to Armenia [ 1 ], but in the end of the 16th century it was replaced in many of the leading weaving centers by Dactylopius species imported to Europe from Central and Southern America [ 3 ]. In the following centuries, Polish cochineal was used only in local textile workshops of Central Europe with direct access to the raw material [ 4 ].…”

An updated annotated checklist of scale insects (Hemiptera, Sternorrhyncha, Coccomorpha) of Poland

“…The new entries are: Asterodiaspis quercicola, Pulvinaria hydrangeae, P. regalis, Aspidiotus palmarum, Aulacaspis yasumatsui, Lepidosaphes tokionis, Acanthococcus macedoniensis, Icerya purchasi, Spilococcus mamillariae, Volvicoccus volvifer, and Rhizoecus americanus. Of these V. volvifer, P. hydrangeae, P. regalis, and A. macedoniensis are established outdoors (Kalandyk and Węgierek 2010;Kozár et al 2013;Łagowska et al 2018), whereas A. yasumatsui, L. tokionis, S. mamillariae, and R. americanus, are indoors species (Łabanowski 2009). Icerya purchasi and A. palmarum were overlooked in the previous checklist and are therefore added to the present one.…”

“…Scale insects form a relatively small group of insects in the Polish fauna and represent only approximately 0.7% of the 27,000 insect species currently known in Poland. However, a few species are identified as pests of economic importance, and especially, in recent years, the invasion of alien scale insects has been observed in several parts of Poland (Łagowska et al 2015, 2018Golan et al 2017).…”

“…Two electronic databases provide important world-wide information on scale insect distribution: the Fauna Europaea (FaEu) database (Burckhardt 2013), which reports 163 species of scale insects from Poland, and the ScaleNet database (García Morales et al 2016), which lists 177 species. Since the last checklist (Łagowska 2004), several new records of scale insects from Poland have been published (Łabanowski 2009;Kalandyk and Węgierek 2010;Kozár et al 2013;Łagowska et al 2015, 2018. In the meantime, the nomenclature of the scale insects has also been partially changed.…”