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Rugose Spiraling Whitefly

Aleurodicus rugioperculatus

Description:

Strange pattern in the back of a palm leaf. These whiteflies tend to lay their eggs in a spiral pattern and are also fairly obvious because they produce a white, waxy substance, which is visible on the leaves they feed on. http://www.ballpublishing.com/growertalk... http://bugguide.net/node/view/152934/bgp... http://bugguide.net/node/view/7055/bgpag...

Habitat:

Palm leaf.

2 Species ID Suggestions

ceherzog
ceherzog 11 years ago
Rugose Spiraling Whitefly
Aleurodicus rugioperculatus Pest Alert: Rugose Spiraling Whitefly


Sign in to suggest organism ID

18 Comments

LuisStevens
LuisStevens 11 years ago

Thank you Karen, it is now in the signs of wildlife, animal architecture & eggs of the world missions.

KarenL
KarenL 11 years ago

Very interesting!
You could also add this to the signs of wildlife, animal architecture & eggs of the world missions.

LuisStevens
LuisStevens 11 years ago

Thank you pamsai, Cindy and ceherzog for the ID and the links. Finally this detective work has been solved with the help of many. Isn´t Project Noah great?

ceherzog
ceherzog 11 years ago

It's made it's way to Florida, too.

pamsai
pamsai 11 years ago

this looks like Whitefly. Unfortunately I have plenty of these 'crop circles' in my garden. When they hatch, they suck the sap out of the plants and the leaves turn yellow and drop. Enough of them can kill the plant. They love my hibiscus plants!
http://bugguide.net/node/view/152934/bgp...

LuisStevens
LuisStevens 11 years ago

Thank you again martinl for solving this "mystery spotting".

LuisStevens
LuisStevens 11 years ago

Thank you Gilma Jeannette, Lauren and Yuko.

LuisStevens
LuisStevens 11 years ago

Thank you martinl for the pointer.

MartinL
MartinL 11 years ago

I'll guess it's hemipteran. Some kind of leaf hopper eggs and then it lays a waxy trail to make it hard for predators like ants or snails to cross.

I had a moth that layed eggs and after, it look vey similar to your picture but only in the middle....The circles!!! now those are definitely miniature alien crop circles... ; )

LaurenZarate
LaurenZarate 11 years ago

Miniature aliens making mini-crop designs.

YukoChartraw
YukoChartraw 11 years ago

Incredible spot!

LuisStevens
LuisStevens 11 years ago

Thank you marcus.toft, Hemma and Smith'sZoo. It may be all of the above ha ha

RedTopRanger
RedTopRanger 11 years ago

Smiths'Zoo - Haha, that was my first thought, too! Looks like a mini crop circle

Smith'sZoo
Smith'sZoo 11 years ago

Alien signs? ;)

Hema  Shah
Hema Shah 11 years ago

leaf miner?

RedTopRanger
RedTopRanger 11 years ago

Very interesting! My guess is either some kind of egg or the residue of where a critter had attached itself to the leaf.

LuisStevens
Spotted by
LuisStevens

Puerto Vallarta, Jalisco, Mexico

Spotted on Jan 3, 2013
Submitted on Jan 29, 2013

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