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Aonidomytilus crookiae is a species of scale insect in the family Diaspididae which are often referred to as "armored scale insects." It is commonly known as "St. John's Wort Scale." Originally named Nelaspis crookiae by Gordon Floyd Ferris in 1954, the taxon was moved to the genus Aonidomytilus in 1984 as the result of a 1979 taxonomic revision of the genus. Aonidomytilus multiglandulatus is a junior synonym.

The scale of the female is approximately 1/10th of an inch (2.3mm) in length, oyster shell shaped, light brown in color turning yellowish white toward the apex, with orange yellow exuviae attached apically. The body of the female insect under the scale is slender and spindle-shaped, with lobed ventral margins. Their eggs are light purple in color.

A. crookiae parasitizes plants in the genus Cistus in the rockrose family Cistaceae and the genus Hypericum in the family Hypericaceae including Hypericum microsepalum and H. prolificum.

The species' geographic distribution includes the U.S. states Maryland, Virginia, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio, and probably adjacent states.

References

1. ^ Kosztarab, M. 1963. The Armored Scale Insects of Ohio (Homoptera: Coccoidea: Diaspididae). Bulletin of the Ohio Biological Survey 2 (n.s.): 120 pp.
2. Global Biodiversity Information Facility: Aonidomytilus crookiae (Ferris, 1954), https://www.gbif-uat.org/species/110091227, accessed 15 Dec 2017.
3. Ferris, G.F. 1954. New species of Diaspididae from Florida and the Caribbean Islands (Homoptera; Coccoidea). Contribution No. 88. Microentomology 19: 41-50.
4. Muse, B.J. Williams, M.L. 1984. Effects of temperature, host plant and aridity on taxonomic characters of armored scale insects (Homoptera: Diaspididae). Proceedings of the 10th International Symposium of Central European Entomofaunistics, Budapest, 15–20 August 1983, 375-377.
5. Barbara J. Muse. 1979. A Taxonomic Revision of the Armored Scale Insect Genus Aonidomytilus Leonardi (Homoptera: Diaspididae). Ph.D. dissertation, Auburn University, 221 pp.; Auburn University Library, http://catalog.lib.auburn.edu/vufind/Record/190595.
6. ^ ScaleNet: Valid Names Results, Aonidomytilus crookiae (Ferris) 1954 (Diaspididae: Aonidomytilus), http://scalenet.info/catalogue/Aonidomytilus%20crookiae/, accessed 15 Dec 2017.

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