Cryptes baccatus
Wattle Tick Scale at Gundaroo, NSW
Identify this sighting
| Cryptes baccatus | MichaelMulvaney | 21 Jun 2017 | |
| Cryptes baccatus | Heino | 21 Jun 2017 | |
| Badhamia sp. | MaartjeSevenster | 15 Jun 2017 | |
| Unverified | MaartjeSevenster | 15 Jun 2017 |
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User's notes
I think this is Badhamia ?
4 comments
16 Jun 2017
I think the ants tending the white globes is the clue here. Badhamia is a slime mould genus which doesn't look quite right in the context presented here. The white things look like one of the scale insects (perhaps a species of Eriococcus?) and the ants are coming to their secretions.
17 Jun 2017
That may very well be right - I came across Badhamia as a tentative identification ages ago and recall that the ants seemed to make sense then but I now can't find anything suggesting ants would like it.
21 Jun 2017
Further to Ken's comment, on page 135 of Roger Farrow's 'Insects of south-eastern Australia' I found a photo of ants attending Cryptes baccatu, a scale that looks like the subject of this sighting and then found several sightings of this scale species on Canberra Nature Map.
Location information
- Coordinates 149.335957-35.017527
- Maps MTR591 at Gundaroo
- Places Gundaroo, NSW
Sighting information
- 16 - 100 Abundance
- 5 Oct 2014 07:12 AM Recorded on
- MaartjeSevenster Recorded by
Collections
- MaartjeSevenster Canberra & Southern Tablelands NatureMapr Cryptes baccatus Scale insects & mealybugs (Hemiptera, Coccoidea) Insects
Species information
- Cryptes baccatus Scientific name
- Wattle Tick Scale Common name
- Not Sensitive
- Local native
- Non-invasive or negligible
- Up to 878.03m Recorded at altitude
- External link More information