Allokermes nivalis (King & Cockerell in Cockerell)

Kermes nivalis King & Cockerell in Cockerell 1898t: 330.
Coccus nivalis
Talla nivalis

Hosts: Quercus borealis [rubra] [observation on Quercus alba listed as "questionable"]

Post-reproductive female. King and Cockerell (1898c) described the post-reproductive female as Length 4 1/2, breadth 4 1/2, height about 3 millim. Dark sepia-brown, irregularly marbled with blackish and pale ochreous, the latter colour inclined to be arranged in transverse bands, and beset with nu-merous minute dark dots. All of the scale except the middle of the back is powdered with snow-white secretion, which becomes very abundant at the sides. Microscopical characters ordinary; skin fairly closely beset with small round glands, and showing some larger glands at irregular intervals, on brown patches.

Remarks. This species is found on Quercus borealis [rubra] and Q. alba in Massachusetts. A post-reproductive female paratype, collected on Q. alba (as was the holotype) was available for study. It is covered with a white mealy wax, which, in the authors' opinion, could have been secreted only by the multilocular disc pores present on the dorsum of the slide-mounted Q. borealis [rubra] specimens. For this reason the two lots from the two hosts are considered as belonging to the same species.

- Stephen Bullington, Michael Kosztarab: (1985) Studies on the morphology and systematics of scale insects. No. 12^©