E25: Four new species of armored scale insects, and working on groups of organisms on which few others want to work

Dr. Scott Schneider is a Research Entomologist in the Systematic Entomology Lab at the USDA’s Agricultural Research Service in Beltsville, MD, USA. He talks to me about his paper published in the June 24 issue of the ZooKeys in which he and his coauthors describe a four new species of armored scale insects!

We discuss how these insects can be legless, their economic importance, the possibility that any of us could have inhaled (!!) one of their larvae, why only males can fly, a species who’s nearest relative is found in Africa, how to look at specimens that are 1 mm (or less!) long on microscope slides, and the wise choice to work on a group of organisms that doesn’t interest other people!

The title of the paper is “Four new species of Aspidiotini (Hemiptera, Diaspididae, Aspidiotinae) from Panama, with a key to Panamanian species.” The paper is currently Open Access and available here: https://zookeys.pensoft.net/article/68409/

To learn more about Dr. Scott Schneider, visit his website or his Research Gate site: https://www.ars.usda.gov/people-locations/person?person-id=52126 or https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Scott-Schneider