Scale insect species (Hemiptera, Coccomorpha) on the date palms (Phoenix dactylifera) in Iran with description of a new species

Surveys of scale insects (Hemiptera, Coccomorpha) infesting date palms (Phoenix dactylifera L., Arecaceae) in Iran represented the occurrence of 10 species belonging to five families. The recorded species were: Asterolecaniidae - Palmaspis phoenicis (Ramachandra Rao); Diaspididae - Aonidiella orientalis (Newstead), Fiorinia phoenicis Balachowsky, Parlatoria blanchardi (Targioni Tozzetti) and Parlatoria crypta McKenzie; Monophlebidae - Pseudaspidoproctus hyphaeniacus (Hall); Phoenicococcidae - Phoenicococcus marlatti Cockerell; and Pseudococcidae - Dysmicoccus brevipes (Cockerell), Maconellicoccus hirsutus (Green), and Formicococcus phoenicis Moghaddam & Zarghami sp. nov., a new species of mealybug feeding on the roots of the date palm, is described and illustrated based on the adult female. An annotated list of these species is presented.