Taxonomic information	Current valid scientific name: Icerya aegyptiaca Synonyms: Crossotosoma aegyptiacum, Icerya aegyptiacum, Icerya tangalla Name used in the EU legislation: – Order: Hemiptera Family: Monophlebidae Common name: breadfruit mealybug, Egypt Icerya, Egyptian cushion scale, Egyptian fluted scale, Egyptian mealybug, Egyptian cottony cushion scale Name used in the Dossier: –
Group	Insects
EPPO code	ICERAE
Regulated status	Icerya aegyptiaca is not regulated in the EU neither listed by EPPO. The pest is quarantine in Mexico and United States of America (EPPO, online_a).
Pest status in Israel	Present, widespread (Ben‐Dov, 2012; CABI, online; EPPO, online_b; García Morales et al., online).
Pest status in the EU	Absent (CABI, online; EPPO, online_b; García Morales et al., online).
Host status on Ficus carica	Ficus carica is a host of Icerya aegyptiaca (García Morales et al., online).
PRA information	Only Pest Risk Assessment currently available is from New Zealand: – Import risk analysis: Fresh Coconut (Cocos nucifera) from Tuvalu (Hardy, 2009) and Import Risk Analysis: Pears (Pyrus bretschneideri, Pyrus pyrifolia and Pyrus sp. nr. communis) fresh fruit from China (Tyson et al., 2009).
Other relevant information for the assessment
Biology	Icerya aegyptiaca is either Australasian or Indo‐Malayan species (Unruh and Gullan, 2008). Icerya aegyptiaca is parthenogenic and it goes through five life stages: an egg, three larval instars and an adult. So far males have never been found. In Egypt there can be two or partially three generations per year. Depending on temperature, the duration of the life cycle ranges from 87.2 (28.7°C) to 105.4 days (26.4°C). The peak of adults can be observed in summer (Waterhouse, 1993). Female can lay from 70 to up to 200 eggs, which have yellow orange colour. They are laid into a waxy egg sac, attached to the abdomen. The egg sac is ruptured by the first‐instar larvae. They are bright orange crawlers, which settle within a day and become covered by a wax. The second and third instar larvae are yellow orange covered with white mealy secretion. Adults are deep orange with blackish legs and antennae. They are covered with white mealy secretion, mingled with granular wax. Through this waxy covering, the body appears salmon pink (Waterhouse, 1993). The main economic impact is reported on breadfruit trees, but also on avocado, banana, citrus, taro and young coconut palms (Waterhouse, 1993). In Egypt, I. aegyptiaca was reported as a serious pest of citrus, figs and shade trees (Waterhouse, 1993).
Symptoms	Main type of symptoms	Main symptoms are white wax on leaves, leaf drop and dieback of branches (Uesato et al., 2011). Heavy infestations of mealybugs reduce yield and may cause death of plants (Waterhouse, 1993). On breadfruit trees, I. aegyptiaca can be usually found along the midribs and larger veins on the undersides of the leaves, and on fruits (Waterhouse, 1993). Icerya aegyptiaca produce honeydew, which is colonised by sooty mould that covers leaves and interferes with photosynthesis. The honeydew may be gathered by ants that hamper pest control by its many natural enemies (Gerson and Aplebaum, online). According to Uesata et al. (2011) in Japan, I. aegyptiaca produces little or no honeydew and it is rarely associated with sooty mould.
	Presence of asymptomatic plants	Plant damage might not be obvious in early infestation, but the presence of scales on the plants could be observed because of white wax cover. During the crawler stage, infestation is difficult to be noted.
	Confusion with other pathogens/pests	Icerya aegyptiaca is very similar to Icerya imperatae. They can be distinguished from each other by specific morphological features (Miller et al., online; Unruh and Gullan 2008).
Host plant range	Icerya aegyptiaca is highly polyphagous pest of 113 hosts at genus level (García Morales et al., online). The hosts of I. aegyptiaca are apple (Malus domestica), avocado (Persea americana), banana (Musa ap.), black pepper (Piper nigrum), breadfruit tree (Artocarpus altilis), citrus (Citrus sp.), coconut (Coccos nucifera), coffee (Coffea ap.), European pear (Pyrus communis), fig (Ficus sp.), maize (Zea mays), mora (Morus alba), roses (Rosa ap.), shoeblackplant (Hibiscus rosa‐sinensis), thuja (Thuja sp.), tomato (Solanum lycopersicum), vine (Vitis vinifera) and many more (CABI, online; García Morales et al., online).
Pathways	Leaves, stems and whole plant are affected at flowering, fruiting and vegetative growing stages. Leaves, young stems or fruits are attacked (Tyson et al., 2009). Possible pathways of entry for I. aegyptiaca are Ficus plants without leaves (on the bark of stems).
Surveillance information	No surveillance information for this pest is currently available from PPIS. There is no information on whether the pest has ever been found in the nursery or their surrounding environment.