Biogeography of Matsucoccus josephi (Homoptera: Matsucoccidae) as related to host resistance in Pinus brutia and Pinus halepensis

The range of Matsucoccus josephi Bodenheimer et Harpaz was outlined as related to that of its hosts Pinus halepensis Mill. and Pinus brutia Ten. Scale population density of, and pine host susceptibility to, M. josephi, were investigated in 53 seed sources of P. halepensis and 4 subspecies of P. brutia. The primary range of M. josephi is eastern Mediterranean and corresponds to that of P. brutia brutia. Pinus brutia brutia is highly resistant to M. josephi. Provenances of P. halepensis from Greece and the Near East are quite resistant, as compared with those of the West Mediterranean. Pinus brutia pithyusa, P. brutia stankewiczii, and P. brutia eldarica are highly susceptible. Speciation of M. josephi could have occurred in the south of the areas between the Black and the Caspian Seas from a progenitor that came into contact with P. brutia brutia after speciation of P. brutia and P. halepensis and the formation and isolation of the four subspecies of the former. The resistance to M. josephi of pines of the subsection Halepenses, viz. P. brutia brutia, is believed to be the result of coevolution.