Galapagos Species Database

The Galapagos Species Database shares the information about the species from our Natural History Collections.

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Aleurothrixus floccosus (Maskell, 1896)

Mosca blanca algodonosa, wooly white fly

Mosca blanca lanuda, Aleurothrixus floccosus. El Carmen, Santa Cruz Island. Photo: Julia Bolaños, CDF, 2020.
Mosca blanca lanuda, Aleurothrixus floccosus. El Carmen, Santa Cruz Island. Photo: Julia Bolaños, CDF, 2020.

Arid to humid forest and agriculture zones, found on undersides of leaves; and in air over the sea; April and June. Hosts: reported on many plant species, and on numerous ornamental and horticultural plant species (Hamon, 1981)

Taxonomy

Domain
Eukaryota

Kingdom
Animalia

Phylum
Arthropoda

Class
Insecta

Order
Hemiptera

Suborder
Sternorrhyncha

Superfamily
Aleyrodoidea

Family
Aleyrodidae

Genus
Aleurothrixus

Species
floccosus

Taxon category: Accepted

Origin: Introduced - established

Introduction

Year of first record: 1998

Mode of introduction: Accidental

Introduction Pathway: Contaminant

Subpathway: Contaminant on plants (inc. seeds and plant associated material)

Introduced status: Naturalized

Invasive status: Potentially Invasive

Ecology

Substrate or host preferences: Orange (Upper and lower sides of the leaves)

Distribution

Map of specimen collection localities or observation records for this species in our collections database.

Distribution: Santa Cruz, Isabela, Santiago.

References

  • Causton, C.E. Sevilla, C. (2008) Latest Records of Introduced Invertebrates in Galapagos and Measures to control them. Galapagos Report 2006-2007, CDF, GNP and INGALA, Puerto Ayora, Galapagos, Ecuador, p. 142-145.
  • Liebhold, A. M. Turner, R. M., Bartlett, C. R., Bertelsmeier, C., Blake, R. E., Brockerhoff, E. G., Causton, C. E., Matsunaga, J. N., McKamey, S. H., Nahrung, H. F., Owen, C. L., Pureswaran, D. S., Roques, A., Schneider, S. A., Sanborn, A. F., & Yamanaka, T. (2024) Why so many Hemiptera invasions? Diversity and Distributions, 30, e13911. https://doi.org/10.1111/ddi.13911
  • Oquendo, J.R (2002) Invertebrados asociados a cultivos agrícolas de importancia económica en la isla Santa Cruz, Galápagos, Ecuador Undergraduate thesis. Pontificia Universidad Católica del Ecuador
  • Peck, S.B. (2001) Smaller Orders of Insects of the Galápagos Islands, Ecuador: Evolution, Ecology, and Diversity. NRC Research Press, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, 278 pp.

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This page should be cited as follows:

"Galapagos Species Database, Aleurothrixus floccosus", dataZone. Charles Darwin Foundation, https://datazone.darwinfoundation.org/en/checklist/?species=5505. Accessed 11 June 2026.