Morphological study of Porphyrophora cynodontis (Archangelskaia) (Margarodidae: Margarodini), using light microscopy and Scanning electron microscopy

The genus Porphyrophora (Coccoidea: Margarodidae) is soil-inhabiting coccid, with spherical second inster and known as ground peaels. This paper describes morphological characters of Porphyrophora cynodontis (Archangelskaia), which is collected from western part of Iran and studied under both light microscopy (LM) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) with photo equipment. The SME gives a very detailed description of some morphological characters and LM, based on preparasion slids, gives an overview of the important characters, such as multilocular disc-pores density and long hair-like setae distribution on the body and the number of thoracic spiracular disc pores inside of peritreme (atrium) and dorso-tarsal sensilla (campaniform pores) on prothoracic legs.The exprimental results show that SEM is valuable tool for examination of morphological structures because of great depth of field and identification of scale insects (P. cynodontis).