Circulus
Guides
Puto
giant mealybugs, Puto scale insects
Puto is a genus of scale insects in the family Putoidae, commonly known as giant mealybugs. The genus was established by Signoret in 1875 and is distinguished by its large body size relative to other mealybugs, dense white wax coating, and distinctive morphological features including cerarii and multilocular disc-pores. Putoidae is recognized as a distinct family separate from Pseudococcidae, representing a transitional evolutionary group between archaeococcoids and neococcoids. Species in this genus are primarily associated with woody host plants in temperate and montane regions.