Obscure mealybug - Reproduction

The winged male of obscure mealybug must find and mate with a female before she can produce viable eggs. Being of limited mobility herself, she releases a specific sex pheromone which is both airborne and deposited on the plant surfaces beneath her as a scent trail. The pheromone is a mixture of chemicals which attracts only obscure mealybug males. This chemical mixture has yet to be identified for the obscure mealybug. The males live only 2-3 days as adults and the timing of pheromone release by the females is synchronised with male emergence, particularly during the discrete first generation in spring. Male flight is particularly concentrated around sunset, but also occurs at sunrise. On the other hand, females of closely related species have been found to release pheromone throughout the day and night, and this would facilitate the creation of scent trails. Studies with citrophilus mealybug indicate that an optimum windspeed for pheromone release is 0.5m/s and males will move from 1 m away directly to a pheromone source under these conditions. In still air, males of this species responded to pheromone only from within a radius of 3 cm. Males of longtailed mealybug have been reported to mate with a number of females, whereas the females mate only once, but it is not known if this also applies to obscure mealybug. The sex pheromones of female mealybugs are attractive to some species of parasitic wasps (a kairomone) which attack them.

Sex determination in mealybugs is complex and male mealybugs receive and pass on only the genetic characteristics of their mothers.

Female obscure mealybugs produce a large number of eggs (fecundity), enabling populations to build up rapidly in the absence of biological or chemical control. The present complex of natural enemies provides some mortality but not sufficient alone to prevent economic damage.