CreatureData

Cotton mealybug

Phenacoccus solenopsis Tinsley, 1898

Status not recordedinsects

The cotton mealybug (Phenacoccus solenopsis) is a species in the family Pseudococcidae, order Hemiptera. Source checklists list it for 65 countries, including Algeria, Bangladesh and Barbados.

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Quick facts about the cotton mealybug

Weight
Not recorded
Length
Not recorded
Lifespan
Not recorded
Main food
Not recorded
Habitat
Not recorded
Young per litter or clutch
Not recorded
Conservation status
Not recorded
Countries on record
65 countriessrc for Countries on record

Where does the cotton mealybug live?

Countries where Catalogue of Life checklists list the species. Many checklists carry no country data, so the list is often incomplete. It is not a range map.

The cotton mealybug is listed for 65 countries.

FijiPapua New GuineaIndonesiaChileKenyaSudanHaitiDominican Rep.South AfricaMexicoUruguayColombiaPanamaNicaraguaGuatemalaBelizeSurinameFranceEcuadorJamaicaCubaSenegalMaliBeninNigeriaCameroonGhanaCôte d'IvoireSierra LeoneeSwatiniIsraelTunisiaAlgeriaJordanUnited Arab EmiratesIraqCambodiaThailandVietnamIndiaBangladeshPakistanIranGreeceTurkeyNetherlandsSpainNew CaledoniaSri LankaTaiwanMalaysiaJapanSaudi ArabiaCyprusMoroccoEgyptEthiopiaUganda
  • Listed
  • Not listed
small islands are not drawn at this scale

The same countries as a list

  1. Algeria
  2. Bangladesh
  3. Barbados
  4. Belize
  5. Benin
  6. Cambodia
  7. Cameroon
  8. Cayman Islands
  9. Chile
  10. Colombia
  11. Côte d’Ivoire
  12. Cuba
  13. Cyprus
  14. Dominican Republic
  15. Ecuador
  16. Egypt
  17. Eswatini
  18. Ethiopia
  19. Fiji
  20. France
  21. Ghana
  22. Greece
  23. Guadeloupe
  24. Guatemala
  25. Haiti
  26. Hong Kong SAR China
  27. India
  28. Indonesia
  29. Iran
  30. Iraq
  31. Israel
  32. Jamaica
  33. Japan
  34. Jordan
  35. Kenya
  36. Malaysia
  37. Mali
  38. Martinique
  39. Mauritius
  40. Mexico
Show 25 more countries
  1. Morocco
  2. Netherlands
  3. New Caledonia
  4. Nicaragua
  5. Nigeria
  6. Pakistan
  7. Panama
  8. Papua New Guinea
  9. Saudi Arabia
  10. Senegal
  11. Seychelles
  12. Sierra Leone
  13. South Africa
  14. Spain
  15. Sri Lanka
  16. Sudan
  17. Suriname
  18. Taiwan
  19. Thailand
  20. Tunisia
  21. Türkiye
  22. Uganda
  23. United Arab Emirates
  24. Uruguay
  25. Vietnam

Why a country list is not a range map

Where has it been introduced?

The Global Register of Introduced and Invasive Species lists the cotton mealybug as introduced in 3 countries, and flagged as invasive in 2 of them.

  1. Chinainvasive
  2. Ecuadorinvasive
  3. Cyprus

Introduced means brought by people and now present; invasive means the country's checklist records an impact. A species can be native to one part of a country and introduced in another. Source: Global Register of Introduced and Invasive Species (CC BY 4.0).

Is the cotton mealybug endangered?

No conservation assessment is recorded for this species in our sources. That is not the same as being safe: it has not been matched to an assessment.

How is the cotton mealybug classified?

  1. kingdomAnimalia
  2. phylumArthropoda
  3. classInsecta
  4. orderHemiptera
  5. familyPseudococcidae
  6. genusPhenacoccus
  7. SpeciesPhenacoccus solenopsis Tinsley, 1898

Synonyms Phenaccocus solenopsis, Phenacoccus cevalliae, Phenacoccus gossypiphilous, Phenacoccus solenoposis, Phenacoccus solepnosis, Phencoccus solenopsis, Planococcus solenopsis

Other names and names in other languages (8)
  • Chinese hibiscus mealybugEnglish
  • Solenopsis mealybugEnglish
  • بق القطن الدقيقىArabic
  • Piojo harinosoSpanish
  • クロテンコナカイガラムシJapanese
  • Kuroten-kona-kaigaramushiroot
  • 扶桑綿粉蚧Chinese
  • cochinilla algodonosa del algodónSpanish

Catalogue of Life

Relatives of the cotton mealybug

Other species in the same genus Phenacoccus.

CompareCotton mealybug vs Solanum mealybugCotton mealybug vs Cassava mealybugCotton mealybug vs Maple mealybugCotton mealybug vs Apple mealybug

Common questions

Answered only where our data holds the answer.

Where does the cotton mealybug live?

Catalogue of Life checklists list the cotton mealybug for 65 countries, including Algeria, Bangladesh, Barbados, Belize and Benin. Checklist coverage is uneven, so the true range may be wider.

Is the cotton mealybug an invasive species?

In some places. The Global Register of Introduced and Invasive Species flags the cotton mealybug as invasive in 2 countries: China and Ecuador. It lists it as introduced in 3 in all.

What kind of animal is the cotton mealybug?

The cotton mealybug (Phenacoccus solenopsis) belongs to the family Pseudococcidae in the order Hemiptera.

Sources and how to cite this page

Data as of 2026-11-14. How this page is put together.

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APA

CreatureData. (2026). Cotton mealybug (Phenacoccus solenopsis). Retrieved from https://creaturedata.com/animals/cotton-mealybug

MLA

“Cotton mealybug (Phenacoccus solenopsis).” CreatureData, 2026, https://creaturedata.com/animals/cotton-mealybug.

BibTeX
@misc{cotton_mealybug_2026,
  title = {Cotton mealybug (Phenacoccus solenopsis)},
  author = {{CreatureData}},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://creaturedata.com/animals/cotton-mealybug},
  note = {Data as of 2026-11-14}
}