CreatureData

Red wax scale

Ceroplastes rubens Maskell, 1893

Status not recordedinsects

The red wax scale (Ceroplastes rubens) is a species in the family Coccidae, order Hemiptera. Source checklists list it for 55 countries, including Australia, China and Christmas Island.

No freely licensed photo yet

Quick facts about the red wax scale

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
55 countriessrc for Countries on record

Where does the red wax scale 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 red wax scale is listed for 55 countries.

FijiTanzaniaPapua New GuineaKenyaSudanHaitiDominican Rep.South AfricaColombiaCosta RicaVenezuelaPuerto RicoJamaicaCubaVanuatuThailandMyanmarVietnamNorth KoreaSouth KoreaIndiaIranHungaryGermanyNew CaledoniaSolomon Is.AustraliaSri LankaChinaTaiwanPhilippinesMalaysiaJapanYemenEgyptEthiopiaTrinidad and Tobago
  • Listed
  • Not listed
small islands are not drawn at this scale

The same countries as a list

  1. Australia
  2. China
  3. Christmas Island
  4. Cocos (Keeling) Islands
  5. Colombia
  6. Cook Islands
  7. Costa Rica
  8. Cuba
  9. Dominican Republic
  10. Egypt
  11. Ethiopia
  12. Fiji
  13. French Polynesia
  14. Germany
  15. Guadeloupe
  16. Guam
  17. Haiti
  18. Hong Kong SAR China
  19. Hungary
  20. India
  21. Iran
  22. Jamaica
  23. Japan
  24. Kenya
  25. Kiribati
  26. Malaysia
  27. Maldives
  28. Martinique
  29. Myanmar (Burma)
  30. New Caledonia
  31. Niue
  32. Norfolk Island
  33. North Korea
  34. Northern Mariana Islands
  35. Palau
  36. Papua New Guinea
  37. Philippines
  38. Puerto Rico
  39. Samoa
  40. Seychelles
Show 15 more countries
  1. Solomon Islands
  2. South Africa
  3. South Korea
  4. Sri Lanka
  5. St. Lucia
  6. Sudan
  7. Taiwan
  8. Tanzania
  9. Thailand
  10. Trinidad & Tobago
  11. U.S. Virgin Islands
  12. Vanuatu
  13. Venezuela
  14. Vietnam
  15. Yemen

Why a country list is not a range map

Where has it been introduced?

The Global Register of Introduced and Invasive Species lists the red wax scale as introduced in 5 countries, and flagged as invasive in 1 of them.

  1. New Caledoniainvasive
  2. Australia
  3. Japan
  4. Poland
  5. United States

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 red wax scale 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 red wax scale classified?

  1. kingdomAnimalia
  2. phylumArthropoda
  3. classInsecta
  4. orderHemiptera
  5. familyCoccidae
  6. genusCeroplastes
  7. SpeciesCeroplastes rubens Maskell, 1893

Synonyms Ceroplastes rubens minor

Other names and names in other languages (13)
  • Pink wax scaleEnglish
  • Rote WachsschildlausGerman
  • escama de cera rubíSpanish
  • cochenille cireuse rougeFrench
  • robi-ro-mushiJapanese
  • 루비깍지벌레Korean
  • rubi-ro-mushiroot
  • 紅玉蠟蟲Chinese
  • ルビーカイガラムシJapanese
  • ルビーロウカイガラムシJapanese
  • ルビーロウムシJapanese
  • 紅蠟介殼蟲Chinese
  • 紅蠟蚧 (紅蠟介殼蟲)Chinese

Catalogue of Life

Relatives of the red wax scale

Other species in the same genus Ceroplastes.

Fig scale

Ceroplastes rusci

CoccidaeNo free photo yet

CompareRed wax scale vs Indian wax scaleRed wax scale vs Japanese wax scaleRed wax scale vs Fig scaleRed wax scale vs Hard wax scale

Common questions

Answered only where our data holds the answer.

Where does the red wax scale live?

Catalogue of Life checklists list the red wax scale for 55 countries, including Australia, China, Christmas Island, Cocos (Keeling) Islands and Colombia. Checklist coverage is uneven, so the true range may be wider.

Is the red wax scale an invasive species?

In some places. The Global Register of Introduced and Invasive Species flags the red wax scale as invasive in 1 country: New Caledonia. It lists it as introduced in 5 in all.

What kind of animal is the red wax scale?

The red wax scale (Ceroplastes rubens) belongs to the family Coccidae 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). Red wax scale (Ceroplastes rubens). Retrieved from https://creaturedata.com/animals/red-wax-scale

MLA

“Red wax scale (Ceroplastes rubens).” CreatureData, 2026, https://creaturedata.com/animals/red-wax-scale.

BibTeX
@misc{red_wax_scale_2026,
  title = {Red wax scale (Ceroplastes rubens)},
  author = {{CreatureData}},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://creaturedata.com/animals/red-wax-scale},
  note = {Data as of 2026-11-14}
}