Viburnum Cushion Scale Lichtensia viburni

The Viburnum Cushion Scale is one of the common scale pests in the UK. The adult male (above left) is a small, winged whitefly with yellow body. The female (above centre) is a wingless, legless scale insect attached to its host plant and looking like a soft-bodied, legless, brown wood louse.

Its host plant is not exclusively viburnum but a range of others including olives, ivy and, here, Mexican orange blossom. In addition the insect excretes a sticky honeydew which becomes a black mould. (It is a different insect to the Viburnum Whitefly, Aleurotuba jelinekii, and the Viburnum Leaf Beetle, Pyrrhalta viburni.)