About Orthezia urticae (Linnaeus, 1758)
Orthezia urticae (Linnaeus, 1758) are small lamellar insects. When viewed from above, the dorsal surface of females is oval-shaped, and is covered with six white wax plates that form a rounded overall wax coating. The anatomy of males and larvae of this species is not well understood. Individuals of this species have 7 to 8 pairs of abdominal spiracles. These insects live on the stems and leaves of host plants, where they feed on the sap of a wide range of different herbaceous plant species, including nettle, wormwood, bergenia, and spirea, making the species broadly polyphagous. This species is distributed across the Palearctic realm, specifically in northern Eurasia and northern Africa, excluding desert regions, with a range extending from Western Europe to Algeria, Morocco, China, and Turkmenistan. Within Russia, Orthezia urticae has been recorded in Kamchatka Krai, Primorsky Krai, Sakhalin Oblast, the Kuril Islands, and Tyumen Oblast.
