Planococcus is a genus of true bugs belonging to the family Pseudococcidae.

[3] Identification of mealybug species in the Planococcus genus has been difficult due to an unusually high amount of intraspecies morphological variation.

In the 1980s, entomologist Jennifer Cox at the British Museum discovered that the offspring of a single female raised on the same host will develop differently based on environmental conditions.

[4] From Cox's experiments, the greatest number of tubular ducts in adult females was present at intermediate temperatures, whereas the smallest number were present when temperatures were higher or lower.

With the improvements in genotyping, efforts to develop different systems to distinguish between cryptic species of Planococcus are ongoing.