169 



Notes on a Species of Orthezia found in Kew Gardens. 



By Edward T. Browne. 



(Read August 26th, 18S7.) 

 Plates XVI., XVII. 



At the Conversational Meeting of the Club in July I had the 

 pleasure of exhibiting an insect which I had found in the Economic 

 House, Kew Gardens. 



I labelled the insect at the meeting " A supposed Dorthesia, 

 allied to the Aphis and the Coccus," obtaining this information 

 from Westwood's " Introduction to the Classification of Insects." 

 On page 450, Vol. ii, he writes : — 



" In Dorthesia the antennas of the male are very long, but simple, 

 and the abdomen terminated by a thick pencil of very delicate 

 white seta? ; and the female is covered with elongated flakes of a 

 waxy secretion, which, in some exotic species in my collection, 

 are nearly an inch long. I possess males belonging to the 

 genus Dorthesui, the wings of which are nearly an inch in ex- 

 pansion." 



In the insect-room at South Kensington Natural History 

 Museum, I found several species of the genus Orthezia, but they 

 all slightly differ from the one I obtained at Kew. 



From the inquiries I have made there is no doubt about the 

 insect being an Orthezia, and I believe it is a new species. 



There is a slight confusion about the name of the genus. In 

 Westwood it is written Dorthesia, but by later writers Orthezia ; 

 the latter form is correct, for the genus is named after l'Abbe 

 d'Orthez ; and by an error the d' was joined to the word Orthez, 

 making it D orthez. 



The genus Orthezia is closely allied to the Aphis and the 

 Coccus ; it is a true plant-louse, and found in many parts of the 

 world. 



There is not much difficulty in observing the habits of these 

 creatures. I kept some in a cork-cell, without food, for over three 



