THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST 411 



THE SHELL-BARK HICKORY MEALY-BUG. 



BY A. H. HOLLINGER, UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI, COLUMBIA, MO. 



Pseudococcus Jessica, sp. nov. 

 The writer names this new species of Coccidae in honour of his 

 wife. 



Young Larva. — ^About .5 mm. long when born, and covered 

 with a thin, transparent egg-shell; about .25 mm. wide; oval, 

 broadly rounded at cephalic end and slightly tapering from the fore 

 part of abdominal region to the anal lobes; anal lobes each bearing 

 one short hair; colour: reddish brown on dorsal surface, but orange- 

 brown on the ventral surface, due to the colour of the legs and 

 antennae; with transmitted light through prepared slides the body 

 appears orange-brown; antenna six-segmented, bearing numerous 

 hairs; eyes reddish or purplish in colour and situated just behind 

 the peduncles of the antennae; quite active; body covered with a 

 fine, white, powdery, waxy secretion except at articulation of body 

 segments. 



Adult Female. — 4 to G mm. long; 2 mm. high; 2.5 mm. broad; 

 generally hemispherical in outline, flattened ventrally, and some- 

 times dorsally when crowded between the bark and wood; colour: 

 purplish blood-red (about the same as that of the woolly aphis— 

 Schizoneura lanigera) covered with a relatively thick deposit of 

 white, waxy, secreted powder; no lateral fringe of white waxy 

 exudation, nor any hairs, nor secreted waxy, glassy filaments as 

 in certain other mealy-bugs; segmentation of body delineated by 

 thinner secretion of powder wax at those places of articulation; 

 no ovisac is formed, the embryos being laid at caudal end of body 

 under the parent; legs and antennae reddish brown; when boiled in 

 10% KOH the bodies of the adults turn deep blue-black and colour 

 the KOH a blood-red. 



The males have not been observed. 



Locality. — Columbia, Mo. 



Habits. — It takes the young about fifteen minutes after birth 

 to free themselves from the thin, membraneous egg-shell which 

 envelopes them. They have no powdery secretion when they first 

 emerge from the pellicles. The young larva; have the habit of 

 congregating in masses when not attended by their common 

 "shepherds," the little black ant (unidentified). In their natural 



December, 1916 



