56 PROCEEDINGS ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY 



A REVIEW OF THE COCCID^ DESCRIBED BY DR. 



ASA FITCH. 



BY J. G. SANDERS. 



Dr. Asa Fitch's private collection of Coccidae and his notes 

 pertaining thereto are now incorporated in the collection of the 

 United States Department of Agriculture, having been pur- 

 chased a number of years ago by the Department and brought 

 to Washington by Mr. Theodore Pergande, along with the 

 other Hoinoptera of Fitch's collection and his complete notes. 

 These were in the original peculiar boxes used by Fitch and 

 were in a fair state of preservation. The writer accordingly 

 is pleased to state that the types of Fitch's species of Coccidae 

 are still extant, although contrary statements have been made 

 at various times. All of his types of Coccidae are filed with 

 scrupulous care, and a card index of all his species has been 

 prepared. 



During the past few years the writer has made a critical 

 study of this collection, believing that such study would un- 

 ravel the almost interminable tangle into which many of our 

 American scale insects had been drawn. Particularly is this 

 statement applicable to those of our species of the genus Lc- 

 caniuui Burmeister. 



Great credit must be given Fitch for his exceedingly accu- 

 rate observations and the careful records handed down to us. 

 His interpretation of various phenomena was not always cor- 

 rect, but his notes are so complete that in the light of our 

 present knowledge the proper interpretation may be made. 

 For example, Fitch could not understand why some "Leca- 

 niums" produced a mass of cotton for the reception of their 

 newly laid eggs, while others were devoid of cotton at the 

 time of oviposition. Now we know that he confused Pulri- 

 naria vitis (L-) in an immature stage with Lecaniwn comi' 

 Bouche, and called them " Lecaninm pyri Schrank," as his 

 labeled specimens plainly indicate. 



Doctor Fitch shared an erroneous idea with many other ento- 

 mologists, and also with investigators of parasitic fungi of the 

 times, that a hitherto unobserved host which was infested or 

 infected must bear a new species of parasite. Many of Fitch's 

 species are dedicated to a certain host upon no more ground 

 than this idea. For example, in his notes concerning "Aspi- 

 diotns corni Fitch MS." (=Lepidosaphes nhni L.) appears 

 the following paragraph: 



