ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 263 



All the specimens referred to were gravid females ; many had already de- 

 posited their full complement of eggs, and soma of the latter were already 

 hatched on July 2d, the date at which they came into my hands. The follow- 

 ing is a careful description of the full grown female : 



^. — Body above obovate ; no distinct articulation ; somewhat striate with 

 deep transverse folds on the disc ; while the outer margins are deeply and irreg- 

 ularly rugose, with a thin, whitish, gummy efflorescence arising from the pits. 

 Color deep orange ; the lateral margins are regularly fringed with small tufts 

 of short black hairs rising from the thickened folds of the epidermis. 



Beneath, the articulated structure is more discernible. The first three seg- 

 ments (?) are deep orange, deeply rugose, with very short, scattered black hair, 

 and each carries a pair of short, slender, black, horny legs. Antenus, 11-jointed 

 (?) short, black, moniliform, very slightly tapering, the joints being rounded. 

 "When the egg-sack is detached the abdomeil beneath is seen to be fleshy, pale 

 flesh color, rounded-triangular, and consisting of six segments ; height 0.25 

 inch ; breadth 0.15 inch. 



The egg sac is very pale yellowish white, from 0.20 to 0.50 inch in length, 

 and 0.25 inch wide ; very gibbous ; ribbed longitudinally, and somewhat 

 resembling paper in external appearance. It is really a fibrous gummy silky 

 exudation from the sides of the insect, and is only partially closed below. It is 

 the most conspicuous part of the insect, for the true body only appears above 

 as a yellow scale on the depressed anterior portion of the sac. 



The eggs are oval, deep flesh or dirty salmon color ; they number from 300 

 to 500, and are bedded in a silky white down. On removing the eggs from a 

 gravid female, I noticed a fine whitish bloom over the entire surface of the abdo- 

 men beneath, as though the exudation had been general. A few days later 

 this bloom had increased, and in it were bedded a number of eggs. From this 

 I am led to conclude that the exudation is filamentous and proceeds from nu- 

 merous pores on the under surface of the abdomen. 



Larva. — Length 1-50 inch, deep flesh color inclining to orange. Body ovate, 

 twice as long as broad, with the articulations badly defined ; sowewhat de- 

 pressed, with six whitish, curved and radiating setas as long as the body. Legs 

 black long slender. Antennas two-thirds the length of the body, black some- 

 what clavate, with very long whitish hairs on the terminal joints. These young 

 larvaj are quite active when just hatched ; but in a few days attach themselves 

 by means of their proboscis to the bark, become so to speak, fixtures, and rap- 

 idly begin to assume the appearance of the adult ; the skin wrinkles, and a 

 gummy secretion exudes from the back and sides. 



The females from which the above description was drawn moved about 

 slowly from one part of the box in which they were contained to another, but 

 this was probably an unnatural habit caused by the drying up of the twigs to 

 which they were originally attached. This being all the information to be 

 derived from the specimens referred to me, I visited Menlo Park in search of 

 further information, and received a hearty welcome from Mr. Gordon. The 

 supposition is that the insect was imported from Australia some three years ago ; 

 at any rate, it seemed to originate on the Acacia lalifolia. Trees of this species 



