22 Transactions. — Zoology. 



the larval stage it has not the Lecanid form, and therefore 

 cannot belong to the same group as our species : tlie larva of 

 any Kcrvies has prominent anal tubercles. 



Lecanium ribis, Fitch. (New York Agric. Soc. 1856). N.Z. 



Trans., vol. xxiii., 1890, p. 16. 



I reported this insect as occurring in New Zealand, at 

 Ashburton, in my paper of last year. Since then I have 

 received specimens from Oamaru (through Dr. de Lautour) 

 and from various places in Canterbury. The pest is a new 

 arrival in the colony within the last three or four years, and 

 seems to be spreading rapidly. Owners of gardens should 

 take every pains to get rid of it, for, although its proper food- 

 plants are gooseberries and currants, and whilst even on them 

 alone it may cause great loss and expense, yet I doubt if it 

 will strictly confine itself to those plants : the Lecania are not 

 at all particular as to their food. Whilst this paper is in the 

 press I have received from Mr. Smith, of Ashburton, insects 

 on grape-vines from that place which seem to me to be only 

 a redder-coloured variety of L. ribis : it is possible that they 

 may be the species next about to be mentioned, L. rosarum, 

 which as yet I have with certainty only from Australia. But, 

 indeed, the distinctions between several species of Lecanium — 

 e.g., L. ribis, L. ycr&iccB, L. rosarum, L. rugosuvi, L. rotundum, 

 &c. — are so slight that possibly all of them may be really only 

 varieties of the same, merely somewhat altered by the food- 

 plant. I have no doubt about the insect on the gooseberries — 

 it is clearly L. ribis ; whether that on the vine is a variety, or 

 is L. rosarum, is not yet certain. But in any case fruit- 

 growers should do their best to eradicate both of them. A 

 warning such as this is unfortunately only too hkely to be 

 neglected by the careless colonial horticulturist ; but it is right 

 to give it, nevertheless. 



Lecanium rosarum, Snellen van Vollenhoven. 



Adult female dark-red, or reddish-brown ; semi-globular ; 

 sometimes slightly elongated : diameter from xV"^- to -Jin. 

 The epidermis is at first smooth, but later exhibits some 

 minute transverse wrinkles. 



Hab. In Australia, on gooseberry-twigs at Melbourne: my 

 specimens are from Mr. French. 



This is a European insect, of which the original food-plant 

 is the rose, in both England and Holland. But, as I have 

 already stated under the last species, the Lecania do not seem 

 to restrict themselves to any one food-plant, and my Austra- 

 lian specimens are so nearly similar to some of L. rosarum 

 which were sent to me from England by Mr. Newstead that I 

 cannot well separate them. I have already observed that 



