12 Transactions. — Zoology. 



often dark-brown in colour. Abdomen somewhat acuminate, 

 the margin having a rather deeply serrate appearance, with six 

 floriated terminal lobes, beyond which are three very small 

 denticulate lobules : a few serrated scaly hairs. Four groups 

 of spinnerets : upper groups with 8 orifices, lower groups with 

 4, Several single spinnerets. 



Adult male unknown. 



Hab. In Australia, on a large number of plants. It appears 

 to be very common about Melbourne, Sydney, and Adelaide 

 on Nerium oleander, but I have seen it on various Eucalypti, 

 on Iiicinocari)US, and on several other plants. 



This is one of the insects in the collection of my lamented 

 friend Mr. F. S. Crawford, and I have adopted the name 

 which he attached without description to it : I do not know 

 the origin of the specific designation. The species does not 

 seem to resemble any of those known hitherto. Mr. Crawford, 

 in his early letters to me, named it Asp. niger, but I pointed 

 out to him that this name w^as already appropriated by Signoret 

 for a species living on willows in Europe, and differing from 

 the Australian form in several particulars. In outward ap- 

 pearance ^I. rossi might be mistaken for A.ficns, Eiley ; but 

 the colour of the puparium and of the female is much darker, 

 and the abdominal extremity of the female differs considerably 

 from that species. 



Aspidiotus destructor, Signoret. Signoret, Essai sur les 



Cochenilles, p. 94. 



Specimens of cocoanut leaves (Cocos nucifera) were sent to 

 me some time ago by Mr. Cotes, of the Indian Museum, Cal- 

 cutta. They came from the Laccadive Islands, and were 

 thickly covered with very small Diaspid scales, which I have 

 identified certainly as A. destructor. The characteristic feature 

 of the species is the presence of six terminal abdominal lobes, 

 of which the two median are plainly shorter than the others. 

 This insect is very destructive to cocoanuts, and has done 

 great damage in various parts of the Indian Ocean. In the 

 present instance it was accompanied by a variety of Dactylopius 

 cocotis, Mask., w^liich I described from Fiji in 1889. I under- 

 stand that my description and figures of A. destructor are to 

 appear in the " Indian Museum Notes." 



Aspidiotus aurantii, Maskell. N.Z. Trans., vol. xi., 1878, 



p. 199; Scale-Ins. of N.Z., p. 42. 



On the authority of Dr. Signoret, in a letter from him 

 received in 1883, I referred this insect to A. coccincxis, a species 

 which appears to have been originally described in Greece : 

 and in my " Scale-Insects of New Zealand," 1887, I definitely 

 placed my name for it as only a synonym. Since then, in a 



