36 Transactions. — Zoology. 



Art. II. — Farther Coccid Notes : with Description of New 

 Species from New Zealand, Australia, Sandwich Islands, 

 and elsewhere, and Remarks upon many Species already 

 reported. 



By W. M. Maskell, Kegistrar of the New Zealand University, 

 Corr. Mem. Roy. Soc. of South Australia. 



[Read before the Wellington Philosophical Society, 14th November, 1894.] 



Plates I.-VII. 



I find it necessary to make some remarks concerning the 

 principle upon which I have acted for several years with regard 

 to the erection of new species, the comparison of varieties, or 

 the identification of species already known ; because, in the 

 course of correspondence with different other students of 

 Coccicls, as well as in their published writings, it seems that 

 they accept canons of procedure which do not recommend 

 themselves to me as sufficient. In the first place, I may say 

 that the bent of my inclination is towards the restriction of 

 the number of species rather than towards their extension. 

 Looking upon classification as a means to an end, I consider 

 that the very first, and probably only, requisites for it are 

 clearness and convenience. For this reason, neither the 

 fancied claims of priority, nor the desire to uphold some pre- 

 conceived theory, nor even the wish to be the publisher to the 

 world of some new thing, ought to weigh with us at all. Per- 

 sonally, I disclaim any position but that which some people 

 nowadays affect to despise — the position of a classifier, the 

 laying-down of a stratum of facts upon which, some day, when 

 we really do reach the stage of being able to say we know 

 something, theories and doctrines may be built up. There- 

 fore my aim is first at clearness and convenience ; and with 

 this object a careful avoidance of needless subdivision seems 

 necessary. It is better, when a specimen is observed, to see 

 how closely it approaches to some known form than to search 

 for points upon which it may be separated — better to look 

 upon a few distinguishable features, if possible, as only variable 

 characters (making the specimen a "variety") than to cumber 

 science with a new " species " as if these features were of real 

 organic importance. I know, and every student of Coccids 

 knows, that external appearance of an insect may alter fre- 

 quently, from being cramped for room or from having much 

 free space : therefore I would lay small stress upon mere size. 

 Take the genus Lecanium : there are a number of so-called 

 species which have been set up by different authors almost, if 

 not quite, entirely on account of their varying size : climate, 



