548 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. XII. 



mens collected in the plant houses at the Royal Botanical Gardens, Kew, 

 where it found a congenial home. It must have been received there from 

 some other country. Dr. Morris, late Assistant Director of the Gardens, 

 considered that they owfd its introduction to British Guiana. It occurs in 

 the West Indies (Trinidad, Jamaica, and Antigua being specially mentioned) 

 and in various districts of Mexico. In South America it has been recorded 

 from British Guiana. In the United States it has become a common green- 

 house pest. Quite recently Mr. C. P. Lounsbury has drawn attention to his 

 appearance in South Africa (Cape Town, Natal, Port Elizabeth, and East 

 London ar ! mentioned as localities), where it is a troublesome pest both in 

 greenhouses and gardens. It is said to have been known in Natal for the 

 last five years ; and specimens — supposed to date back ten years — exist in 

 the South African Museum, labelled " Durban, Natal." 

 Description of the Pest. 



As with most scale-insect pests, the resulting injury is more conspicuous 

 than is the insect itself. In the present instance, though most travellers on 

 our railway have observed the unhealthy appearance of the Lantana on the 

 sides of the track, — with its leaves blackened by the sooty fungus that 

 accompanies the pest,— very few of them have any idea of the actual form 

 and appearance of the bug that is responsible for this effect. A closer 

 examination of the diseased bushes would show that all the younger shoots 

 and braiiches are thickly covered with what they would probably describe 

 as a " mealy bug." This species, however, differs from the ordinary " mealy 

 bug " in the firm — almost shelly — nature of the waxy appendages, and in 

 the fact that a large part of the back of the insect is exposed. 



It will be as well to describe first the adult female, as this is the most 

 conspicuous stage and the one in which the Orthezla may be most easily 

 recognized. The insect itself is of a dull olive-green or olive-brown colour, 

 with a fringe of short stout opaque-white waxy processes, and a double row 

 of similar projections down the middle of the back. But the most striking 

 feature is the long white cylindrical appendage springing from the extremity 

 of the body. This is the ovisac, and contains the numerous eggs. When 

 fully developed this ovisac is four times as long as the body of the insect. 

 It tapers very slightly, is fluted above and smooth below, and has an upward 

 curve to the extremity, where there is an opening for the exit of the young 

 larva?. The legs and antennjB of the insect are well developed and project 

 beyond the margins of the body. The mouth parts consist of a conical 

 tubercle springing from between the bases of the first pair of legs, and from 

 its extremity the long bair-Iike sucking tube can be extended into the tissues 

 of the plant. The length of the insect and ovisac together is very little 

 short of a quarter of an inch. 



The half -grown female is in all respects similar in external appearance to 

 the adult insect, except for the absence of the ovisac. It is therefore a much 



