64- Aspidiotus. 



ASPIDIOTUS SECRETUS, Cockerell. 



(Plate XV.) 



Aspidiotus secretus, Cockerell, Supplement to Psyche, March, 1890, p. 2. 



Female puparium concealed between the layers of the dry sheathing petioles 

 of species of bamboo {figs, i, 3). The formation and growth of the puparium 

 is rather difficult to follow. Apparently the young insect takes up its position 

 upon the stem of the plant beneath the sheath. After the completion of the 

 second moult the adult female insinuates itself into and between the layers of 

 the sheath, excavating a cell for itself, and leaving the pellicle exposed upon the 

 surface. When the sheath is removed from the stem, the insects are detached 

 with it, their position indicated by small blister-like swellings upon its inner 

 surface, this view necessarily presenting the ventral surface of the puparium. 

 Pellicles yellow, darkest at margin. Usually the second pellicle only is present, 

 the first becoming detached and falling away during the earlier stages before 

 the second moult. Even when both are present the two pellicles are more or 

 less separated {fig. 3). The margin of the second pellicle is minutely pitted 

 with shallow depressions of a polygonal form {fig. 5). Diameter of puparium 

 I "50 to 2'5o mm. 



Male puparium {fig. 2) oblong, strongly convex above ; white, with a yel- 

 lowish tinge showing through from within. Pellicle brownish yellow, close to 

 anterior extremity. Length i mm. The male puparia are situated upon the 

 surface of the stem, sheltered by the sheathing petioles. 



Adult female yellow ; broadly oval {fig. 6) ; parasitised specimens swollen 

 and more oblong ; flattish ; segments well defined ; skin rather horny. Rostral 

 setae very long. A small group of parastigmatic glands around the openings of 

 the anterior spiracles. Pygidium {fig. 7) broad and triangular, terminating in a 

 large and single prominent median lobe, which is indented on each side ; other 

 lobes obsolete or represented only by marginal points. Margin irregularly 

 serratulate, with four deep indentations on each side, from which thickenings of 

 the body-wall extend upwards, marking the position of the obliterated segments 

 of which the pygidium is presumably composed. Numerous finer corrugations 

 between the segmental lines. A small spine on each side of median lobe, and 

 one or two laterad of each marginal indentation. Anal aperture very small, 

 and situated at some distance from extremity. Circumgenital glands in two 

 groups, probably representing the combined upper lateral and lower lateral 

 groups, though there is no trace of any division. Each group with from eighty 

 to ninety orifices. In the typical specimens from Japan these two groups are 

 connected above by a line of single spinnerets, but this connexion is wanting in 

 every specimen that I have examined from Ceylon. I have failed to find any 

 tubular spinnerets, though there are numerous minute inconspicuous pores 

 opening on the dorsal surface. Length i to 2 mm. 



