CHAPTER IV 



CL.ASSIFICATIOX 



The early students of the Coceidae were not particularly 

 interested in the describing of new species and new genera, but in 

 discussing the habits of certain common species. This was par- 

 ticularly true of the cochineal insects which were introduced into 

 Spain, Italy, and northern Africa after the discovery of America. 

 Upon these a large number of treatises were based. Signoret 

 after deliberating over all the literature of the family published 

 before 1868, gives a list of the described species. This list contains 

 the names of about two hundred and twenty-eight species. Some 

 of these names have been referred to the synonomy and many others 

 were applied to species that were so poorlj^ described that they 

 have not been identified since. The species were included in 

 thirty-five genera. Some idea of the amount of work and study 

 that has been given to this family in recent years can be obtained 

 from a comparison of the number of species and genera listed by 

 Signoret and those included in the catalogue of Mrs. Fernald 

 published in 1903, thirty-five years later. This list contains 1514 

 species and 164 genera. 



The subdivision of the familj- into sections, tribes, or sub- 

 families varies considerable with the author. The variation 

 consists not only in the rank assigned the various groups and the 

 distribution of the groups, but in their number and the genera 

 apportioned to them. 



The first subdivision of the family worthy of consideration 

 was that of Targioni Tozzetti. '68, where four groups are recog- 

 nized: Orthezites, Coccites, Lecanites, and Diaspites. Signoret 

 prepared the first comprehensive account of the family, the 

 publication of which was begun in 1868, consists of seventeen parts, 

 and was completed in 1875. In a portion of this work published 

 in 1868 four sections are recognized : Diaspides, Brachyscelides. 

 Lecanides, and Coccides. Targioni Tozzetti in 1869 added another 

 tribe to those which he had previously proposed, Lecanodiaspites. 

 placing it between his Lecanites and Diaspites. Comstock. '81. 

 adopted the sections proposed by Signoret, arranged them in the 



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