358 Dactylopiina, 



DACTYLOPIUS INDICUS, Green {The Wild Cochmeal Insect). 



(Plate CXL.) 



Coccus indtcus, Green, Mem. Dep. Ag. Ind., 1908, Vol. II. p. 28. 

 Coccus cacti var. ceylonicus, Green («<?;«. nud.\ Ind. Mus. Notes, 1896, 

 Vol. IV. I, p. 7. 



Adult female subglobular ; circular or broadly oval in outline. Colour purplish 

 red to brownish red {fig: 16) ; covered dorsally with a mass of white mealy to- 

 mentum {fig. 9). Eyes moderately prominent, weakly chitinous. Antenna (yff. 

 12) short, tapering gradually to the extremity ; seven-jointed (rarely six-jointed 

 through the confluence of the third and fourth joints) ; all the joints broad and 

 short, much broader than long, with the exception of the seventh, in which the 

 length approximately equals the breadth ; some stout curved hairs on the 

 seventh joint, and one on the side of each of the fifth and sixth joints. Legs 

 small, moderately stout {fig. n) ; tibia and tarsus together shorter than the 

 femur (with trochanter) ; tarsus longer than tibia ; claw sharply pointed ; digi- 

 tules slender, very slightly dilated at extremity, the tarsals longer than the 

 unguals. Derm with numerous circular pores and truncate spines, the former 

 occurring singly or in small clusters of three or four pores. The truncate spines 

 are very numerous and conspicuous, even under a comparatively low magnifica- 

 tion ; they are short and stout, cylindrical and parallel-sided, with broadly 

 expanded bases which are usually as broad as — and sometimes broader than — 

 the total length of the spine {fig. 13). In macerated preparations of the insect, 

 when the segments of the body are extended, the spines appear to be disposed 

 in broad segmental bands {fig. 10). Length of Ceylon examples ranging from 

 175 to 4'o mm. Indian examples average slightly larger. 



Adult male {figs, i) dull crimson, with opaque white wings and extremely 

 long white caudal filaments. The head is pointed in front and angled at the 

 sides, and bears six prominent black ocelli, of which two are on the upper 

 surface, two on the under surface, the remaining pair forming the lateral angles 

 of the head {see figs, i and 2.) Antennae {figs. 7 and 8) ten-jointed ; length of 

 joints rather variable, third and fourth longest, subsequent joints decreasing to 

 the ninth, which is the shortest ; tenth equal to the seventh, but sometimes as 

 long as fourth ; joints four to ten, each with one or two long slender knobbed 

 hairs ; two or three stout curved spines near the extremity of the tenth joint. 

 Genital sheath short and stout. 



Male puparium {fig. 6) cylindrical, elongate, open at posterior extremity. 



Young larva {fig. 14) dull crimson ; with many long white hair-like filaments, 

 more particularly towards the posterior extremity. 



On 'Prickly Pear' {Opuntia monacanthd). Occurring sporadically at 

 Hambantota, Tangalla, Jaffna, and probably all round the coast wherever this 

 particular Opuntia survives. Occurs also in India. 



In my paper on ' Cultivated and Wild Forms of Cochineal Insects' {Journ. 

 Econ. Biol., Sept. 1912), the host plant of Dactylopius {Coccus) indicus in 

 Ceylon was wrongly determined as Opwitia dillenice. Burkill has shown that 



