Tachai'diince. 407 



TACHARDIA CONCHIFERATA, nov. 

 (Plate CLXX). 



Resinous test of adult females {figs, i, 2) globose or approximately hemi- 

 spherical, smooth above, with six deep depressions above the marginal area, 

 each surrounded by prominent radiating ridges forming a definite and graceful 

 shell-like pattern {fig. 2). In the older examples this sculpturing is concealed 

 from above by the convexity of the test. The usual three apertures are small 

 and widely separated, their position indicated by the presence of small tufts 

 of white filaments. The tests are usually isolated, but may occur in blocks of 

 from three to six cells. Colour bright pale castaneous, partly due to the colour 

 of the contained insect, the lac being semitranslucent. Diameter of isolated 

 tests 4 to 6 mm. 



Test of early adult female smaller, less strongly convex, and darker in 

 colour. At this stage the sculptured areas project around the base of the test 

 as a series of rounded crenulated lobes (fig 3). 



Male puparium (fig. 6) oblong, broadest behind, the margins obscurely 

 lobulate. Stigmatic orifices minute but prominent, marked by spots of white 

 secretion. Posterior orifice large, closed by an obscurely hexagonal operculum. 

 Dorsal area depressed behind the stigmatic areas, with the usual median 

 carina, which is continued — as an indistinct ridge — across the operculum. 

 Colour dark castaneous. The puparia are usually agglomerated together in 

 large masses, in which condition the form of the individuals is completely 

 obscured. Length of an isolated example 2 mm. 



Adult female insect bright salmon-red (fig. 9) ; stigmatic and caudal 

 processes dark brown. There are white waxy patches surrounding the base 

 of each of the processes, and also in the six depressions that surround the base 

 of the insect. Form, before oviposition, trilobate in outline {figs. 7, 8), the two 

 stigmatic processes and the caudal process occupying the angles between 

 the lobular expansions. Dorsum strongly convex, produced behind into a 

 broadly rounded lobe, demarked from the surrounding area by deep sulci (see 

 fig. 8), and supporting at its posterior extremity the dorsal spine. A sharply 

 defined furrow extends from the base of each stigmatic process across the 

 under surface — passing immediately in front of the rostrum (see y^. 7), and 

 a short sulcus extends forward from the rostrum towards the anterior 

 margin. The medio-ventral area between the rostrum and the base of the 

 caudal process is occupied by an ovate concave space, bounded behind by a pair 

 of small round fleshy lobes. The stigmatic and caudal processes project out- 

 wards and upwards. After oviposition the abdominal segments contract, and 

 the body is raised up from behind. Stigmatic processes elongate and com- 

 paratively slender ; so densely chitinous that the characters of the secretory 

 area at the apex are completely obscured. The caudal process is composed 

 of at least four visible segments, of which the basal two are soft and flexible, 

 the apical two being rigid ; the terminal segment is densely chitinous and 

 clothed with minute adpressed spines {fig. 12), its apical margin sharply serrate 



