1891.] 97 



received specimens of the (^ , and of the ? in different stages of de- 

 velopment. He also sent drawings, now reproduced, and tbe following 

 particulars : — 



" On April 24th, 1890, in a sheltered portion of Delamere Forest, Cheshire, I 

 found, on three or four plants of Vaccinium myrtillus, a quantity of both $ and ? 

 scales (the latter immature) of this species. The males began to emerge on May 5th, 

 and continued to do so for several days. I found males in the open air about the 

 middle of May; they were very skittisli, frequently taking short flights ; they lived 

 for several days, but did not readily copulate in confinement. 



"Although I have searched the Vaccinium in many parts of the Foi'est I have 

 failed to find another colony of this species, and as there are so many acres of 

 Vaccinium it veas merely by chance that I discovered the only known locality for the 

 insects." 



The adult ? scales when found some weeks afterwards were full 

 of larvae, but the mother insects had become entirely shrivelled, and 

 could not be restored by boiling in caustic potash ; thus it was fortu- 

 nate the antennae and legs had been obtained previously from younger 

 forms ; and this may give a serviceable hint for procedure with other 

 species in future. 



Kaltenbach, in his " Pflanzenfeinde," p. 420, has described a 

 Lecaniuin vaccinii, but, as Signoret has stated (Ess. Cochen., p. 466), 

 the description shows that it was no Lecanitim, but a Chionaspis, so it 

 does not count here. Goethe, in the " Jahrbuch d. nassauischen 

 Yerein fiir Naturkunde," 1884, p. 125, described, far too briefly, Le- 

 caniuin vaccinii macrocarpum found on the small prickles of the 

 American bilberry in the Botanic Garden at Karlsruhe. The ? scale 

 is said to be " very small, light brown, and before impregnation is 

 strongly fringed, with eye-points between the antennae, which latter 

 have small knobbed hairs. The ^ was not seen." Such an imperfect 

 description would not identify any species with precision, but it in no 

 way points to our present species. No other Lecanium has been re- 

 corded as having been found on Vaccinium, and L. distinguendum 

 appears not to have been obtained on any other plant, and to be 

 undescribed. 



In one of the $ scales of L. distinfjiiendum, besides a number of 

 living larvae, was a single white pupa of a Hymenopterous parasite 

 which occupied a large portion of the space ; the presence of the 

 larvae showed that the parasite had attained its full development as a 

 larva without destroying all the eggs of the Lecanium. This, when 

 perfect, and one or two of other parasites issuing from these scales, I 

 sent to Mr. L. O. Howard, Assistant Entomologist of the United 

 States Department of Agriculture, Washington, who writes : — 



