broad, rugose, of a dark brown colour and covered, especially on the median line, 

 with small greyish tubercles of an elongate form, •which are composed of a secretion 

 soluble in ether. The anal emargination is very wide." 



This agrees fairly well with the specimen before me except as to 

 the tubercles, wliich do not exist ; they probably pertain only to the 

 young immature form, and are the same as designated by Modeer in 

 his account of that stage of growth as " ogon " (eyes, buds, pips, 

 points) ; or it may be that my specimen is abnormal, and the absence 

 of tubercles has been caused by the enervating influence of the para- 

 sites that had evidently affected the insect ; but as the other characters 

 differ but very little, and only one species of PuJcinaria has been 

 obtained from the birch, I conclude that this is the same as Signoret's. 

 He gives no particulars of antennje or legs of the adult, but only the 

 characters of the larva. The male is unknown. 



Linne, in the " Fauna Suecica " (J. c.) describes his Coccus hetulcs 

 very briefly, thus : — 



" Habitat in Betiila alba ramorum divaricationibus solitarius," and he adds 

 nothing in the subsequent " Systema Naturae." 



Pabricius and J3e Villers merely refer to Linne. Gmelin, in his 

 edition of the " Systema Naturae," has : — 



" Habitat in Europse Betula alba, teres, spadiceus." 

 Modeer has :— 



" Bjork Fiistflyet (Betula alba), $ scale oval, cut out posteriorly, dark red- 

 brown ; when young pale rust-colour, with dark points. 



" Found in angles of twigs of birch. Somewhat larger than a pea. Lays in the 

 beginning of June a considerable quantity of eggs in a conspicuous white cottony 

 nest, which becomes so much extended that the scale is raised up on it from behind 

 perpendicular." 



There is no reference to Linne, so that even with this description 

 by Modeer (whose work, by the way, Signoret says \l. c. p. 5] he had 

 not " analyzed ") the identification of the Coccus hetulce of Linne was 

 by its habitat on the birch, and by repute, more than by description ; 

 but Modeer's description points undoubtedly to a Pulvinaria, and 

 Signoret's species appears to be the same ; and so, in default of any- 

 thing to the contrary, rather than by positive facts, the species described 

 by these authors may be accepted as the Coccus hetulce, Linn. 



Its recognition as a British species rests on the works of the 

 authors quoted by Stephens in his " Catalogue of British Insects " 

 (1829), ii, 368, viz., Berkenhout, Stewart, Samouelle, and Turton, none 

 of whom (as indicated) gives a description or information when or 

 where it has been found in Britain ; nor can I trace any subsequent 



