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OBSERVATIONS ON ASPIDIOTUS LATAKI/E, Sign. 

 BY E. ERNEST GREEN, E.E.S. 



By courtesy of the authorities of the Vienna Museum, T have 

 recently had the opportunity of examining types of Signoret's Aspi- 

 diotus latanice. 



Since the date of Dr. Signoret's classical " Essai sur les Coche- 

 nilles," so many species of Coccidce — and more particularly of the 

 genus Aspidiofus — have been added to our lists, that descriptions and 

 figures which then sufficed for the discrimination of the several species 

 are now often quite inadequate. Such is certainly the case with 

 Signoret's description of latanice, which would equally well apply to 

 at least half a dozen perfectly distinct species. 



In Part I of " The Coccida; of Ceylon " (plate viii), I have figured 

 as latanice an Aspidiotus which I had previously described under the 

 name of transparens, Green. I was chiefly misled in my later deter- 

 mination by Signoret's insistance upon the conspicuous tubular 

 spinneret ducts, which are particularly prominent in my transparens. 

 An examination of Signoret's tj'pe, however, shows me that my 

 Ceylonese species is quite distinct, and that it belongs to a different 

 section of the genus. It must, therefore, resume its earlier name. 



The accompanying figure represents the pygidium of Asp. latanice 

 drawn from part of Signoret's own types in the Vienna Museum. 

 The close resemblance to Aspidiotis cydonice of Comstock is at once 

 apparent : and I am now of opinion that the species figured on plate 

 xiv of "The Coccidae of Ceylon," under the name of cydonice, should 

 be more rightly assigned to latanice, Sign. 



I have, unfortunately, no typical American examples of Com- 

 stock's cydonice for comparison ; but both the figure (pi. xiv, fig. 1) 

 and description (p. 295) in the "Annual Report of the Department 

 of Agriculture, 1880," agree in every particular with the figure of 

 Signoret's latanice now appended. 



In the type of latanice from the Vienna Museum, the female 

 puparia are of a very pale creamy-white colour, being coated with the 

 fine white fibrous matter which covers the under-surface of the leaf 

 of its food-plant {Latania lorhonica) . The exuvia are not so densely 

 coated, and form a fulvous-yellow spot in the centre of each scale. 

 Beneath the white covering matter the secretionary area of the scale 

 is itself of a clear fulvous yellow. The ventral scale is moderately 

 developed, stoutest along the margin. Diameter, 2 mm. 



