284 [December, 



Figs. A and B represent the apex of the abdomen from above and beneath 

 respectively. 



Expanse of wings, <£, 12 mm., $ , 14 mm. 



Hab. : Khasias. Three males and one female. (One male 

 labelled " Khasias," the other examples labelled " Cherra Punji," two 

 bearing the date vii-94). 



One male broken up in working ; the remaining examples in Mr. 

 McLachlan's collection. 



Another Oriental Hydroptilid has been described, Plethus cursi- 

 tans, Hagen, from Ceylon, but it has nothing to do with the present 

 species. It possesses 0, 2, 3 spurs, and is a very small insect. (Hy- 

 droptilia cursitans, Hagen, Verhandl. der z.-b. Ges., Wien, ix, p. 209, 

 1859; Plethus cursitans, Id., ibid., 1887, pp. 643-5). 



13, Blackford Road, Edinburgh : 

 October, 1902. 



NOTE ON ORTHEZIA FLOCCOSA, De Geek. 

 BY E. ERNEST GREEN, F.E.S., Government Entomologist, Ceylon. 



Mr. C. French, Entomologist to the Victorian Department of 

 Agriculture, has sent me examples of a Coccid found '" on some wet 

 timber at the 300 feet level, in a mine, in Gippsland, Australia." 

 A truly remarkable situation in which to find living Coccidcs ! The 

 insect proves to be Orthezia floccosa, De Geer. European examples 

 of this species are usually found amongst wet moss or sphagnum. 

 It is possible that they may feed either on these mosses or upon Algce 

 associated therewith. These Australian examples may have been 

 carried down from the surface with the timber used in the mine, and 

 may have sustained themselves upon such cryptogamic plants during 

 their sojourn underground. All the species of Orthezia appear to be 

 able to exist for long periods without food (a characteristic found 

 also in many Monophlebincs) . These same insects survived the journey 

 by post from Australia to Ceylon, absolutely without food, and are 

 still living in the pill-box in which they were received. 



In comparing them with European examples of the species, I 

 noticed a character in O. floccosa which does not appear to have been 

 remarked before, distinguishing it from all it allies, but associating it 

 with Ortheziola of Sulc. The tibio-tarsal articulation is absent in all 

 the legs, and the terminal joint of the antenna is apparently composed 

 of two fused joints, forming a scape-like termination ; the antenna? 



