106 t^^P^"' 



Sigiioret, /. c, merely quotes the above, and adds " Inconnu," but 

 in describing a Lecanium on bramble, sent from the United States 

 by Mr. A. Fitch under the name of L. rubi, he says that it is the 

 smallest species known to him, and as it does not appear to be the 

 same as Schrank's species, he changed the name to L. FitcJiii. But 

 as our newly acquired species in its ultimate state agrees well with 

 Schrank's imperfect description, which certainly indicates ?^> Lecanium, 

 and, as no other Lecanium is known to live on Buhus in Europe, I do 

 not think I err in the identification. In the structure of the antennae 

 and legs it is very distinct. 



On May 30th, I received from Dr. T. A. Chapman some ^ and ? 

 scales of this species on bramble-stems (Ruhus) of last year's growth, 

 obtained about ten miles from Hereford, and as most of the females 

 were immature, and Dr. J. H. Wood, of Ledbury, had assiduously 

 hunted for more without success, I thought T would try to find some 

 in this neighbourhood ; so, on the 10th June, I went to a sheltered 

 place where brambles grow in a hawthorn hedge. " The eye sees 

 what it expects to see " — sometimes ; and though I hardly expected, 

 I yet hoped to see some scales of L. ruhi. But it is no easy matter 

 to see far into a bramble bush, which is a fortress with natural 

 clievaux defrise, and in this instance was further fortified with the 

 defensive armour of the hedge-thorns, and an outlying stockade of 

 stinging nettles. My attention was first arrested by a troop of black 

 ants {Formica fuliginosa) doing sentry duty up and down one of the 

 few remaining stems of last year's growth, and judging by previous 

 observation in other species that they were guarding a Lecanium, I 

 determined to storm the fortification at all hazards. I was rewarded 

 for the damage to my hands, for, on the under-side of the stem, at the 

 place involuntarily indicated by the ants, I obtained a full growai ? 

 Lecanium ruhi. Thus encouraged, I made further assaults, always 

 under the guidance of ants, and succeeded in finding six or seven 

 more of the § scales, and two empty scales of the ^ . But they were 

 all on one bush, and I could not get another scale, though I hunted 

 near and far on other bushes ; so it seems that the species is at least 

 localized, and this^ and the difiiculty of getting it out of its habitat, 

 may be the sufiicient reason why it has not been seen since it was 

 described by Schrank in 1801. Truly, it is a protected race. 



The pattern of the white markings on the $ scales is the same as 

 on Lecanium disfinf/ne7idum and L.fuscum; this season I have also 

 seen it, but in a fainter white colour, on L. pyri and L. genevense, so 

 that its occurrence at a certain age of the scales may prevail in many 

 species, as I have surmised at p. 96, vol. ii, u. s. 



