184 [J>'iy- 



myrlccG, Linn., an insect originally from the Cape of Good Hope, and 

 apparently scarcely at all known up to the present ; and most of the 

 remainder are probably new species, which I hope to describe during 

 the current year. 



Amongst these new insects is one which deserves, I think, a 

 special notice at pres^ent. It belongs to the genus Iceri/a, and in many 

 of its characters it very closely resembles the well-known Icerya Pur- 

 chasi. I have received specimens of the adult female (two of which 

 have hatched out several larvae), of the second stage of the female, 

 and the adult male. In size, these are all much smaller than I. 

 JPurchasi, the dimensions being : the larva, ^n-inch ; the adult female, 

 To-inch ; the adult male, yV-inch. The minute anatomical characters 

 are not so easily defined, and I leave them for the present. But the 

 distinguishing feature is that, from the central region of the dorsum, 

 in the adult female, there springs a rather thick pencil of cottony 

 fibres, white or slightly tinged with yellow, and protruding in the 

 specimens observed about Te-inch. This is a very peculiar feature, 

 not seen in any other Coccid that I know of. I have vainly endeavoured 

 to make out an orifice in the dorsal epidermis from which this pencil 

 could emerge ; the insect's body is covered with short black hairs and 

 with circular compound spinneret orifices, but I fail to see that there 

 are any special ones at that particular spot. Nor is it easy to see 

 what can be the use of the pencil : for there is (as usual in the genus) 

 a posterior cottony ovisac, in which the eggs are laid and the larvae 

 hatched ; the pencil can, therefore, not have any generative function. 

 The ovisac, it should be remarked, is much smaller, proportionately, 

 than that of I. Purchasi, extending scarcely beyond the abdominal 

 extremity. 



I propose to attach to this curious form the name of Icerya 

 Koehelei. My friend informs me that the insect seems to be somewhat 

 rare ; he has only been able to furnish me with some half a dozen 

 specimens of the adults ; but I think that these are sufiiciently clearly 

 distinct to permit me to consider them as a new species. The food- 

 plant appears to be usually some kind of Acacia. 



Wellington, N. Z. : April, 1892. 



NOTES ON SOME LYCMNID^ FROM WEST AFRICA. 

 BY HAMILTON H. DEUCE, FE S. 



The following observations are suggested to me by a careful 

 perusal of some descriptions published by Dr. Staudinger in the " Iris," 

 part i, July, 1801 :— 



