138 ^•'"'^*' 



basal joints very short, the others greatly elongated ; legs long and slender ; a single 

 pair of wings, rather opaque, dusted with greyish powder ; a tuft of long silky 

 filaments at the end of the body. Eyes black, with numerous facets. The adult 

 male insect has no mouth, and consequently takes no food in this stage." 



Upon reading this, I wrote to Mr. E. T. Browne, asking him what 

 evidence there was that the insects he had sent to me in 1887 as the 

 males of Orthezia insignis were really of that species, and he returned 

 the following reply : — 



" It was solely upon the authority of Mr. S. J. Mclntire (who unfortunately 

 passed away in November, 1893) that the winged insects were considered to be the 

 maleo of 0. insignis. He first found them, and was often at Kew collecting speci- 

 mens. I remember being with him there one day, and we saw them flying about 

 the plants on which the females were living. I do not think he saw any copulation." 



I then wrote to Mr. Green, enquiring if he was certain that the 

 Goccid he figured as the male of O. insignis was really so. While 

 waiting his reply, I received from Mr. C. P. Lounsbury, of Amherst, 

 U. S. A., a copy of his paper, entitled, " A New Greenhouse Pest," 

 reprinted from the " Thirty-Second Annual Eeport of the Massachu- 

 setts Agricultural College for 1894," in which a large space is devoted 

 to Orthezia insignis, and two plates illustrate the species in all stages 

 of growth. The $ agrees exactly with my species, and so also does the 

 (J! I then wrote to Mr. Lounsbury, informing him of Mr. Green's 

 discovery, and asking if there was positive evidence of the insect 

 being the ^ of O. insignis. He replied at once, as follows : — 



" My specimens of 0. insignis, J , were obtained from plants of Verbena grown 

 under glass jars. In selecting the plants, I took care to take those appearing on a 

 close examination to be entirely free of ' mealy bugs,' which do occur in numbers 

 in our greenhouses. The plants, however, were very badly infested with 0. insignis, 

 and it is possible, though hardly probable, that I might have overlooked some young 

 Dactylopii among the moulted skins of the Orthezia. I did not obtain males from 

 all the plants kept under observation, and none at all from cuttings of plants (kept 

 under bell-jars in bottles) infested with the progeny of single females. 



" At the same time I observed the similarity that my specimens bore to the 

 figure of Dactylopius destructor, Comst. {citri, Boisd.), in the 1880 Report of the 

 U. S. Dept. of Agriculture, pi. xxii, but as there appeared to be differences, and I 

 could find no trace of tarsal digitules on any of the nine specimens I succeeded in 

 mounting, and, moreover, as they agreed almost precisely with your description, and 

 as Mr. W. H. Ashmead had also described an insect with but two caudal filaments 

 as an Orthezia (Canadian Entomologist, xx, p. 202), I did not doubt that I had the 

 true male of 0. insignis. I did not observe any coition of the sexes, all the specimens 

 being at rest on the sides of the jars when taken." 



Mr. Green writes : — 



" I have no hesitation in saying that the male I have figured belongs to the 



