140 THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 



mentioned by Mr. Maskell, as in Victoria, at least, Aspidiotus 

 rossi, A. neri, Chionaspis, and many other kinds, are always as 

 thick, or thicker, on .the upper surface of the leaf than on the 

 lower. Some kinds, especially amongst the soft Dactylopidje, are 

 very destructive to roots of daisies, carnations, and other garden 

 plants ; whilst our native eucalypts are often killed outright by 

 the united efforts of millions of Eriocci, which swarm all over the 

 tree, commencing from the lower branches upwards ; whilst 

 other genera — as Mytilaspis, Pulvinaria, &c. — are on the stems also. 



In many cases they exude, in the form of minute globules, a 

 whitish, thick, gummy secretion, answering probably, as Mr. 

 Maskell thinks, to the so-called "honeydew" of the Aphididae. 

 This secretion drops from them on to the plant, and from it 

 grows a black fungus, which soon gives an unsightly appearance 

 to the plant. This is often called the " Soot Fungus," and is a 

 species of Capnodium. (The common one, on orange, being 

 C. citri, as ascertained by me from Dr. Cooke, to whom, many 

 years ago, I had sent economic fungi ; some of which, I am 

 informed, are to be found in " Grevillea," the valuable publication 

 upon which is partly based the excellent work of Dr. Cooke, just 

 issued by the Victorian Department of Agriculture.) 



The manner of feeding upon the plant is the same as in all 

 families of Homoptera — namely, by means of a protruding 

 rostrum, beak, or trunk, situated on the under side of the insect. 

 As there is not in the female Coccida; any well denned division 

 between the head and the rest of the body, this rostrum is seen 

 on turning over the insect, in the form usually of a minute 

 conical projection between, or nearly between, the first, pair of 

 legs (if the legs are present), or a little within the circumference 

 (if the legs are absent). An ordinary lens will generally show, 

 springing from the point of the conical rostrum, three or four 

 longish, very fine, curling bristles. These bristles are, in fact, 

 hollow tubes, and the insect, inserting them into the leaf or bark 

 of the plant, sucks its food through them. 



The efforts of the Coccidas are not confined altogether to 

 damaging plants, as there are some species producing materials 

 useful to man. For example, Carteria lacca produces shellac ; 

 E. viceres (Pe-la) is used by the Chinese for candles, and others 

 might be mentioned. In Mr. Maskell's work on the Coccidse, he 

 has divided them into the following groups, which, for the benefit 

 of those who may feel inclined to make a study of the family, I 

 have copied, together with notes on their life histories, from the 

 work above alluded to. These extracts will now be doubly 

 valuable, as Mr. Maskell informs me of the loss by fire of the 

 remaining volumes of his book, together with other valuable 

 publications issued by the New Zealand Government, and many 

 of which are now difficult to obtain. 



