THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 181 



spinnerets ; upper groups with eight orifices, lower groups with 

 four ; several single spinnerets. 



Adult male unknown. 



A very common and remarkably cosmopolitan species, which I 

 first saw named in the collection of my late esteemed friend, Mr. 

 T. S. Crawford, in Adelaide. The deceased gentleman, according 

 to his friend and colleague, Mr. Maskell, had, before his death, 

 named the insect ; but the description, it appears, was never 

 published until Mr. Maskell kindly undertook to furnish and publish 

 the above scientific description of the insect in its several stages. 



Of all the scale insects which are natives of Victoria, Aspidiotus 

 rossi would appear to be about the most common, also the most 

 widely distributed, and it is to be found on the foliage of olives, 

 cork-oaks, blackwood, and shrubs innumerable ; and a most 

 singular form of this insect has lately been found by myself, 

 feeding on the juices of the well-known native shrub, Ricinocarjms 

 pirtifolius, growing in great numbers about Cheltenham and other 

 sandy districts. Here we have an almost circular scale insect 

 changing its form to enable it to live on the needle-like foliage 

 of the Ricinocarpus. This is a most interesting subject, and 

 a study of the means of its transition would be both useful and 

 instructive. Specimens of both forms are here for inspection 

 this evening. This scale would appear to be of a remarkably 

 hardy nature, as near Sandringham, on the sea coast, and only 

 a few miles from Melbourne, it may be found covering the leaves 

 of Alyxia, a very rigid and hard-wooded shrub, whose leaves, 

 with the scales attached, are at high tide often either partly sub- 

 merged or soaked with spray, but still these singular little insects 

 adhere closely to the leaves, and would appear to be quite unhurt 

 by the continuous action of the sea water. 



This is one of the scale insects which must be watched, lest it 

 once finds its way into our orchards — it is already in many 

 gardens — as, once established, it will be a difficult matter to 

 eradicate it. It is a most singular fact that hitherto — at least, 

 so far as I am aware — very few of our native Coccids have yet 

 attacked our fruit trees, the imported pests being responsible for 

 the greater part of the damage done both here and in the other 

 colonies. 



We learn that Baron F. von Mueller, K.C.M.G., M. and 

 Ph. D., &c, Government Botanist of Victoria, has recently 

 received further honours, having been elected President of the 

 International Academy for Botanical Geography of Le Mans, 

 France ; also, one of the thirty members of the International 

 Commission for Botanic Nomenclature at Genoa, besides which 

 he has been elected foreign member of the Academies of Science 

 at Boston, Copenhagen, and Stockholm respectively. 



