470 JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC ENTOMOLOGY [Vol. 7 



Diaspis echinocadi Bouche 

 Found occasionally throughout the Republic on cactus, but, so far 

 as known, attacking no other group of plants. 



Recorded as follows: on Opuntia sp., Lima; on Opuntia arborescens, Acobamba. 



Fiorinia fiorinice Targ. 

 Of common occurrence upon various species of ornamental plants 

 in the gardens and parks of various Peruvian towns but, so far, not 

 collected on wild vegetation. 



Noted as follows: on Cocos sp., Saman (Department of Piura); on Phormium 

 tenax, Lima; on a cultivated, climbing Asclepias, Lima. 



Hemichionaspis minor Mask. 



This coccid is so closely related to H. aspidistra; as to be thought 

 by some authorities to be inseparable from, or at least only a variety 

 of, the latter. To the writer, however, it seems a valid species which 

 can generally be separated from H. aspidistrce by various small differ- 

 ences; these taken separately, seem inconsequential, but in the aggre- 

 gate cannot be denied recognition. The scale of H. minor is, as a 

 rule, lighter in color than that of H. aspidistrce, is somewhat coarser 

 in texture, thicker, not quite so slender and dainty looking and does 

 not seem so smooth and shiny. The exuviae of H. minor appear a 

 trifle smaller in proportion to the size of the scale and contrast more in 

 color wdth the latter, being of an amber to light-brown color or even of 

 a dirtj'', dark-brown. 



The median lobes of the adult insect seem to project a trifle more 

 than in H. aspidistrce and lobes two and three do not seem quite so 

 distinct as in the last mentioned species. 



In Peru H. minor is known especially as a cotton plague and as such 

 it is doing a great amount of damage in the northern cotton regions. 

 The generally accepted opinion as to its introduction (as previously 

 published by Prof. C. H. T. Townsend) is that it entered through the 

 Port of Paita on some plants which were, doubtless, set out in the 

 vicinity of Piura during the last eight or ten years, and from this focus 

 it has gradually been spreading through the cotton fields of the Piura- 

 Chira valleys until it has now become a very serious check upon not 

 only the quantity but also the quality of cotton produced. 



As cotton is by far the most important product of the region named, 

 it is only natural that the "piojo bianco," as H. minor is there called, 

 should be regarded primarily as a cotton pest, but its attacks are by 

 no means confined to that plant and Salix humholdtiana as well as 

 Ricinus communis are close seconds as hosts. This office possesses 

 a great many notes relative to such attacks in many localities and at 

 different dates and that the coccid in question is an omnivorous feeder 



