tflE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. ll 



nest of the first species was discovered in the hollow trunk 

 of a Murray Pine, Callltris verrucosa, and contained two eggs. 

 Porphyry-crowned Lorikeets, Glossopsittacus jMrphyocephalas, 

 were also nesting in the hollow spouts of trees. The rare Night 

 Parrakeet, Geopsittacus occidenlalis, exists here, but we were 

 unable to find any speciiTiens. On the small sandy rises were 

 numbers of the funnel-shaped traps of the " Ant Lion," Myrmelion, 

 into which many ants, flies, &c., fell an easy prey. 



These sandy ridges are natural flower gardens. One of the 

 Native Honeysuckles, Banksia ornata, Grevillea pterosperma 

 (with orange flowers), Halgania cyanea, H. lavandulacea (a showy 

 plant with deep blue flowers), Eremophila brownii (with reddish- 

 brown flowers), Podolepis siemssenia (with panicles of golden- 

 yellow flowers), Acacia hakeoides, Bceckea crassifoUa (with its 

 small pink and white flowers), with many others, grow luxuriously. 

 Parasitic on the branches of Acacia hakeoides was noticed the 

 rare scale-insect Lecanium mirificum. Many " Bull Oaks," 

 CasiLurina glauca, were found dead or dying, and on examining 

 them the remarkable coccid (named after my father, the original 

 finder, by the late Mr. W. Maskell) Frenchia casuarinai, like so 

 many hundreds of small pieces of wood plugged into the trees, 

 was found to be the cause of the destruction of these fine timber 

 trees. This coccid is also common around Port Phillip, where it 

 attacks the " She Oaks," Gasuarina qiiadrivalvis, and it is only a 

 matter of a few years before all the smaller Casuarinas will be com- 

 pletely destroyed. Mr. Maskell has placed this genus amongst the 

 Brachyscelidae, as he states it seems impossible to place it else- 

 where. He further states that " it is not clear by what process 

 the burrowing into the bark is effected. The larva does not seem 

 to do it, at least to any great depth. As for the gall-like swellings 

 of the plant, they may be accounted for in the usual way as the 

 result of irritation caused by the suction of the insects." Yet I 

 see nothing to indicate that this coccid has any organs of irrita- 

 tion not possessed by other coccids. Thus this question of gall- 

 formation needs further investigation. 



We next reached Pine Plains, another good collecting ground. 

 Here the two species of eucalyptus, E. gracilis (the common 

 Mallee) and £. rosirata, with Murray Pines, Gallitris verrucosa, 

 are the principal timber trees. Under the bark of the dead 

 Murray Pines many specimens of the rare black carab beetle, 

 Gigadema intermedia, were collected. On the sand-hills, amongst 

 the fallen leaves, several showy beetles, also belonging to the 

 Carabida3, were secured, and transferred to the collecting bottle. 

 In the thick JNLallee we came upon several of the large mound 

 nests of the Mallee Hen, Lipoa oceUata. As an interesting 

 description of these egg-mounds was published in the Victorian 

 Naturalist, vol. xvi., p. 149, there is no necessity for me to 



