76 Transactions. — Zoology. 



or the second stage, nor of the male, it is worth while to enter 

 here into some particulars concerning the species. 



Adult female reddish-brown, or sometimes dark-brown, the 

 median dorsal region darker in colour than the margins ; form 

 elliptical, dorsum convex, margins slightly flattened ; length 

 averaging about lin., but specimens may reach tin. Antennae 

 of seven joints, of which the first two are short, the third and 

 fourth longest and subequal, the fifth and sixth shortest and 

 subequal, the seventh as long as the fifth and sixth together ; 

 on the first are two short hairs, on the second two long ones, 

 on the third none, on the fourth four, on the fifth and sixth 

 one each, and on the seventh several. Feet slender ; the 

 coxa bears two long hairs, the trochanter one very long ; the 

 tarsus is curved and nearly as long as the tibia ; the digitules 

 of the claw are rather dilated. Abdominal cleft and lobes 

 normal. The margin of the body bears a row of fine hairs, 

 and at each spiracular depression there are three or four 

 strong spines with a group of circular spinnerets at their 

 bases. 



Second stage female yellow or light-brown, elliptical, flat, 

 rather translucent ; length about ^qVH. Antennae of six joints, 

 of which the third is the longest ; the last joint bears several 

 longish hairs. The margin of the body has a row of fine 

 hairs, as in the adult. 



Larva yellow, flattish, elliptical, active ; length about 

 Jgin. There seems to be no particularly distinctive character 

 about it, but the fine marginal hairs are present. 



Adult male unknown ; the male pupa inhabits a white, 

 waxy, subelliptical test. 



Hah. In Europe, on mulberry (if we may judge by the 

 name) ; in New Zealand, on Alsophila coUnsoi, Nephrolepis 

 cordifoUa, Asplenium flaccidum, and other ferns. 



Those who are inclined to separate species on account of 

 external appearance, varying food-plants, or even locality, 

 might attempt to distinguish the New Zealand specimens 

 from the European ones ; and, indeed, I have never seen this 

 insect on mulberry, but always on ferns. But the anatomical 

 characters of the antennas and feet, in addition to the elliptical 

 outline and dorsal convexity, are so absolutely identical in 

 both that I cannot dissociate them. These characters, which 

 led me in 1884 to attach the Alsophila scale to L. mori, are 

 found precisely similar in 1893 on Asplenium and Ncphrolepis. 



Genus Pulvinaeia. 

 Pulvinaria maskelli, Olliff, Agric. Gazette of New South 

 Wales, vol. ii., p. 667; vol. iii., p. 176. Signoretia atri- 

 plicis, Maskell, N.Z. Trans., vol. xxiv., 1891, p. 23. 

 Plate IV., fig. 8. 



