Maskell. — On Coccididse. 81 



Larvce presenting at the extremity of the abdomen the 

 anal tubercles of Coccinae. 



From the foregoing characters the group is very evidently 

 intermediate between Lecanids and Coccids. 



When, in the years just mentioned, the formation of this 

 group was proposed, I possessed specimens of three out of the 

 eight species of the genus Kernies, which forms part of it : 

 K. vorviilio, Planchon ; K. hauhinii, Planchon ; and K. galli- 

 formis, Eiley. Since then I have received from Mr. Newstead 

 an African species, K. qucrciis, Newst., ms., and .now have 

 another from Australia, which I propose to name K. acacia. 



In 1883 I attached to the group the two genera, Asterole- 

 canium, Targioni, Suud Pollinia, Targioni ; and in 1881 (following 

 Signoret) I had placed Planchonia, Sign., among the Coccinae. 

 Previously all these three genera had been included amongst a 

 Lecanid section to which Targioni had given the name 

 " Lecaniodiaspidae." This name appeared to me to be so 

 singularly inappropriate, seeing that none of the genera placed 

 under it had any Diaspid character, and that their larvae were 

 certainly not Lecanid, that I declined to continue so confusing 

 an arrangement ; I placed under the Lecaniodiaspidae such 

 genera as Ctenochiton, Ceroplastes, &c., which fitted it, and 

 divided the others according as their characters seemed to 

 direct. One genus, Lecaniodiaspis, Targioni, I was obliged to 

 leave alone, knowing nothing about it, nor do I know if any- 

 body has ever since seen it. 



The exigencies of my book on " Scale Insects of New Zea- 

 land," in 1887, unfortunately compelled me to extreme brevity. 

 The work was intended primarily for the use of settlers in the 

 colony, and much scientific detail would have been out of 

 place : as it was, the book was scarcely published before I was 

 told " there was too much Latin in it." Some friends of mine 

 who of late years have taken up the study of Coccids, and 

 who have had occasion to touch upon some of the genera just 

 mentioned, have not given me credit for at least thinking there 

 was some good reason for my action. My papers of 1881 and 

 1883 have been ignored, and my classification set aside, pro- 

 bably because in 1887 it was not reasoned out in detail. The 

 old Lecaniodiaspidae, including PZa?ic/i07im and Aster olecaniuvi, 

 have been made to do duty still. The larval form of Astero- 

 lecanmm has been unnoticed ; the anal tubercles present in all 

 stages of Planchonia have not been considered ; and the con- 

 fusion introduced by Targioni in 1868 has been perpetuated 

 without discussion of important points. Mr. Ashmead, in his 

 "Generic Synopsis of CoccidaB," 1891, adheres to Targioni's 

 system : he is followed by Mr. Cockerell in " Science Gossip," 

 1893 ; and neither writer pays any attention to the anatomical 

 characters of the insects. " Priority of authorship " has been 

 6 



