98 Transactions. — Zoology. 



Froggatt has sent me a large number of specimens, and says 

 that the insects " simply cover the bushes in several localities 

 about Sydney." 



This very distinct species presents a number of most inter- 

 esting problems for the consideration of a student of Coccids. 

 The little galls, so exactly like very small fruit or seed-vessels, 

 would not be thought to be the habitation of insects by any- 

 body but an entomologist. I have seen as many as two 

 hundred of the little pears in one bunch on a twig scarcely 

 more than lin. long. The most curious points connected 

 with the species are the growth of the gall, the position of the 

 female, and the generative organ of the male. The larva 

 appears merely to begin with the formation of a minute green 

 pimple on the twig, and I presume that the duration of this 

 stage is a very short one, for even the most rudimentary galls 

 which I have been able to examine had within them females 

 in the second stage. The characteristic pear-shape of the adult 

 gall is not noticeable usually until it has reached the dark- 

 red state, which is late in the second stage of the female ; and 

 the small orifice at the base, although probably present all 

 through, is also scarcely noticeable up to the same period. 

 The texture of the young gall is more clearly vegetable than 

 in the old state, and the interior is more solid, with scarcely 

 any hollow space. The complete woody, hollow, thin-walled, 

 pear-shaped gall does not seem to be perfected until the 

 female insect has reached the adult stage. 



As regards the larvae, I imagine that the sexes must 

 separate very early : the female larvae must escape through 

 the orifice in order to seek new homes on the twig, while the 

 male larvae remain in the gall, and there undergo their meta- 

 morphoses. But here a difficulty arises, for in all the galls in 

 which I have found the cottony " bandolier " with male 

 pupae there were also adult females containing eggs. It is 

 clear that these could not be the mothers of the male pupae, 

 and possibly, therefore, the male larvge, after emei'ging from 

 their own maternal home, find their way into another, for the 

 purpose of pupating in common. 



I take it that the small orifice serves a double purpose. 

 At the time when the female becomes adult it provides access 

 for the very long male penis, which can thus reacli the female 

 at the far extremity without tlie necessity of the insect enter- 

 ing the gall, and later it serves as the door of exit for the 

 larvae, and for the adult males. These latter, having their 

 heads in the pupal state turned towards the orifice, can 

 emerge easily. If, however, they had to enter in order to 

 reach the female they would find it difficult to turn in the 

 gall, and so they insert merely the long penis with which they 

 are furnished. 



