Maskell. — Oil Coccidae. 99 



The most peculiar, and at present unaccountable to me, 

 feature of the species is the position of the adult female in the 

 gall. The food of a Coccid is usually the juices of the plant 

 on which it lives, extracted directly from the plant by means 

 of the rostral setse. Properly, therefore, the female Splicero- 

 coccus pirogallis ought to be found attached within the gall to 

 the twig itself, the gall being merely a covering for it, as in 

 other species. Instead of that, we find it occupying a little 

 saucer at the far end of the gall, and in such a position that 

 the rostrum is attached to the saucer itself ; consequently its 

 nutriment must be drawn (if drawn at all) from the gall 

 which it has first made, and then feeds on. There are Coccids 

 {e.g., Porphyropliora) which in the adult female stage seem 

 never to feed at all ; buc then these possess no rostra or setae. 

 Spliccrococcus im-ogallis has a rostrum, a mentum, and the 

 usual setae : it, therefore, presumably uses these organs for 

 feeding-purposes. But, if so, why is it placed in a saucer as 

 far away as possible from the plant '? It has been suggested 

 to me that possibly there may be a flow of fluid between the 

 two walls of which the gall is formed, and that this fluid, 

 touching the base of the saucer, may be accessible to the setae 

 of the insect. But I can detect no sign of any fluid in the 

 adult galls, the whole interior of which is powdered with dry 

 meal, and the walls of which seem quite dry. As for the 

 manner in which the gall acquires its pear-shape, how the 

 stalk is formed, how the orifice is made and kept open, how, 

 in fact, the gall-formation is controlled by its builder, which 

 is placed in the most inconvenient position for the purpose, 

 are questions which I am by no means able at present to 

 answer. 



There are four excellent papers on insect-galls by Mr. 

 Butler in " Knowledge," July to October, 1893; but these do 

 not deal with Coccids at all, nor do they elucidate the pecu- 

 liarity just mentioned of S. pirogallis. 



Subdivision MONOPHLEBIN^. 



Genus Icerya. 



Icerya segyptiaca, Douglas ; Crossotosoma cBgyptiacum. 

 Douglas, Ent. Mo. Mag., March, 1890, p. 79. Plate VIII., 

 figs. 1-3. 



The second-stage female of this species is dark orange-red 

 covered with white wax, and exhibits rudiments of waxy 

 marginal processes like those of the adult. The form, when 

 extracted from the wax, is elliptical and slightly convex. The 

 antenna has nine joints, all subequal in length except the last, 

 which is rather longer than the two preceding together ; on 

 all the joints are several longish hairs. The feet are strong, 



