SCALE INSECTS ("COCCIDyE"/ OF AUSTRALIA. 33 



Maskell says : " The rich black colour and the curious fringe of small 

 fans on the margin very clearly distinguish this insect. It would belong 

 properly to Dr. Signoret's first series of the genus Lecanivm (Essai, p. 226), 

 though exceptional in its oviparous habit, and nearest possibly to L. tessel- 

 latu'm. But no species hitherto reported (as far as I know) exhibits a similar 

 fringe." 



Fuller described {Trans. Ent. Soc. London, p. 45, 1899) a variety of this 

 species under the name of L. frenchif var. macrozamice, from Western 

 Australia, upon Macrozamia frazeri. 



Lecanium hemisphcericum, Targioni-Tozzetti (Fig. 18.) 

 Studii sule Coccinglie, pp. 26, 39, 63, p. 63, 1867; Cat. Coccid ■ , p. 38, 1869. 

 Lecanium cojfece, Signoret, Ann. Soc. Ent. France (o), vol. iii, p. 435. 1873. 

 Comstock, f/.;S^. Dep. Agr. Report, p. 344, 1880. 

 Newstead, Man. Brit. Coccidce, vol. ii, p. 114. 1903. 



A cosmopolitan introduced scale, originally described from Europe, and 

 recorded from New Zealand upon Camellia in 1884, and from Australia 

 ten years later upon hothouse plants in South Australia. It probably has 

 a wide distribution, as I have recently had specimens fiom Dai win (Northern 

 Territory), from Mr. G. F. Hill, upon an undetermined weed. In Europe it 

 is found on many garden shrubs (Oleander, Camellia, &c.), fruit-trees (orange 

 and peach), forest trees (sago palms, cocoanut palm, coffee, &c.). 



The adult female varies in colour from light brown, reddish, to almost black; 

 more or less hemispherical in form, ovate or slightly elongate, convex, 

 apparently smooth, but when examined with* a lens seen to be thickly studded 

 with yellowish dots. In the immature females the dorsal surface shows 

 parallel and transverse carinse, which foim a distinct H on the back, but this 

 is very indistinct on the adult foims. Length, | of an inch. Height, ri of an 

 inch. Several closely allied foims have been described as distinct species, 

 such as Lecanium hibernaculatum and L. dypeatum, which are not considered 

 synonyms of L. hemisphcericum. 



993. Saissetia hemispharica. Cat. Coccidse, p. 202. 



Lecanium hesperidum, Linnaeus. 



Coccus hesperidum, Syst. Xat., edition x, vol. i, p. 45.5. 1758. 

 Burmeister, Handb. Entomology, vol. xi, p. 69. 1835. 

 Maskell, Coccidce of N. Zealand, p. 80. 1887. 

 Newstead, Mon. Brit. Coccidce, vol. ii, p. 78. 1903. 



One of the first described, and most widely distributed species, commonly 

 known as the " Soft Scale " of the orange, but found upon many cultivated 

 plants and even native shrubs. 



Female coccids when immature are greenish yellow, soft and flattened, 



only slightly convex, and often half curled round the young branchlets, or 



flattened down on either side of the mid-rib of the leaves. 

 t 98175— B 



