SCALE INSECTS (" COCCIDiE ") OF AUSTRALIA. 101 



Dactylopius herhicola, Maskell. 



Agricultural Gazette New Sotith Wales, vol. ii, p. 352, 1891 (woodcut figs. 1-7). 

 Oockerell, Atm. and Mag. Nat. Hist. (6), vol. xvi, p. 134. 1895. 



This species was described by Mr. Maskell from specimens sent to him by 

 Mr. Olliff ; they were found upon grass {Aristida varans) gro^\ang at Mulgoa, 

 near Penrith, New South Wales. In Maskell's description and figures he 

 defines a strap or band of white secretion standing up like a flat handle across 

 the centre of the insect, with the secretion flattened do\vn at the front and 

 hind portion. I have never been able to find a coccid upon grass with this 

 form of test, and it may be something abnormal. 



Maskell sayfe : " Adult female dark brownish purple, slightly elongated, 

 convex above, flat beneath, covered with thin white meal, and sometimes 

 bearing several long curling very fine threads, resting on a cushion of white 

 cottony secretion, which seems usually to be a good deal longer than the 

 body. From this cushion, in all the specimens observed, rises a band of 

 cotton arching over the dorsum of the insect like a strap, as if to keep it in 

 place. This band never appears to be wide enough to enclose the insect 

 entirely." If this test is the normal structure, this coccid is a very rare 

 species, and I have never seen it. 



Adult female, ^ of an inch in length. Antennae with seven or eight joints; 

 feet with hairs on the inner margins ; digitules with four fine knobbed hairs ; 

 claw short and thick ; derm with many spinnerets and fine spiny hairs. 



I have specimens of a Dactylopius found upon the same species of grass 

 in the neighbourhood of Sydney, collected by Mr. E. Zeck, which is identical 

 or closely allied to this species, as far as the structure, form, and colour of 

 the adult female coccid as described by Maskell are concerned. The form of 

 the woolly secretion, however, is very different. The adult coccid resting upon 

 the grass stem is enveloped in an elongate mass of lightly felted filaments, 

 which are broadest in the centre and taper away at both extremities, mea- 

 suring up to I of an inch in length. This may be the normal form of the 

 woolly covering. 



476. Pseudococcus herhicola. Cat. Coccidse, p. 103. 



Dactylopius hihhertice, Maskell. 



Trans. N. Zealand Institute, vol. xxiv, p. 32, pi. vi, figs. 11-14. 1891. 

 Cockerell, Ann. and Mag. Nat. History (6), vol. xvi, p. 134. 1895. 



The type specimens were collected in South Australia upon the foliage of 

 Hibbertia litiearis and H. virgata. 



Adult female, dark purple, subglobular, showing regular segmentation; 

 -iV of an inch. Resting upon a pad of yellow cotton, with the dorsal surface 

 covered with a similar secretion, but not covering the edges of the pad under- 



