158 



SCIENCE BULLETIN, No. 18. 



Genus XLYII. Frenchia, Maskell. 



Trans. N. Zealand Institute, vol. xiv, p. 56, 1891. 



Two species of these remarkable coccids have been described infesting the 

 branchlets of several species of sheoaks {Casuarina). 



Maskell defines the genus as follows : " Females excreting a tubular, 

 smooth, woody test, which entirely covers them; also at gestation forming 

 an inner waxy indusium, closely attached to the insect ; also producing gall- 

 like swellings or excrescences in the twigs of the food plant. Abdomen 

 distinctly prolonged. Adult female coccid with aborted rostrum, and no 

 legs or antennae, the anogenital ring obscure, or only represented by a simple 

 orifice. Segmentation of the abdominal segments irregular, with many 

 transverse corrugations ; surface covered vnih. circular spinnerets and slender 

 hairs ; abdomen terminating in a slender point." 



Frenchia casuarinae, Maskell (Fig. 110). 



Trans. N. Zealand Institute, vol. xxiv, p. 57, pi. xiii, figs. 1-16, 1891. 

 Fioggatt, Agric. Gazette N.S.W., vol. ix, p. 495, 1898. 



The coccid has a very wide range over the coastal districts of A ictoria and 

 New South Wales upon Casuarhm equiselijolia, C. quadrivaUs and other 

 species of sheoaks. Lea records it as common on 

 similar Casuarinas in Tasmania. 



Galls first forming an oval swelling upon the side of 

 the twig, varying in size and form, according to the 

 number of coccids that make a lodgment in the bark ; 

 from the centre of this, with the base in the wood, 

 springs upward, a stout dark-brown cylindrical tube 

 broadest and loosely attached at the base in the gall 

 swelling, where it is hidden in the tissue of the aborted 

 wood, but with the projecting portion of a uniform 

 thickness about half an inch in length and a quarter 

 of an inch in diameter, where it emerges from the 

 basal gall, tapering often to a conical apex, with a 

 central apical orifice. 



Adult female coccid covered with a mealy secretion, 



afterwards becoming waxy; at first reddish yellow, 



then bright red, and finally dark-brown ; cephalic 



portion circular, disc-like, the thoracic and abdominal 



segments tapering up into a slender tail, fitting in the 



tubular gall. Mouth aborted, legs and antennae 



wanting; anal segment of the abdomen terminating in a slender point. 



Maskell compares it to a little tadpole in general form. 



116. Frenchia casuarince. Cat. Coccidae, p. 39. 



Fig. 110. 



