EEMARKS ON CERTAIN GENERA OF COCGID^. 93 



along the passage which has been formed for it instead of per- 

 meating the tissues and making its first appearance on the 

 surface of the body. In examples of insects which have been 

 pinned in this manner, when the abdomina are detached, the pin 

 is exposed to view over a considerable portion of its length, and 

 if the specimen be an old one, the green cupric-salt will indicate 

 the position of the pin in its entire transit through the specimen. 

 It will be interesting to know whether the Demas coryli, &c., 

 referred to by Mr. Anderson, have been pinned in the way 

 indicated. It is in those species which have the thorax clothed 

 with long hairs which overlap the abdomen, making it appear to 

 be larger than it really is, and giving a bison-like look to the 

 insect, that the collector is apt to be fogged as to the whereabouts 

 of the centre of the thorax. In such cases, transfix the insect 

 well to the fore ; don't give a too backward slant to the pin-point, 

 and always remember, in medio tiitissimus ibis. 



Folkestone, Jan. 7tli, 1894, 



REMARKS ON CERTAIN GENERA OF COCCIDM. 



By W. M. Maskell. 



(Continued from p. 46.) 



The Group Hemicoccidina, Mask. ; and the Genera Astero- 

 lecanium and Planchonia. 



During the year 1892 I received from Mr. Olliff, of Sydney, 

 some specimens which, after close examination, I place in the 

 genus Kermes ; and as this is the first species of that genus 

 which I have had occasion to describe in detail, I venture to 

 repeat here the characters ascribed to the group Hemicoccidince 

 in my paper of 1883 (N. Z. Trans, vol. xvi.), and in my ' Scale 

 Insects of New Zealand,' 1887 : — 



Adult females exhibiting the anal cleft and the lobes of 

 Lecanidce : naked or covered. 



Larvae presenting at the extremity of the abdomen the anal 

 tubercles of Coccida. 



From the foregoing characters the group is very evidently 

 intermediate between Lecauids and Coccids. 



When, in the years just mentioned, the formation of this 

 group was proposed, I possessed specimens of three out of the 

 eight species of the genus Kermes which forms part of it: — K. 

 vermilio, Planchon ; K. bankiiiii, Planchon ; and K. f/alliformis, 

 Eiley. Since then I have received from Mr. Newstead an 

 African species, K. quercus, Newst., and now have another from 

 Australia, which I propose to name K. acacice. 



In 1883 I attached to the group the two genera Astcro- 



