32 Psyche [February 



Newstead has also recently described and figured an even larger 

 species, Aspidioproctus maximus, the old adult female of which 

 measures 33 mm. in length, 25 mm. in width and 15 mm. in height. 1 



This occurs in German East Africa, Rhodesia and Cape Colony, 

 chiefly on the M'sasa tree (Bradjustagia randii Buteers) . Another 

 species of the same genus from German East Africa (A. armatus 

 Newstead) is considerably smaller, measuring 12-17 mm. in 

 length, but is nevertheless a very large Coccid. 



On December, 1911, at San Lucas Toliman, on the shore of Lake 

 Atitlan, Guatemala (alt. 5000 ft.), I found a large Coccid on the 

 branches of one of the Erythrina trees (presumably corallodendron> 

 the "arbol madre" of the Mexicans) very commonly used to sup- 

 port the barbed wires around the plantations and gardens. The 

 tree, which bore no leaves owing to the lateness of the season, looked 

 from a little distance as if it were covered with galls as large as 

 cherries, but the columns of fire ants (Solenopsis geminaia), 

 attending these objects, soon opened my eyes to the fact that they 

 were Coccids and not vegetable excrescences. 



Some of the specimens were sent to Prof. Cockerell who pro- 

 nounced them to be, in all probability, Signoret's Lecanium sallei, 

 since assigned to the genus Neolecanium Parrott by Prof. Cockerell. 2 

 I find on looking up Signoret's description 3 that it agrees very well 

 with my specimens, though it is very brief and apparently drawn 

 from a single specimen. This was received from Salle, who 

 collected it somewhere in Mexico, but without indicating the 

 host-plant. 



My specimens are all adult or nearly adult females and measure 

 11-20 mm. in length, 10-15 mm. in width and 9-14 mm. in height. 

 As they have contracted since they were collected, the dimensions 

 of the living insect are probably 2-4 mm. greater. The largest 

 individuals have the elliptical body evenly smooth and convex 

 above, but the smaller ones, though very convex in the mid-dorsal 

 region, have the sides depressed and more or less distinctly trans- 

 versely ridged. The ventral surface is flat or concave and under 



1 On a Collection of Coccicte and Aleurodidjp, chiefly African, in the Collection of the Berlin 

 Zoological Museum. Mitth. Zool. Mus. Berlin V, 2. Heft, 1911, pp. 155-174, 12 text figs. 



2 A Contribution to the Knowledge of the Coccidae. Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist. (7) IX, 1902, pp. 

 450-454). 



* Essai sur les Cochinelles ou Gallinsectes (Homopt£res-Coccides) lie Partie. Ann. Soc. Ent. 

 France (5) III, 1873, pp. 395-448). 



