86 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



for it a new generic name, Tetrura. The female was of a dark 

 red purple, much like the Mexican cochineal ; and the male, 

 appearing in March, was red, with four white caudal filaments, 

 as in Oudahlis. Lichtenstein called the insect Tetrura rubi, 

 erroneously supposing it to be the Coccus rubi of Schrank. Since 

 the latter is in reality a Lecanium, it is herewith proposed to 

 employ the name rubi for the Tetrura, since no confusion will be 

 caused thereby. 



So far as Lichtenstein's account goes, Tetrura is not separable 

 from Oudablis, but he says it is easily separated from that genus 

 by the form of the female, as he intended to explain in detail in 

 a subsequent work, which unhappily never appeared. European 

 coccidologists should have no trouble in recognising the insect 

 when found, and it is to be hoped that before long we may hear 

 of its rediscovery. 



The next contribution to the subject of Oudablis was an im- 

 portant one by Loew in the ' Wiener Entomologische Zeitung ' 

 for 1883. Loew described a new species (0. picece) found on 

 Abies excelsa in the, country about Vienna. This insect had in 

 the male the four caudal filaments of Oudablis, the posterior 

 ones the longer ; but the female had 9-jointed antennae, like a 

 Phenacoccus. 



So far, all the species found were European. In 1899 

 M. d'Emmerez de Charmoy published (Proc. Soc. Amicale Scien- 

 tique, p. 42, pi. iii. figs. 3, 3a) an insect found in the island of 

 Mauritius on Solauum, calling it Phenacoccus nivalis, Maskell. 

 The description of the female given by De Charmoy is practically 

 a translation from that of Maskell; but the figures of both sexes, 

 and the description of the male, pertain to the Mauritius insect, 

 which is evidently distinct from that found by Koebele in 

 Australia, and described by Maskell. 



Maskell says the male of his P. nivalis has the two usual 

 cottony tails, and two shorter median setae. The latter, I imagine, 

 were mere naked bristles. The Mauritius insect (male) is figured 

 with four long tails, which are stated in the description to be 

 cottony — that is, the male is that of an Oudablis. The female, 

 however, has 9-jointed antennae, as in Loew's 0. picece. 



On October 8th, 1899, at 8.15 a.m., I found some females of 

 Phenacoccus helianthi (Ckll.) on Helianthus annuus at Phcenix, 

 Arizona. Flying round the plants were what seemed to be a 

 number of little midges, but on capturing some I found they 

 were the hitherto unknown males of P. helianthi. These males 

 were pale grey ; mesosternum shining yellowish; eyes purplish; 

 wings mealy white, iridescent. But I was surprised to see that 

 they had four white caudal filaments, the outer ones shorter than 

 the inner, but still long. 



Thus it appears that both Dactylopius and Phenacoccus are to 

 be divided into two groups, a normal one with two cottony fila- 



