224 JOURNAL OF THE TRINIDAD 



" of virgatus but it is also apparently >7ewstead's D. ceriferus. 

 " The creature is a very obnoxious one in gardens. D. virgatus 

 " is one of the worst pests in Jamaica."' 



A technical description of the life history of this insect is 

 being worked out but for the present the following will do. 



Adult female: — Length 3| to -4 mm., width 2 mm. Colour 

 dull brown yellow, legs and antennse a trifle lighter. Young 

 larva? light yellow. Body covered with a white secretion. Long 

 fine hairs from all parts of the body take the place of lateral 

 appendages, very conspicuous in young specimens, but gradually 

 lost as the adult stage advances. Two caudal filaments com- 

 paratively thick, half the length of the body.- 



Male: — Wing expanse 2 mm. Length of body 1-099 mm. 

 Colour light brown ; thorax antenna? and legs darker brown. 

 Eyes dark claret colour. Wings iridescent. Body long and 

 stout very little haired. Head large almost no hair. Antennse 

 and legs hairy. Antennse 10 jointed, joint 3 longest, 10 next 

 longest. 



Life history : — This species is common about gardens in 

 Port-of-Spain and is found on quite a variety of plants, croton, 

 orange, guava, foliage plants and nettle. I have found it 

 abundant on guava and croton. The female is active when 

 disturbed. She surrounds herself with a cottony mass, in which 

 the eggs are laid and the young remain under the parent for 

 some time. Growth is rapid and if left to themselves the adults 

 form a thick cottony mass on 1 he leaves and twigs of the food 

 plants. In this mass on which a smut fungus soon grows are to 

 be found quite a number of predaceous insects, such as larva? of 

 aphis flies, lady birds and lacewing flies. The male larva forms 

 a cottony sac, in which it undergoes its transformations. 



This mealy bug should not be neglected when observed, as 

 owing to its rapid multiplication it soon becomes a pest. 



Natural enemies. — From ;i mass of adult females a small 

 brown parasite was reared which Mr. L. O. Howard kindly 

 determined as Aphycus n. sp. remarking in his letter that he had 

 never seen a Dactylopius parasite like this one. From a mass 

 on croton the two following species emerged; one Telenomus 

 minutissimus n. sp. Ashmead, a description of which will be 

 found on page 220, and the other an Lucy rt as (fam. Chalci- 

 DlDjB), which could not be described from want of material. 

 With regards to the first-named Mr. Howard writes "The 

 " occurrence of three specimens of Telenomus among the seven 

 " specimens sent is interesting for this reason : the species of 

 " this genus are invariably parasitic upon the eggs of other 

 " insects. It seems to me that this form is almost too large to 

 " have come from the eggs of Dactylopius and I wonder jierhaps, 

 " if there were not the eggs of some other insect in the mass of 



