48 



CLASSIFICATION OF THE ALEYRODID-E. 



no avail, and as the insect most sagaciously places itself under the leaflet, 

 where it is protected against the weather, the heaviest raui does not affect it. 

 It has been advised to root up all Cocoa-nut trees iu the island, and after the 

 lapse of a year, when it is thought the insect may be destroyed, to replant the 

 plantations from seeds imported from an island where the insect does not exist. 

 "On carefully examining the leaves of the Coco.-i-nnt, it is evident there are 

 two distinct insects upon the under surface, an Ahyrodcs and a Coccus. They 

 adhere to the under side of the leaf, and are surrounded by a whitish cottony 

 or resinous powder; both sexes of the Aleyrodes at rest and with their wings 

 closed are exhibited, of their natural size, on a portion of the leaf (fig. 1) [fig. 

 6. i], and also some oval animals producing the white powder in abundance 

 from the margins of their sides, and these I suppose are the larva state of the 

 Aleyrodes. There are also numbers of white linear cases, as shown at fig. 5 

 [fig. G, 51, which I conceive to be the pupre of a male Coccus; indeed I found 

 one of the perfect insects sticking to the surface. At fig. 2 [fig. 6. 2] I have 

 representeii the under side of one of the larvae ; it is oval, concave, ochreous, and 

 shining, with six minute legs and ventral wings, like a female Coccus; but I 

 could not detect any proboscis or antennie. I must, however, observe that the 

 objects had all suffered from extreme i)ressure and great heat, and it is not 



unusual for the proboscis to be 

 broken off in removing such ani- 

 mals from the surface on which 

 they are feeding." 



The winged si)ecimens are 

 larger than any of our British 

 Aleyrodes, and from the neura- 

 tion of the wings being different, 

 as well as from the remarkable 

 anal forceps of the male, this in- 

 sect might with great propriety 

 be separated from the genus 

 Aleyrodes. A. cocois is bright 

 ochreous, the head is rounded, 

 the eyes are black, oval, and 

 notched on the inside, and I think I could discern two minute ocelli on 

 on the inner margins; the antennae are as long as the thorax, slender, 

 and apparently seven-jointed, basal joint stoutish ; second, the longest. 

 The rostrum is stout and moderately long; the thorax is nearly orbicular, the 

 scutel distinct, the abdomen short and oval in the male, with the last segment 

 long, narrowed, and cylindrical, producing two long incurved claws, forming 

 a pair of forceps (fig. 3) [fig. G, 3] ; wings apparently horizontal in repose, 

 clothed with white scales or hairs, giving them a powdered appearance; su- 

 perior ample, subelliptical, with a strong costal nervure, and a furcate one 

 with a longitudinal nervure beneath it, issuing from near the base; inferior 

 wings smaller, with a single forked nervure. Six legs slender, hinder long 

 but simple; the tarsi biarticulate. basal joint the longest, the second terminated 

 by two slender claws. Female similar, but the abdomen is ovate-conic, the 

 apex terminated by a very acute transparent valve with a small oval hairy 

 lobe on each side (fig. 4) [fig. G, J/]. 



As Insects will remain in an embryo state for long periods, every vestige 

 of the infested trees should be burnt as soon as they are taken down, and the 

 most diligent search must be made after the Aleyrodes upon plants of the 

 same natural order as the Cocoa-nut, to ascertain if there are not colonies 

 established elsewhere. There is the larva of a little beetle, called Scymmis, 



Fig. 6. — Aleurodicus eocnis: 1, Insects on leaf; 

 2, pupa case; S, adult; i, abdomen. (From 

 Curtis.) 



