71 



2. The Sorghum Bark Louse. 

 (Coccus sorghiellus, n. s.) 



Order Hemiptera. Family Coccid^. 



Among our collections from the sorghum plant made at Cham- 

 paign this year, was a single vial of specimens bearing a close 

 resemblance to the species of Ehizobius, but evidently belonging to the 

 Coccidfe, a family not hitherto found upon the sorghum plant. 



The body is oval, distinctly segmented, .07' of an inch long by .027 

 of an inch wide, and .024 of an inch deep. The surface was cov- 

 ered by a bluish bloom, and in one alcoholic specimen examined, a 

 waxy mass, including a cluster of long hairs, adhered to the anal 

 extremity. The antennae are short, reaching to the coxfe of the first 

 pair of legs, distinctly eight- jointed, the first two joints thick and 

 about equal in length, the third as long as the second, but more 

 narrowed, the fourth the shortest of ail, about as wide as long. 

 Each of the three following joints is slightly larger and longer than 

 the preceding, and the eighth is as wide as the second, cylmdrical, 

 very nearly as long as the sixth and seventh together. 



The rostrum is very short, conical, projecting from between the 

 bases of the first pair of legs, not as long as the femur, and its 

 width about half its length. The maxillary filaments are four in 

 number and attain the abdomen. 



The eyes, placed upon the sides of the head at a distance behind 

 the bases of the antenna? about equal to the first joint of the latter, 

 are black and simple, each consisting of a single ocellus. The tarsi 

 are all one-jointed, two-thirds as long as the tibia? and tapering 

 regularly to the single claw, which is strongly curved, with a pair 

 of slender capitate hairs, longer than the claw, springing from, its 

 base. Tibiif and femora of about equal length ; antenna? and legs 

 slightly hairy, and scattered hairs occur upon the surface of the 

 body and tip of the abdomen. 



The only form seen was the wingless female, and belonged appar- 

 ently to the genus Coccus, as defined by Signoret.* It was collected 

 August 4. 



* Annales de la Societe Entomologique de France, trimestre de 1809, p. 102. 



