“I 
iy 
NOTES ON A NEW CLASSIFICATION OF THE 
BRACHYSCELIDZ. 
By W. W. Froeeart, Tech. Mus., Sydney, N.S.W. 
(Communicated by Oswatp B. Lowsr, F.E.S.). 
[Read April 3rd, 1894.] 
[Abridged. ] 
In the last Part of the Transactions of your Society, there is a 
paper entitled “ Descriptions of South Australian Brachyscelid 
ralls,” by J. G. O. Tepper, F.L.S., upon which I beg the favor 
of being allowed to make the following remarks. 
In this paper he ignores my classification of the coccids, which 
is clearly stated and defined on the form, spines, tubercules, and 
anal appendages of the female insect. He passes over the coccids 
with a few brief notes, in which he alters my term ‘anal appen- 
dages” into “ tail bristles ”—a very misleading term, as they are 
certainly not at all like bristles, being hard, stout, and awl- 
shaped. 
Mr. Tepper makes a new classification of the family from the 
galls produced by the insects, and passes over the latter, which, 
with one exception, he does not even describe in his new species. 
He says ‘‘a characteristic specific difference appears to be ex- 
hibited in the direction of the axis of the gall,” and on this basis 
gives a classification of the described galls. Now, this vertical, 
lateral, or dependent form can often all be found in a series of 
one species, and is of no value for classification. It is impossible 
to classify galls of any genus, without an exact knowledge of the 
insects that form them; and, until Mr. Maskell and I have pub- 
lished our recently read papers, it is simply a waste of time 
making a classification of the family and genera. He says— 
‘‘ All Brachyscelid galls have a minute opening or aperture at or 
near the summit, or eaceptionally at the base.” If he had known 
anything about the genera Opisthoscelis and Ascelis he would 
have found that the opening was oftener at the base than the 
apex. 
Again, Mr. Tepper says “ that regarding the duration of the 
life of the gall, or insect, nothing definite seems to be known,” 
but from his own observations, it may take several years to pro- 
duce some of the larger woody galls. Now, the giant among 
them all (B, duplex, Schrader) never takes more than a season to 
become fully developed, and others, as B. pileata, Schrader, when 
