CHAPTER VI. 



CATALOGUE OF INSECTS AND DIAGNOSIS 



SINCE this work lias been in type, the author has received a letter from the 

 State Inspector of Fruit Pests for California, in which the writer states that the 

 insect Icerya Purchasi has there, especially in the southern part of the State, 

 gained such hold on the orange-groves, in spite of the most strenuous efforts, 

 that the people find it impossible to keep it down. Orange- and lemon-growers 

 (and indeed other tree-growers) in New Zealand, especially in the North Island, 

 should take note of this fact, and beware of ever letting this omnivorous and 

 most destructive insect obtain any footing on their trees. A speedy burning of 

 every infected tree is the best remedy in this case. 



present in larva and pupa,, always absent in adnlt ; tarsi mono- 

 merous ; feet ending in a single claw ; abdomen terminating in 

 a spike which forms the sheath of the penis ; eyes present in 

 adult ; ocelli often large, sometimes exceeding three in number. 

 The above characters sufficiently distinguish this family from 

 the rest of the Homoptera. Probably the first marks for identi- 

 fication of a specimen might be the monomerous tarsus and the 

 single claw. The latter is always to be made out, at least in the 

 earlier stages of the female and in the adult male. 



GKOUPS. 



Larvse active, naked ; adult females and 

 pupse stationary, covered with separate shields 

 or puparia, composed partly of secretion, partly 

 of the earlier discarded pellicles; females apo- 

 dous after larval stage ; abdomen of females 

 not exhibiting a median cleft or dorsal lobes 



