LICHTEXSIA VI BURN 1. 37 



Fig. 9. The same (ventral) ; a, eye ; /;, ocelli. 



x 100. 



Fig. 10 Pupa. X 25. 

 Fig. 11. Male puparium. X 25. 



GENUS CEROPLASTES (dray). 



This genus embraces some very remarkable and 

 intensely interesting forms. The females from the 

 earliest stage cover their bodies with a test of wax, 

 varying greatly both in substance and form, but in all 

 cases it is apparently inseparable from the body of the 

 insect. The only species yet met with in this country 

 may be considered typical of the genus, of which two 

 similar types occur in the open air in southern Europe. 

 But the departure from such forms is very great. G. 

 ceriferus, Anderson, in its early stages much resembles 

 the species hereafter described, but as the insect ad- 

 vances to maturity the cereous covering loses all trace 

 of design, and forms around the body of the female a 

 very thick, almost shapeless, mass, which is collected and 

 made into candles (see vol. i, p. 16). G. utilis, Ckll., is 

 evidently a similar species. Mr. Cockerell says of this 

 that when a number of individuals occur together " the 

 wax unites and surrounds the branch as the wick of a 

 candle is surrounded with wax." In the South Ame- 

 rican G. denudatus, Ckll., the waxen plates which form 

 so marked a feature in the young adults fall away as 

 the insects mature, leaving the insect perfectly naked, 

 when its hollow, hemispherical body might easily pass 

 for a species of Lecanium. South America has also 

 produced other remarkable forms, but none more so 

 than the magnificent G. g rand-is 9 discovered and de- 

 scribed* by Prof. Hempel. G. depresses, Ckll., is 

 remarkable for its flatness, its shape being adapted for 

 its habitat, which is under the bark of its food-plant, 

 the lignum- vitae. Like G. utilis, it is a native of the 

 West Indies. 



* As Coccidas Brazileiras, ' Eevista d. nms. Paulista,' vol. iv, p. 109, pi. 

 viii, figs. 13, 14. 



