VIXSOXJA. 43 



GENUS VINSOXIA (Signoret). 



Only one species of this remarkable genus is known. 

 The cereous test in quite young individuals (PL XLIV, 

 figs. 12, 13) bears a striking resemblance to the 

 young forms of certain species of Ceroplastes, e. cj. C. 

 ceriferus, Anderson, and C. testudiformis, Townsend; 

 but the test of the adult insect is quite distinct from 

 all others in the remarkable resemblance it bears to 

 the star of an order of rank and merit. Apart from 

 the distinct character of the female test, the genus 

 is distinguished by the cephalic articulation in the 

 adult female (PI. XLIII, fig. 4), and also by the dis- 

 tinctive character of the puparium of the male (PL 

 XLIV, figs. 10, 11), which possesses the radiating 

 arms, as in the test of the female, to which it bears 

 such a striking resemblance that it is easy to mistake 

 the sexes in their early stages. 



At first sight it is difficult to account for the remark- 

 able formation of the cereous matter in either sex, but 

 by carefully studying a series of specimens in their 

 various stages the process may be followed with some 

 certainty. In the earliest stage the female larva secretes 

 the wax in the form shown on PL XLIV, fig. 12, 

 which consists of one dorsal and seven marginal 

 appendages ; the anterior appendage ^ divided at 

 the sides near the base, giving it a tridentate character, 

 the lateral appendages being smooth, as also are the 

 four smaller ones at the posterior extremity. After the 

 formation of these appendages the insect in all proba- 

 bility casts its skin, and is then provided with a fresh set 

 of secreting organs, which commence to secrete all over 

 the body a more or less uniform layer of semitrans- 

 parent, glass-like wax, which adheres very firmly to the 

 snow-white appendages secreted by the first larval 

 stage. As the insect "matures, the process of secreting 

 clear wax still goes on, and as it widens, the snow-white 

 appendages are gradually pushed outwards until 



