84 LECANIUM HESPERIDUM. 



margins broadly flattened, with minute equidistant 

 projections ; inner margins of carinse forming the 

 coronet regularly punctate. The foregoing description 

 was made from four examples found among a colony 

 of females on a small date-palm (Phoenix dactylifera) 

 sent to me from Bournemouth, 18th February, 1902. 



Habitat. In the open air on ivy (Hedera helix and 

 H. amurensis), sweet bay (Laurus nobilis), myrtle 

 (Myrtus communis), and holly (Ilex aquifoiium). Once 

 at Tarporley, Cheshire; common at Corfe Castle, 

 Wareham, Dorset (E. E. Bankes) ; Budleigh jSalterton 

 (Green) ; East Sheen, Surrey ( J. Castle) ; Kew (Nichol- 

 son) ; Shirley Warren, Southampton (Dr. Sharp) ; 

 Beaufort Gardens, Exeter (Douglas). Under glass it 

 is common and generally distributed throughout the 

 British Isles. The following is a list of the principal 

 food-plants : Various species of ferns, orange and 

 other plants of the citrus tribe, Sapindus saponaria 

 (Douglas), Bertolonia marchandi, Lucuma multiftora, 

 Dalbergia lanceolaria (Green), Stephanotis, Lantana 

 sp., Ixora sp. 5 Azalea sp., Rosa sp., Photinia 

 japonica, Hibiscus (Miss Tomlin), Ficus elastica, 

 Eugenia sp., Aralia sp. (Carpenter), Solatium, 

 Abulilon sp., Geranium (Shepheard), Mangifera indica, 

 and Meruta denhami (Nicholson). The names in 

 parentheses are those of the collectors. 



Habits. The females are viviparous, and have 

 hitherto been recorded as universally parthenogenetic. 

 The species is much subject to the attacks of a 

 Chalcidid parasite which causes the integument to 

 swell and present a polished surface ; the parasitised 

 insect is also of a blackish colour with paler margins. 



Distribution. Common in Europe on cultivated 

 plants under glass, and in the open air on bay, ivy, 

 and citrus trees. The Rev. A. E. Eaton found it 

 common in Algeria; it is abundant throughout Cape 

 Colony in South Africa (Lounsbury) ; it has been 

 recorded from Canada (King); and is apparently 

 common on cultivated plants throughout the United 



