108 LECANIITM CAPKEjE. 



of the tibia ; claw large ; digitules all very short, and 

 furnished with small knobs, those of the claw not ex- 

 tending to the tip of the latter, and often very difficult 

 to trace. Marginal spines (fig. 7) long and slender, and 

 generally broken aivay in the old examples Mentum 

 short, broad, and obtusely rounded, furnished with 

 several fine hairs ; filaments forming loop of rostrum 

 a little longer than the antennae, but when fully 

 expanded they are more than as long again. Dermis 

 with widely separated gland-pits and a very faint 

 irregular polygonal tesselation. 



Transverse diameter, 3 "50 6 mm. ; longitudinal 

 diameter, 56*50 mm. ; high, 8*505 mm. Dwarfed 

 specimens, measuring 2 mm. in diameter and in height, 

 are often met with in overcrowded colonies. 



Parasitised females. These are subject to much 

 variation, the following forms being more or less 

 constant. 



a. (Figs. 4, 4 a.) This is the Lecanium (Coccus) 

 gibberum of Dalman, and is characterised by possessing 

 two large mammiform swellings or gibbosities on the 

 subdorsal area. The swellings are very irregular in 

 size, some being scarcely visible, while others are very 

 pronounced ; the distance between them is also vari- 

 able, in some the swellings almost touch and are then 

 generally highly elevated (fig. 4 a), in others they are 

 very widely separated, rendering the sides of the body 

 almost horizontal (fig. 4). 



j3. (Figs. 4 /;, 4c.) This variety either retains its 

 normal form (figs, o-o c), or becomes irregularly 

 swollen (fig. 4 r) 9 with the dermis abnormally thin and 

 sometimes semi-transparent. On escaping from their 

 host the parasites invariably puncture the dermis, 

 leaving circular perforations (figs. 4fr, 4e). 



Female at period of fecundation. As there are 

 several well-marked varieties of the insect when in 

 this stage, it may be convenient also to treat of them 

 separately. 



a. (Fig. 2.) Form more or less resembling that of 



