DACTYLOPIUS. 163 



not envelope themselves in the material. The females 

 of the remaining British species are more or less 

 stationary, remaining behind the leaf-sheaths of their 

 food-plants, where they envelope themselves in their 

 ovisacs. 



In the exotic species there is remarkable diversity 

 of design in the construction of the ovisac. Thus in the 

 Australian species D. albizzise (Mask.) and D. hibbertise 

 (Mask.), it takes the form of a pad or cushion beneath 

 the insect. The New Zealand D. globulus (Mask.) 

 completely envelopes itself in a large globular mass of 

 secretion, while D. obtectus, Mask., another New 

 Zealand insect, shelters itself beneath a bud-scale of its 

 food-plant, attaching it to its body and also to the twig 

 by a cottony secretion ; beneath this borrowed covering 

 the insect lives and lays its eggs ; thus both are highly 

 protected and extremely difficult to locate. 



The secretionary covering of the females of some of 

 the exotic species also differs considerably from that of 

 the typical forms. Thus, for example, D. nipae, Mask., 

 originally described from Demerara, is clothed with 

 thick, yellowish- white plates, arranged somewhat as in 

 Orthezia; and the European D. glacialis, Newst., 

 clothes itself with long silken filaments. 



The last-named insect is a subterranean species found 

 associated with ants ; and so also are D. formicarius, 

 Newst. (India), and both Maskell's New Zealand 

 species, D. arecdB and D. pose. 



The normal generic characters of this genus are as 

 follows : 



Female. Antennae of eight joints, the last joint 

 being almost invariably longer than the penultimate ; 

 mentum biarticulate ; legs persistent ; anal lobes small 

 or rudimentary ; anal orifice with six hairs. 



Male. Abdomen furnished with two long white 

 caudal filaments ; genitalia short. 



Male puparium felted. 



