196 ERIOCOCCUS. 



of small white glassy tubes usually directed longi- 

 tudinally, which give it often a peculiar clean and bright 

 appearance when viewed under a lens. One of the 

 most singular ovisacs is that of E. cyprceaeformis, Fuller, 

 which is described* as resembling a snake-head or 

 cowrie shell, particularly when at all old or bleached. 

 Mr. Claude Fuller (1. c.) also describes another quite 

 unusual form of ovisac (E. tricarinatus) having three 

 longitudinal ridges. But the most abnormal ovisac is 

 that of E. turgipes, Mask., which Dr. W. "W. Froggattf 

 says "stands out like a circular-rounded little cup, with 

 a flattened dorsal region at the apex, which is generally 

 open, but at other times closed. It varies in colour 

 from white to light brown when old and discoloured, 

 the felt of the sac being of a leathery texture, quite 

 different from the other species." 



Hempel's E. perplexiis, one of the three species 

 described from Brazil, makes a large fusiform sac 

 remarkably like that of Signoretia luzuldB (PL XL, 

 fig. 1), but differs in having the large aperture at the 

 posterior extremity. 



E. elegans, Fuller, is the only species known to me 

 which does not make an ovisac. Fuller (I.e., p. 157) 

 describes the female as " stationary, and covered above 

 by a secretion of a number of white filaments, which 

 are arranged in three distinct rows of well-defined, 

 curling, pyramidal tufts ;" and adds, " The species is 

 clearly an Eriococcus, but the dorsal covering could 

 never be regarded as a sac, although, as the insects 

 affect the axils of the .branch and branchlets, they are 

 completely enveloped." 



Although I have not observed any honey-dew 

 secreted by the British representatives of this genus, 

 I gather from Dr. Froggatt's extremely interesting 

 paper on these insects that certain of the Australian 

 species discharge large quantities. He says (1. c., p. 1) : 

 " Every one who has travelled about in the bush must 



* ' Trans. Ent. Soc. Lond./ 1899, pt. iv, p. 440. 



f Ext. 'Agricultural Gazette, New South Wales/ Feb., 1900, p. 8, fig. 1. 



