ERIOCOCCUS. 197 



have often noticed gum saplings in summer-time 

 covered with curious eggs like little sacks, of a white 

 or reddish-brown tint, over which the ants were 

 running in swarms to suck up the honey-dew dis- 

 charged by the enclosed insects." And in a reference 

 to E. coriaceus, Mask., in which the ovisac is described 

 as creamy white, yellow, dark orange, or even dull 

 red, he says : " Though the sacs are naturally of the 

 above colour, they are frequently so smothered with 

 fumagine, caused by the honey-dew, or superfluous 

 juice of the plant which they suck up in such quan- 

 tities that they cannot retain it, but discharge it in the 

 form of a fine spray, which falling over the bark 

 and foliage, forms a food for the smutty fumagine, 

 whose minute spores cover it and soon change it into 

 a black skin." 



The only species known to me which has been found 

 associated with ants is E. formicicola, Newst.* This 

 interesting species was discovered in October, 1895, at 

 Constantine, Algeria, by the Kev. A. E. Eaton, who 

 informs me that the coccids were " brought up by the 

 ants after the first rain, and carried underground again 

 within a few days when the weather became fine." 



Finally the coccids leave their subterranean home 

 and fix themselves upon the leaves of Cynodon 

 dactylon, L., where they construct their ovisacs and 

 die. Evidently, therefore, the females are partly sub- 

 terranean and partly arboreal. But I can arrive at no 

 satisfactory conclusions as to why the ants should 

 adopt the strange habit of bringing the coccids to the 

 surface after a heavy rain, and carrying them under- 

 ground again when the weather becomes fine. 



The only British species which I have seen living is 

 l\. in.xif/ ///.->-. Newst., but, owing to the great difficulty 

 experienced in finding the females before the formation 

 of the ovisac, I can offer little or no information with 

 regard to its habits. The larvae are easily reared, but 

 they are of such a wandering disposition that I have 



* ' Trans. Ent. Soc. Lond./ 1897, p. 102, pi. iv, figs. 26, 27. 



I 



