202 ERIOCOCCUS DEVONIENSIS. 



Legs short and comparatively stout; tarsi (fig. 11) 

 either equal to or a little longer than the tibiae. 



Long, 1'50-2'50 mm.; wide, 1-1*50 mm. 



Ovisac of female (figs. 9, 9 a, and 9 b, ? ) composed 

 of rather coarse but strongly-felted creamy white 

 secretion; usually broadly oval, but some specimens 

 are almost globular. 



Long, 1-75-2-50 mm.; wide, 1-50-1-75 mm. 



Puparium of the male " small, white, linear " 

 (Green, 1. c.). 



Long, 1'50 mm. 



Ova " pink or pinkish-yellow, dusted with a mealy 

 powder" (Green, 1. c.). 



Habitat. On Erica cinerea, Budleigh Salterton, 

 South Devon. Discovered in August, 1896, by Mr. 

 E. E. Green, who says: "My attention was first 

 drawn to the insect by its habit of distorting the young 

 shoots of the plant upon which it fixes itself. In many 

 cases the terminal part of the shoot is twisted up in a 

 rosette-shaped knot (fig. 9 b), enclosing one or more of 

 the insects. Other shoots are bent at right angles at 

 the point of irritation (see figs. 9, 9 a). The distor- 

 tion occurs only when the insect has attached itself to 

 the young growing parts of the plant ; the older stems 

 are not affected in the same way." 



" In August, when the insects were first noticed, the 

 female sacs were already packed with ova, the female 

 being much shrivelled and occupying the anterior 

 extremity of the sac. The male sacs had apparently 

 been vacated for some time. No other stages of the 

 insect were observed, but the white sacs of the adult 

 insect were abundant, and widely distributed on this one 

 species of Erica. Not a single example occurred on 

 either the common heath or the 'ling' (Calluna vulgaris)" 

 (Green, 1. c.). I may add that several of the contorted 

 twigs which Mr. Green kindly sent to me had neither 

 insects nor ovisacs in them ; evidently, therefore, the 

 females do not remain fixed to one branch, but after 

 contorting it move to another, or it is possible that the 



