DIASPIS BOISDUVALII. 155 



Long. "75 1 mm. 



Male bright orange yellow ; antennae and legs much 

 paler, sometimes colourless; thoracic bands scarcely 

 darker than the rest of the body ; stylus glassy, much 

 longer than abdomen ; eyes and ocelli black ; ventral 

 ocelli much the largest. Antennae long and thickly 

 set with long hairs ; apical joint with the central hair 

 faintly clubbed. Claws long; digitules ordinary. 



Larva yellow, broadly ovate. Antennae of 6 joints, 

 6 equalling 2, 3, 4, and 5 together. Formula 6, 1 

 (2, 3, 4, 5). Legs ordinary. Pygidium with two stout 

 spines on each side of the caudal setae. 



Ova pale yellow. 



Habitat. One of the commonest and most widely 

 distributed of our greenhouse pests. It occurs almost 

 everywhere on cultivated palms, and is a great pest 

 on Oalanthes, infesting the pseudo-bulbs. At Kew 

 Mr. Green and I met with it on the following plants : 

 Gocos Romanzoffiana, Heliconia metallica, Nannorhops 

 Ritchiana, jSHchmea mexicana, E. Saundersii, Pitcairnia 

 bromelisefolia, P. latifolia, P. alta, Bactris acanthocarpa, 

 and Euterpe speciosa. 



Mr. Bennett-Poe sends it on Anguloa Glowesi ; and 

 Mr. Burbidge (Dublin Bot. Garden) on Corypha aus- 

 tralis. 



The species shows a decided preference for mono- 

 cotyledons, and is a troublesome pest in nurseries to 

 young pot palms ; it can only be kept in check by 

 repeated "washings." If the plants are neglected 

 they speedily become covered, chiefly on the under- 

 sides of the leaves, by the scales which give the plants 

 a white appearance. Frequently the leaf is stained 

 yellow round the scale, and in a single instance on 

 Broughtonia, sp., I noted the stains were pale crimson. 



Distribution. Occurs almost everywhere on culti- 

 vated plants under glass ; and in the open air in the 

 West Indies and the Sandwich Islands. 



