426 ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS. [April, 



being preoccupied by a species described by Targioni-Tozzetti, 

 and now known to be a synonym of A. hcdcrce Vail. Aspi- 

 diotus diffinis belongs to the group containing A. camellice 

 Boisd. , the greedy scale, to which it is closely allied. 



In 1899 a basswood scale was received from Mr. John Dear- 

 ness, London, Canada, and a study of this material led the 

 writer to discover that it was identical in every way with the 

 species described by Newstead referred to above. At the 

 same time it was found that a scale insect which for a number 

 of years, since 1894 in fact, had thickly infested a lilac bush 

 on the Department grounds and which was thought by Mr. 

 Pergande, who first noticed it, to be an undescribed species, 

 also belonged to Mr. Newstead' s species. 



Further examination of the Department material demon- 

 strated that the species described by Townsend and Cockerell 

 as Aspidiotus jatrophcE, (N. Y. Ent. Soc, Vol. VI, p. 178, 

 1898) must also be referred to the same insect. The type 

 material of the last was represented by a scale insect occurring 

 on Jatropha, a cultivated plant whose green juicy stems are 

 cooked for food, collected in Frontera, Tabasco, Mexico, by 

 Mr. C. H. T-. Townsend, March 27, 1897. 



Belonging to the same .species, also, is the material collected 

 by Mr. Townsend, June 9, 1897, at the same locality in Mex- 

 ico, on " Barenjeno chiquito," and determined by Professor 

 Cockerell as probably a variety of jatropha. 



This record shows a wide range of distribution and also of 

 food plants. In this country, however, the species has evi- 

 dently been introduced only in a few localities, judging from 

 the paucity of records of occurrence. Its range in latitude is 

 very notable, but its most northern locality, Ontario, is not so 

 significant when it is remembered that the lower districts of 

 this province include both Upper Austral and Transition life 

 zones. 



It is evidently an insect which is capable of very serious 

 multiplication, judging from the thick infestation of the bark 

 in the sixicimens received. In Ontario it seems to have .spread 

 into the woods and infests the bas.swood, Tilia americana, quite 

 generally in .some districts, — some liAlf dozen lots of infested 



