138 On some Genera and Species of Coccide. 
gives to Lecantum Douglasit the normal antenna of eight 
joints, including of course the “ process.” 
Beyond the question of uniformity in dealing with Coccid 
classification, there remains of course the further one, whether 
the usual system is correct or not. In one sense it would 
not matter much which course might be followed: if we all 
agreed to ignore the “ first joint,” we should simply have to 
reduce by one the numbers given by authors hitherto. Yet I 
think there is a point which may be useful as indicating a 
real reason for the rule. In my paper of 1893 (Trans. N. Z. 
Institute, vol. xxvi. p. 86) I mentioned that in the Dactylo- 
pine and Acanthococcine the “ anal tubercles ” seem usually 
to be more chitinous than the rest of the abdominal epidermis, 
and that in nearly all Coccids the antenne, feet, and rostrum 
present the same character. Since seeing Herr Sule’s paper 
{ have examined a large number of specimens of many genera, 
mounted after preparation with potash, and find that whilst 
there is, almost without exception, a clear difference notice- 
able between the antenna and the epidermis of the head, that 
difference is as clear in the first joint as it is in the others. 
A difference indeed, such as I refer to, may be seen in fig. 2 
of Herr Sule’s plate of Ortheziola. This being so, I cannot 
help thinking that a feature which pervades the whole Coccid 
family may be accepted as showing that the so-called “ frontal 
process ”’ is a part of the antenna rather than a part of the 
head. In fact, as we do not consider the coxa of the foot as 
only a “ lateral process” of the thorax, but as really the 
first joint of the foot, it seems that we ought also rightly to 
speak of the first joint of the antenna as springing direct from 
the head. According to this view, Ortheziola Vejdovsky? will 
have antenne of four joints. 
It may be admitted that the question here raised is quite 
open to discussion; and some entomologists may possibly 
deem it unimportant, though it has some importance in the 
study of Coccids, which, as remarked just now, must proceed 
on somewhat different lines from that of other insects. 
Wellington, New Zealand, 
May 1895. 
