NOTE ON THE COCCID GENUS OUDABLIS. 85 



is, however, a second string to the bow. I so interfered with 

 one pupa that it did not secure a grip with the hooks of tenth 

 segment, and then got the hooks under eighth from their pocket. 

 The pupa nevertheless did not fall, but was sustained by the 

 adhesion of the thoracic larval skin to the front of the fifth and 

 sixth abdominal segments, and was so sustained for a considerable 

 time till the pupa reached the silk. It did not, however, do so 

 very satisfactorily, and the hooks of eighth failed to get a proper 

 hold. It would seem that the proper use of this adhesion is to 

 increase the pressure of the hooks of eighth segment against the 

 margin of the pocket, and, after the terminal hooks are engaged 

 in the silk, to steady the pupa, whilst those of eighth segment are 

 freed from the larva skin and fixed on the silken carpet. 



In Hypercallia and Anchinia the method of pupal suspension 

 is precisely the same as in Pterophorus ; and in these the anal 

 hooks are supplemented by some on the ventral aspect of the eighth 

 abdominal segment in like manner. There can be little doubt 

 that their use is the same as in Pterophorus, both to secure 

 safety at the time of moult and stiffness in the pupal position 

 afterwards. Are these instances of the separate origin of com- 

 plex apparatus and functions, in unrelated species, or is there 

 any possible relationship ? The pupae are certainly otherwise 

 so very different that such relationship must be distant. 



Betula, Keigate : June, 1899. 



NOTE ON THE COCCID GENUS OUDABLIS, Signoret. 

 - By T. D. a. Cockerell, N.M.Agr.Exp.Sta. 



SiGNORET in 1875 proposed the name Boisduvalia for Coccids 

 resembling Dactylopius, but having four white caudal filaments 

 in the male, instead of only two. Later, he changed this name 

 to Oadablis, because he had himself used Boisduvalia in 1868 for 

 a genus of Aphididse. Loew (Wien. Ent. Zeit., 1883) objected to 

 this substitution, on the ground that the Boisduvalia of 1868 was 

 a nomen nudum; but this objection cannot bold, since there were 

 already genera named Boisduvalia, Desv., 1830 (Diptera). and 

 Boisduvalia, Montr., 1855 (Coleoptera). 



Signoret in 1875 recognised two species of Oadablis, both 

 found in France — namely, 0. lauri (Boisduval) and 0. quadri- 

 caudata (Sign.). Both of these resembled Dactylopius in the 

 female having 8-jointed antennae. Lichtenstein in 1881 added 

 a third species, 0. parietarice (Licht.), but unfortunately never 

 published a full diagnosis of it. 



In 1882 Lichtenstein (Bull. Soc. Ent. France, p. Ixxv) re- 

 corded an insect found on the leaves of Rubus discolor, proposing 



ENTOM. — MARCH, 1900. I 



