107 



filaments (figs 1 and d). On the epidermis are other spinneret 

 orifices, circular and not projecting, from which the yellower 

 cottony mass is excreted. Anal tubercles inconspicuous with 

 short setie. Average diameter of the body, -3^3- inch ; average 

 diameter from tip to tip of the cottony filaments, |- inch. 



Second stage of the female not observed. 



Larva just hatched (e) active, elongated, dark purple in colour, 

 slightly dusted with white meal ; body segmented ; anal tubercles 

 conspicuous, with long setae. Antennae (/) of probably four 

 joints, but the joints are not easily distinguished. Feet thick, 

 apparently normal. Length of body, about one-fiftieth of an 

 inch. 



Male in all stages unknown. 



This insect is evidently a Dactylopid, from the character of the 

 anal tubercles, the six-haired anogenital ring, and the general 

 form of the adult female. It is referred to the genus Bipersia, 

 on account of the six-jointed antennae. Only one species of the 

 genus appears to have been described hitherto (i?. corynephori, 

 Signoret) ; but this seems to have nothing like the arched fringe 

 of long white cottony filaments, and its colour is yellow. Other 

 distinctions are in the form of the antennse, the digitules of the 

 foot, and the character of the spinnerets. The South Australian 

 insect appears to be clearly distinct. 



Group — Coccidin^. 



subdivision monophlebid^. 



Hitherto a distinguishing character of this subdivision has been 

 the possession of ten or eleven joints in the adult female. For 

 this reason Signoret expressed doubts whether the specimens 

 observed of the insect Brosicha contrabens, Walker (from Cey- 

 lon), which had only nine joints, were really adult females ; and, 

 having in view these doubts, I attached, in my " Scale Insects 

 of New Zealand," the genus Drosicha with Ilonophlebus. It is 

 quite clear, from the following account of a new species, that the 

 subdivision must be extended as regards this character, and per- 

 haps Drosicha, when again observed, may be found to be really 

 as Walker originally described it. 



Genus — Monophlebus, Leach. 



Adult female with nine (or eleven ?) joints in the antennae ; 

 adult male with several long tassels on the abdominal segments. 



A curious point about this is that, whilst all authors give 

 generic characters for the females of MonojMehus, not one seems 

 to have ever described, or perhaps observed, a female, at least so 

 far as to determine its more minute features. Westwood and 

 Leach possessed apparently specimens ; and from their general 



