Zh^ F.NTOIMOLOGICAL NEWS [Nov.. 'l8 



lobe cerarii, adult female with 8-segmented antennae." In 

 other words, it is a species with 15-17 pairs of cerarii (for that 

 is what the tassels mean) ; a perfectly typical species of Pseii- 

 dococciis. 



The only evidence that I have been able to find in the litera- 

 ture tending to indicate that these may be forms of the same 

 species is the fact that they occur upon the same host, and 

 this I cannot consider to carry any weight whatsoever. A care- 

 ful perusal of the paper by G. C. Davis*, who appears to 

 have been responsible for the original assumption that these 

 are forms of the same species, indicates that he did not have 

 the species described by Forbes. Neither is there any evidence 

 that any one has actually reared the one form from the other 

 in a carefully controlled experiment. It does appear that the 

 species examined by Davis was oviparous at one season of 

 the year and viviparous at another, but this is not, after all, 

 a very great difference. However, it does not appear that 

 Davis' experiment was sufficiently well controlled to demon- 

 strate even this beyond question. 



The morphological evidence alone is sufficient to indicate 

 that here again two entirely distinct species have been con- 

 fused. As I have already noted, the description of this "sum- 

 mer form" is insuf^cient to permit the definite determination of 

 the species, but it is possible that this is nothing more than 

 Pscudococcus maritimus (Ehrh.). This is a species that was 

 originally described from California, where it is found upon 

 an extremely wide range of hosts, but which occurs through- 

 out the United States. I have seen specimens from wild 

 cherry in New York, from osage orange and sycamore in Ohio 

 and from clover in Oregon, as well as from numerous hosts in 

 California. It is practically certain that this is the species de- 

 scribed by Hollinger as P. omnivcrac from numerous hosts in 

 Missouri. The various descriptions of P. trifolii all agree in 

 speaking of the mass of pores about the anal cerarii. and this 

 is a very characteristic feature of P. mantiniiis. If my sur- 

 mise be correct, there remains no doubt that this is not a di- 

 morph of the original trifolii, for its life history is well enough 

 known, and it has never been suspected of any irregularities. 



It is to be hoped that the matter may soon be so effectuallv 

 cleared up that no possible doubt mav remain. The difficul- 

 ties in the way of studying the mealy bugs are sufficient with- 

 out the interpolation of any that are wholly imaginarv'. 



*Davis, G. C. Michigan Ag. Exp. Station, Bull. 116, pp. 58-60. (1894). 



