Scale Insects of British Guiana. 309 



came known to science in December, 1SS7. A paper by 

 Mr. E. T. Browne, F.R. M.S., with beautiful illustrations 

 by H. F. Hailes, F.R.M.S., will be found in the Journal 

 of the Quekett Microscopical Club for that month. 



Mr. Douglas also described it in the " Entomological 

 Monthly Magazine," and gave it the name which it bears. 

 It had been noticed, as a stranger, among the plant-vermin 

 of Kew Gardens, into which place, we now know, it 

 must have been introduced upon some plant from British 

 Guiana. It is a very beautiful creature owing to its 

 waxen appendages, which, however, are easily broken ; 

 and all possessors of microscopes and collections of 

 microscopic objects will desire to get it as a mounted 

 slide when they have once seen it. The male, a tiny 

 two-winged fly with two caudal filaments coated with 

 white wax, was fortunately obtained, so that in this case, 

 the blank, which exists in so many instances, is filled up. 



Many specimens of a Ccroplastes (Plate I., fig. 3) 

 have been found on ferns, but, up to now, Mr. DOUGLAS 

 has not been able to identify them specifically. It may 

 prove yet that they are new to science. The fact that 

 this coccus has been found in abundance on ferns is a 

 new one. Ceroplastes is a genus, mostly tropical, and 

 there is only one species that is European (C. rusci. 

 Linn.) It is found in the South of Europe. Although 

 many species from several countries are known, they 

 are known only in the female sex : no male has yet been 

 found. The creature, female, is always enveloped in 

 wax, except on the ventral surface. In its early stages 

 the wax plates are six or eight in number, on the margin, 

 but they gradually approach each other and ultimately 

 unite. 



