1888.] 15 1 



type of a new genus, under the name of Gymnococcus, but in con- 

 sideration of the important and leading characters of the antenna?, I 

 have concluded (for the present, at least) that it is better to regard 

 all the others as specific, and to refer the species to Signoret's genus 

 Coccus. 



In February last I received from Mr. D. Morris, Assistant Di- 

 rector of the Royal Gardens, Kew, a quantity of white cottony matter 

 that had been collected from the under-side of leaves of a species of 

 Agave, which came three years previously from one of the Southern 

 States of North America. This mass contained many of the females 

 of the above mentioned Coccus, by which it had been produced ; they 

 were not attached to it, but on its removal they, by reason of their 

 rotundity, rolled readily about, apparently without life. Having 

 gummed some of them back downwards on to a card, I soon saw that 

 they were not dead,but were in the act of extruding apparently living 

 larva?, but on observing them more closely in the microscope, under a 

 half-inch objective, I witnessed some long-oval yellow eggs excluded, 

 from which, while in the very act of parturition, a larva escaped, so 

 that generation is ovoviviparous ; several of the larva?, as they appeared, 

 clung together ; when all were excluded, the body of the mother 

 collapsed entirely. About a month later I obtained from Kew part 

 of a leaf of the Agave, with the Cocci stationary in situ under the 

 cotton which they had exuded, sometimes three or four under one 

 mass. I also found, mostly on the outside of these masses, small 

 white cocoon-like sacs, each either empty or containing a dead pupa 

 of the male, or in a few only a dead male imago ; and although there 

 were many of these sacs, not one had a living male in it, nor were 

 there any living males free. 



The illustrative figures are photographically rendered from draw- 

 ings kindly made with camera lucida by Mr. G. S. Saunders. 



On October 16th, Mr. S. J. Mclntire, Shepherd's Bush, sent to 

 me' some leaves of an orchid and mango tree which he had just re- 

 ceived from the Royal Botanic Gardens, George Town, Demerara, 

 each leaf having attached to it scales of Coccidce. On the mango only 

 were scales of Ischnaspis Jiliformis, Doug. (c/vEnt. Mo. Mag., xxiv, 

 p. 21), of which the native country was not previously known ; and 

 patches of the white carinate scales of the male of a Diaspis or 

 Chionaspis, of which nothing more could be determined, there being 

 no female scales ; Signoret notes that he had found some similar 

 which he did not recognise. On both kinds of leaves were the scales 



