316 l July, 



seems to be understood by Signoret (p. 341) to represent his adonidum. In his 

 " Catalogus " (1868), p. 32, Targioni has " 1, Dactylopius longispinus, nob. (Studii 

 s. Coccinig., 1867) ; 2, D. adonidum, nob., n. sp." but there is no indication what 

 the latter is. 



Signoret (I. c.) describes a Dactylopius which he found on a Musa 

 in the hothouses of the Luxembourg, and which he takes to be the 

 type of O. adonidum, Linn., but the female, which was the only sex 

 described by Linne, differs in that it has not the raised dorsal line 

 with lateral rows of punctures ; and the male having grey wings, 

 cannot be identical with the C. adonidum of Geoff roy, which has snow- 

 white wings, and which was accepted by Linne for his species. I 

 think it would have been better if Signoret had ignored altogether 

 the doubtful, discordant or unrecognisable descriptions or figures of 

 previous authors, and had adopted a new name, rather than to have 

 given an old name to a virtually new species. But as this action has 

 been or is likely to be followed by others, it would only tend to greater 

 confusion now to stickle for the proper course. 



My description agrees very well with that of Signoret, and I 

 think refers to his species, but there is this exception, that he, referring 

 to the antenna of the J, says (p. 309), that his fig. lb represents il, 

 and that the 3rd joint is as long as the 8th, but this is a lapsus calami, 

 for as a fact the figure shows that it is the 10th and not the 8th that 

 equals the 3rd, and this is what I find in my examples. 



The various species known as Coccus adonidum had been introduced 

 into Europe with plants imported from hot climates before the time 

 of Linne; Geoffroy says, "the hothouses of the Jardin du Roi at 

 Paris were full of these insects." In Britain they have also been 

 long naturalized and known, under the name of " mealy bugs," as 

 destructive to exotic plants in hothouses. 



In his " General Zoology," p. 189, Shaw says that they then 

 (180G) were common, and injurious to plants in stoves ; and Haworth, 

 "Trans. Ent. Soc," i, 308 (1812), says of C. adonidum, "Habitat in 

 hortorum caldariis arboribus variis, pestis vulgatissima eximia." 



Signoret (op. cit.) enumerates 18 species of Dactylopius as living 

 on plants protected under glass or in the open air of the South of 

 France ; and although it is certain that some species live indiscrimi- 

 nately on various plants, yet Signoret says, p. 351, that each kind of 

 plant, especially when brought from different countries, may certainly 

 furnish species different to those which have passed as C. adonidum, 

 and be special to the plant ; therefore, a special study of exotic plants 

 would be sure to result in the discovery of new species. 



