55 



NOTES ON SOME BRITISH AND EXOTIC COCCIDM (No. 25). 

 BY J. W. DOUaLAS, F.E.S. 



POLLINIA THESII, W. sp. 



$ adult (Fig. 1). Scale pale yellow or dingy brown, smooth, slightly shining, 

 very hard and convex, subovate, broadest in front, posteriorly more or less produced, 



the prolongation flattened 



09 



«- mwT mmt^ and narrowed to an obtuse 



2. or bifid end (this is more 



06 



s 



jif^"^ , evident on the insect be- 



neath); anal aperture situate 

 at the margin small, round, 

 emitting a tuft of delicate 

 glassy filaments ; surface 

 shows traces of many effete 

 double and o few single spin- 

 nerets ; dorsum with a median longitudinal, mane-like row of upright or curled, 

 delicate, flossy, white filaments of unequal height, disposed in 5 — 6 adjacent tufts, 

 and arising out of the integument ; margin with a pi'ojecting horizontal fringe of 

 fine, distinct, glassy, hair-like filaments disposed in two series, those of the upper one 

 not so close together as the lower. Antennae rudimentary, apex rounded, bearing 

 one long hair and four or five short ones. Mentum apparently biarticulate,* with 

 two hairs at the apex ; rostral filaments expanded, very long, nearly one-third the 

 length of the body. Legs wanting. Marginal spinnerets double, somewhat like the 

 muzzle of a double-barrel gun, disposed in two rows at front and sides, but placed 

 alternately as to the respective rows (Fig. 2), profile (Fig. 3), posteriorly merging 

 into one nearly straight row (Fig. 4). Anal ring recessed within a larger one, bearing 

 six hairs ; lobes wanting, in their place are two rather long, stiff hairs, and between 

 them about twelve shorter, of various lengths. Dorsum with numerous long tubular 

 spinnerets, and a few scattei'ed circular orifices. 



The under-side of the scale is closed by a thin pellicle. The sides of the scale 

 are approximated in order that they may grasp the thin stem of the food-plant, to 

 which they closely adhei'e. The closure of the scale causes the insect to be quite 

 enveloped ; after death it becomes shrivelled, but can be restored to its original form 

 by boiling in caustic potash. There were no eggs or larvae in the scales, but a brown 

 one contained the larva of a parasite that quite filled the space. Length, 2 mm. 



In the "Bulletino della Societa Entomologica Italiaua," i, 263, 

 Targioni-Tozzetti founded his genus "Pollinia" on the Coccus Pollini 

 of Costa, which lives on the olive, deriving the generic name from the 

 specific, which he altered to '■'Gostce''' — a mode of procedure that 

 cannot be commended. He gives the following diagnosis of the 

 genus : — 



* The dimerous character of the mentum, though evident, cannot be figured, for unfortunately 

 in each of the two prepiirations the mentum is tilted on its apex with the bane towards the 

 covering glass, and it cannot be shifted. 



