ucc c eee 
* 
Maskeni,—0n some Coccide in New Zealand. 208 
was oval; the adult female, somewhat resembling Mi ytilaspis pomorum, was 
dark yellow in colour, irregular in shape, having three prominent lobes on 
each side, The male puparium was oval; the enclosed pupa was not to be 
clearly made out, but seemed to resemble Diaspis gigas. 
The above include all the species of Diaspide which I have as yet 
observed. There are doubtless many more in the country, and I hope at 
some future time to be able to procure new specimens. Meanwhile I shall 
go on to the next family of scale insects, the Lecanids. 
Since writing the above I have found three other Diaspide, which may 
be new species, but which I have not had time to thoroughly examine. 
The first, a Mytilaspis, is found on a small Leucopogon growing on dry 
soil in the hills, It is yellowish, with a puparium somewhat pear-shaped, 
quite white, and rather tough. It is very minute, averaging only about y 
inch in length. The puparium of the male seems to be narrower, if the 
specimens I have looked at are the cocoons of males. The abdominal 
region of the female has a pygidium with eight groups of spinnerets; the 
lower groups have from twenty to thirty openings in each, the upper only 
from four to six. There are a great number of cylindrical protruding 
tubes. The abdomen ends with six spines. The lobes are inconspicuous, 
with a medial depression. 
Another M ytilaspis, found on a very small Mesembryanthemum growing 
moss-like in our river-beds, appears to differ from the last only in its colour, 
which is dull red. I am not sure how far mere colour may be taken as 
constituting a specific difference. 
The third insect, growing on the Wild Irishman (Discaria toumatou), 
Seems to me a species of Diaspis; but the only specimens I found were a 
number of discarded pellicles of the female mixed up in a mass of white 
cottony fibre as in Diaspis rose. 
I hope shortly to be able to identify all these insects. 
I nave now to pass from the first group of Scale Insects to the second 
group, the Lecanide. In investigating this group it will be necessary first 
of all to divide it into several classes, because otherwise it will be impossible 
to avoid confusion. The number of genera and species of the Lecanid@ is 
So great, the plants infested by them are so various, and their specific 
differences so slight in many instances, that it is easy, I should say, to fall 
into errors concerning them, I have, however, no intention of dwelling at 
length upon those species which, although attacking plants in this country 
in gardens or greenhouses, are European, and described by other observers. 
Of these, as far as my experience goes, we have in New Zealand several ; 
but, with one exception, which I take as the type of the group, I shall pass 
lightly over them and go on to the genera and species which I believe to be 
new and indigenous. | 
