MaskELL.—On some Coccidæ in New Zealand. 221 
Only one species of this genus seems to be known, and that is Icerya 
sacchari, an insect which, in Mauritius, does great injury to the sugar- 
canes. M. Signoret deseribes this species, which differs from the one I am 
describing in a few particulars. First, its general colour is yellow; secondly, 
its cottony fibres appear to envelope it more completely than in my species; 
‘thirdly, the segments of the body are more clearly defined; fourthly, the 
young insect is more hairy, and the hairs are not similarly arranged ; fifthly, 
the abdomen ends in a trifoliated lobe, which is not the case in my species. 
I imagine, then, that the insect from Auckland is new, and I take the 
liberty of naming it after the Rev. Dr. Purchas who, I believe, first found it. 
Leerya purchasi, sp. nov. 
Plate VIII., figs. 20 and 21. 
The eggs of this species resemble those of the other Coccide ; they are 
red in colour. The young insect emerging from the nest is reddish, 
inclining to brown. The body, fig. 20a, is oval, hairy, with a quantity of 
cottony down beginning to cover it. The antenne have six joints, fig. 20f, 
the first wide and short, the next four a little longer and about equal to each 
other, the sixth much larger, club-shaped, having apparently four segments 
joined together. All the joints have a few hairs; on the sixth are several, 
of which four are very much longer than the rest. The legs are brown, 
thin. The coxa and femur moderately large, the tibia and tarsus long 
and thin. The tibia and tarsus have several long hairs. The claw is some- 
what long. I am not sure about the upper digitules, but they seem to be 
only hairs; the lower pair are a little wider, bent like a hook. 
The eyes are prominent, tubercular, set behind the antenne. The 
mentum, which is broad and thick, seems to be bi-articulate. The rostral 
setze are not long. 
The abdomen ends in a smooth curve, but at each side of the centre are 
three small lobes from which start six very long hairs, as long or longer 
than the body of the insect. 
Six rows of spinnerets are seen on the body, four along the middle and 
one at each side. Alternating with these are rows of hairs. 
In its next stage the female insect becomes somewhat altered. Its out- 
line is still oval, but not so regular, and its colour is a darker red, nearly 
brown, under the white curly cotton which covers it. The six hairs o 
abdomen are still visible, but they are much shorter than in the young 
insect, scarcely appearing beyond the other hairs of the body. Maceration 
in potash and subsequent mounting get rid both of the interior substance 
and of the cotton, and the insect is then seen to be much more hairy than 
the young. The hairs are short, and distributed.pretty thickly over the 
thoracic portion of the body, less thickly on the abdomen; but all round 
the edge they are placed in tufts close together, each tuft containing twenty 
or thirty hairs; fig. 20b. 
