Maskell. — On New Zealand Coccidas. 125 



of the tibia (see fig. 8). The abdominal spike (fig. 9) springs from a 

 tubercle at the end of the abdomen, having a small setiferous tubercle on 

 each side. The haltere is normal. 



I have this insect on Dendrobium (sent by the Eev. Mr. Colenso), and on 

 Hedycarya (sent by C. P. Winkelmann, Esq.), both from Hawke's Bay. I 

 do not think it is common. 



There is no mistaking F. stricta : .the very long and narrow second pel- 

 licle, with its segmented extremity and black colour, and the comb-like 

 serrations of the abdominal segment in the adult female, clearly distinguish 

 it from all others. The male, alone, would not suffice for identification : it 

 might easily be taken for a male of Mytilaspis cordylinidis or Chionaspis 

 dubia, though it may be known from the former by the black colour of its 

 first pellicle, and from the latter by the absence of keels on the puparium. 

 2nd Group.— LECANIDiE. 



In my first paper (Trans., vol. xi., p. 205) I divided this group into 

 three subsections — Lecaniea: Lecanio-diaspida: : Pulvinariece. In the second 

 of these I included the New Zealand genera Ctenochiton and Inglisia : and I 

 afterwards added Lecanochiton. I am inclined now to propose a new general 

 arrangement of the whole group. 



M. Signoret, in his Monograph (Annales de la Soc. Entom. de la France, 

 25 Mars, 1868, p. 268 et seq.), admitted the subsection Lecanio-diaspidas, 

 first proposed by Professor Targioni, but confined it to the four genera Pol- 

 linia, Planchonia, Asterolecanium , and Lecaniodiaspis, Of these, the first 

 three cover themselves with a hard test, the fourth forming a sac of felted 

 matter. He excluded from the subsection the following genera of covered 

 Lecanidaa : — Signoretia, Eriopeltis, Philippia, Vinsonia, Ceroplastes, Fair- 

 mairia, and placed the two genera Ericerus and Carteria in a separate posi- 

 tion, being somewhat abnormal. Mr. Comstock follows a similar course, 

 describing several species of Ceroplastes, but remarking that he has not 

 found any Lecanio-diaspidaa in America (Keport of the U.S. Commissioner 

 of Agriculture, 1881 : Eeport of the Entomologist, p. 278, note). 



When the subsection was established by Professor Targioni one of its 

 characters was that the females become " apodous in the adult stage." I 

 imagine that it is this which induced M. Signoret and Mr. Comstock to 

 narrow its limits. But I see no sufficient reason for this. The Diaspidas 

 are not separated from the Lecaniclas because the females become apodous, 

 but because their whole habit differs, by the formation of tests or puparia 

 composed partly of discarded pellicles, by their life-history in these 

 tests, and by the peculiar nature of the abdominal segment in the female. 

 Moreover, there would seem to be no greater reason for selecting the loss 

 of the feet as a character than the loss of the antenna?. Now, in the 



