]04 Indian Museum Not en. [Vol. IIL 



showing some tendency to a sob-division. Claw single. Rostrum short, 

 stout, black, furnished with a long seta (? more than one), and placed 

 between Ihe coxse. Prouotum fuscous, separate from the abdomen 

 and furnished with two rows of dark spots. The lower border of the 

 pronotum ends by several foleated cereus lamina?, pointed at their ends, 

 and one overlapping the other somewhat like the scapular feathers of a 

 bird's wing. 



The white plates only partially cover the abdomen which becomes a 

 marsupium or cradle to protect the twenty or thirty black eggs which 

 hatch within the dead body of the parent, and find therein a secure 

 covering until they are sufficiently grown to migrate over the food plant. 

 The lower part of the abdomen is smooth and cylindrical, but the upper 

 part is deeply furrowed or channeled into bundles of striae. The sternum 

 is slightly spotted. 



Size female with the marsupium 0*16 x 0*05 of an inch. 



An examination of the male is desirable. Doubtless it is winged. 

 Attention should be called to the anal filaments, which in Orthezia, 

 unlike other known Coecidae, have numbered two instead of four. 

 Mr. Douglas has so figured the male of Orlhezia insignis (see Ent. 

 Mon. Mag., Vol. XXIV, p. 169). This insect, which has close rela- 

 tions to the Ceylon insect, was first found on Strobalanthus, a Chinese 

 plant growing in the economic houses at Kew Gardens. 



I think the insect above described is distinct. The Kew insect is 

 much larger ( $ ), its body is piceous black, and the thoracic lamina? are 

 developed in a single instead of a double row. Observers on the spot 

 have peculiar facilities for studying the economy and life histories of 

 sueh insects. As the dipterous male insects of Cocci are very active, and 

 they usually live only a few days in the early season of the year, atten- 

 tion and address will be required to secure them. 



The Kew insect appears to be spreading over the hot houses of England 

 and seems to be very difficult to annihilate. It does as much mischief 

 as the more common "mealy bug." 



Explanation of figukes. 



Fig. 1.— Female, with the black eggs appearing through the 

 cover of the marsupium. 



Fig. 2. — Hind legs with tarsus and claw, 



Fig„ 3.™Antenna, 



