63 



2— DESCRIPTION OF A NEW COCCID. 



By E: E: Green, F.E.S., 



Government Entomologist, Ceylon. 



On Oryza sativa, Linn., Natural Order Graminece<> Rice 



or paddy. 



Chionaspis decurvata, Green, n. sp., Family Coccidae, Sub-order 

 Homoptera, Order Hemiptera. Plate XVII, Fig. i, pygidium of 

 female, greatly enlarged. 



On leaves of rice plants grown under shelter in the Museum in 

 July, 1900, a coccid was found, and was sent to Mr. E. Ernest Green, 

 F.E.S., Government Entomologist, Ceylon, who has furnished us with 

 the following description of it, as it appeared to him to be a species 

 new to science. 



" Puparium of female white : pellicles very pale straw-colour : moderately 

 convex : oblong : broadest across a point a little behi nd the extremity of the second 

 pellicle: tapering posteriorly. Ventral scale well developed. Long: — 150 to 

 1*75 mm. Broad :— 0*75 mm ." 



" Puparium of malb white, semi-transparent : obscurely tricarinate. Long : — 

 1 "io mm. Broad : — 0*40 mm." 



" Adult female yellow : elongate : broadest across the metathorax and the 

 base of the abdomen. Rudimentary antenna with a single stout curved hair. 

 Segments of the body not strongly marked. Pygidium with a rounded extremity. 

 A moderately deep median cleft with a chitinous margin. Median lobes promi- 

 nent, narrow, widely divergent, inner edge strongly convex, outer edge concave, 

 extremity slightly dilated and curved downwards. First lateral lobes duplex, 

 prominent ; inner lobule largest, narrowed at base. Second lateral lobes obsolete. 

 Squames large, spiniform : 1 — 2 on each of the first, second, and third spaces : one 

 on the fourth space ; and three on the base. Two or three similar squames on 

 the penultimate segment. Dorsal oval pores large and conspicuous ; communi- 

 cating with short cylindrical ducts. Circumgenital glands in five groups : median 

 group 7 to 8 : upper laterals 11 to 14 : lower laterals 10 to 12. Anal orifice on 

 a level with the lower lateral gland groups. Long : — 075 to 115 mm. Broad: — 

 0*30 to 050 mm. 



" Adult male not observed." 



" Allied to Ch. spartince, Comstock, but differs in the form of the median 

 cobes, and in the proportions of the female puparium." 



Plate XVII Fig. 1 shows the pygidium of an adult female. 



A lady-bird beetle (Family Coccinellidse) which has been identified 

 by Mr. L. O. Howard, Entomologist to the United States Department 

 of Agriculture, Washington, as Platynaspis villosa of Mulsant, preys 

 on this coccid both in its larval and imaginal forms. It is figured 

 on Plate IX, Fig. 3, imago x 14. 



