228 Transactions. — Zoology. 



I append figures (figs. 27, 28, 29) of the male and its organs, to illustrate 

 the description given in vol. xii., p. 297. 



The tests of this second stage were found by me very common on 

 Muhlenheckia, growing amongst the rocks on the Sumner road, Lyttelton, 

 chiefly on the roots and the underground portions of the stems. Often a 

 stem was covered with hundreds of the waxy shells, some of them as large 

 as a small marble. I have since found them on various trees in the forests, 

 where the adult form of Ccelostoma may be commonly found in late summer 

 crawling about the pines and other trees. In February and the beginning 

 of March it is not uncommon to find a female almost covered by a cluster 

 of the large males, which present an elegant appearance with their purple 

 bodies and blue wings with red nervures. This is certainly the largest 

 Coccid known to me, and I think it not unlikely to be the one mentioned by 

 Westwood (Int. to Mod. Class, of Ins., vol. ii., p. 450), as sent to him from 

 New Holland : — " A gigantic female, which has much the appearance and 

 size of a full grown larva of (Estnis bovis." 



I know of no species undergoing transformations like those of Ccelostoma. 

 In many species the young insect is free and the later stages torpid, whether 

 naked or enclosed in tests. But there-is usually some indication, at least, in 

 the second stage of the appearance of the adult insect. Thus, in the Dias- 

 pidfe, the legs and antennae gradually disappear, the test or puparium 

 increasing with age. In Ctenochiton the test makes its appearance early but 

 preserves the same general character to the last stage. In leery a the 

 growth of the cotton is progressive, and the various distinguishing marks can 

 be traced throughout the life of the insect. But in Ccelostoma the changes are 

 almost radical. The young insect, hatched in soft white cotton, secretes a 

 white, scanty and thin, meal : in the next stage it secretes a very thick, 

 hard wax ; and again in its adult state it secretes meal which gradually 

 produces a close web of white cotton. The young insect is free and active : 

 the second stage is torpid, enclosed, with atrophied limbs : the adult again 

 is active and free until gestation. To be sure, there are characters found 

 almost alike in all stages. Thus, the spinneret orifices are much the same 

 all through, with the exception of those round the anal orifice in the second 

 stage, which may perhaps be those specially used for secreting the wax. 

 And the organ which I have called the oviduct may be traced through aU 

 the stages, from the newly hatched young to the old female: with the excep- 

 tion, however, of the second stage of the male, which nearly resembles the 

 adult female, but has antennae of nine joints, no " oviduct," and only very 

 few spinnerets. 



It appears to me clear that Ccelostoma, with all the characters which I 

 have described, is certainly new. 



