OBSERVATIONS ON SCALE-INSECTS (COCCIDAE) — IV. 25 



one cephalic and two bilateral, each of the latter placed just above the stigma tic 

 clefts ; median dorsal tubercle prominent and keel- like. Caudal process long, 

 stout, measuring 1 '2-1 '3 mm. long. Frontal margin slightly produced ; posterior 

 margin, immediately beneath the caudal process, with a similar projection but wider 

 and with a median division (anal cleft). Stigmatic clefts quite small and shallow. 

 Antennae of eight segments, of which the 3rd, 5th, and 8th are the longest. Stig- 

 matic spines minute, conical, arranged three to four deep, centrally, but diminishing 

 in number bilaterally at the extreme margin. Legs normal, as far as can be traced. 

 Gland pores of the integument simple, somewhat thinly and irregularly scattered. 

 Marginal spines not traceable in the three females examined. 



British Guiana : Mahaica Creek, on courida (Avicennia nitida), viii. 1916 (G. E. 

 Bodkin). 



The old adults when denuded of the test are very like those of Ceroplastes ceriferus 

 (Anderson), but the caudal process is slightly shorter and the number and arrange- 

 ment of the submarginal tubercles differ in a marked degree. Only one antenna 

 has been studied, and this, so far as one can judge, consists of eight segments, but 

 the articulations are ill-defined and difficult to trace ; clearly however it is markedly 

 different from that of C. ceriferus. 



Ceroplastes bipartitus, sp. now 



Female test. Colour, in dried specimens, very like pale dirty beeswax. In the 

 young adults the test is broadly oval, somewhat hemispherical and divided into 

 nine plates : three bilateral, one cephalic, one anal and one dorsal, the last-named 

 with a conspicuous dark brown or blackish, oval spot, with a central elongated patch 

 of pure white wax ; the nuclear spots to the lateral plates are smaller and generally 

 much less conspicuous than the dorsal one. Margin over the stigmatic areas with 

 a pair of laterally compressed and somewhat disc-shaped extensions, each extension 

 carrying on its edge a narrow strip of opaque white wax, the tip of which sometimes 

 reaches the dark nuclear spot of the lateral thoracic plate. In very old examples . 

 the test has increased in thickness considerably, but this has been so much damaged 

 in transit as to render it useless for descriptive purposes ; however, one can trace 

 the curious marginal extensions, which are somewhat like a narrow- waisted and dis- 

 torted bobbin, or the toy used in the once popular game " diabolo." Average 

 length of young adults, 3 mm. ; height, 1*6-2 mm. ; average length of old adults, 

 6 mm. ; height doubtful. 



Female, adult. Denuded of wax, hemispherical ; caudal process very long, varying 

 in length from one-half to a little less than one-half the length of the remaining 

 portion of the insect. Submarginal tubercles small, but generally clearly defined : 

 one cephalic and three bilateral, the two over the stigmata slightly more pronounced 

 than the rest. When examined under a high power lens, by transmitted light, these 

 tubercles are seen to be traversed by clear cell-like tracts forming an irregular reticu- 

 lated pattern. It is reasonable to assume, therefore, that these may be the special 

 set of glands which secrete the nuclear spots in the centre of the plates in the test. 

 Derm relatively thin, but strongly chitinised. Pores minute, separated over a large 

 portion of the dorsum by slightly varying distances equalling the length of one of 



