FKOM THE UGANDA PROTECTOEATE. 67 



Ceroplastes ?n. sp. 



The specimens being all immature females or early adults it is not possible 

 to tix the species with any degree of accuracy. All the more so as the wax- 

 like tests wdiich cover the insects are all badly damaged. Gathering from 

 what remains o£ these, however, I am inclined to think that this Coccid will 

 CA'entually prove to be a new and undescribed one. The tests, so far as one 

 can make them out, are star- shaped and very like a large example of Vinsoraa 

 stelUfera, The derm of the young female becomes thin and transparent after 

 maceration in potash, with a very small circle of brown chitin surrounding 

 the short anal lobes. The antennae are of six segments : the grouped 

 stigmatic spines normal, and there is also a single large bluntly bideutate 

 spine in the centre of the group. 



Pulvinaria psidii, Maskell. 



The specimens submitted for examination agree with the description given 

 by Maskell *, with the exception of one rather important detail regarding the 

 structure of the marginal spines. In the examples before me these organs 

 are generally strongly curved, slightly flattened and deeply divided at the 

 tips ; in profile, however, they appear quite simple and the more or less 

 forked character is rendered invisible. Cockerell f has noted a similar 

 character^ however, in some cotypes which he received from Maskell, but 

 says that the spines are " broadened and serrate at the ends." There are no 

 truly serrated marginal spines traceable in the African examples ; but these 

 appendages are for the most part broken away, so that one cannot clear up 

 this slight discrepancy until a larger series of specimens is available. 



There is also, so far at least as one can judge from the examples to hand,, 

 a difference in the disposition of the insects upon the leaves of the food- 

 plant. 



Maskell (/. c.) says that '' the ovisacs cover the twig or leaf with masses o£ 

 dirty-white cotton, usually accompanied by a black fungus." The African 

 specimens are sparingly scattered over the under sides of the leaves and are 

 generally isolated or widely separated. 



It may be noteworthy from an economic standpoint to add that the 

 examples are nearly all parasitized by a (Jhalcidid insect of some kind. The 

 presence of these insects may, therefore, have reduced the colonies to such an 

 extent as to prevent the overcrowding noted by Maskell in the examples sent 

 to him by Mr. Koebele from the Sandwich Islands. 



This Coccid has not hitherto been recorded from the African continent 



* Trans. Nevr Zeal. Inst. vol. xxv. p. 223 (1^92). 

 t Bull. Dep. Agric. Ent. Tech. iv. p. 48 (L8S6j. 



