228 CHAS. K. BRAIN. 



is credited with having furnished St. Helena with the peach scoxirge. It may have 

 been here since the early days, but I know of no evidence whatever to show that it 

 is native. An old volume records the occurrence of a white pest on peach in 

 Mauritius sixty years ago, and it seems to be more likely that Mauritius or some 

 oriental country furnished St. Helena the pest than this country. St. Helena was a 

 port of call for ships returning from the Indies in by-gone days, and the occurrence 

 of the insect in the far east is now established. But wherever the insect may have 

 originated and whatever place may have been responsible for St. Helena's getting 

 the pest, we know that Diaspis amygdali is now and has long been a destructive 

 enemy to the peach at the Cape, and is now also highly injurious in Mauritius. It is 

 also coming into prominence in most of the warmer countries and threatens to prove 

 a cosmopolitan scale pest of considerable importance. It endures a very wide range 

 of temperature and thrives not alone on peach, mulberry, and several other common 

 fruits, but also on many ornamental and shade trees and shrubs, on a number of 

 worthless weeds, particularly certain shrub-like perennial Solanums and on some 

 of the Acacia tribe that have been planted or sprung up along roads and in waste 

 places in the Cape and other districts. More complaints regarding it are made to 

 this office than about any other insect, with the exception of red scale. If nothing 

 of value is learned from the enquiries now being prosecuted at St. Helena, it may 

 be well worth the while for our Government to send an expert to the island to 

 thoroughly investigate the subject ; even should nothing further be learned of the 

 scale it is possible that the agent that suppressed it — perhaps now existing at the 

 expense of other scale- insects — may be discovered and brought to our country." 



It may be mentioned that nothing came of the enquiries instituted in 1898 and 

 nothing further was known of the occurrence of this species In St. Helena until 

 Mr. Lounsbury's recent visit to the island (January 1916). It was by no means 

 conspicuous in the gardens, but a careful search revealed its presence and specimens 

 were brought for this collection. Sufficient material was collected to demonstrate 

 the presence of a Hymenopterous parasite, but nothing has yet been done to ensure 

 its establishment in this country. 



Habitat : This scale is common on a number of nursery plants, including almond, 

 fuchsia, geranium, kaffir-boom (Erythrina sp.), castor-oil plant, hlac, peach, pear, 

 pepper, plum, poplar, mulberry, veronica, etc. 



Collection Nos. : 165-1656. 



131. Diaspis (Epidiaspis) conspicua, sp. n. (Plate xv, fig. 149). 



Scale of adult? clustered in association with those of A. pectinatus on twigs of 

 privet in Pretoria. The <J puparia are whitish and comparatively large, with 

 parallel sides, and are particularly conspicuous because they are attached to the 

 stem only by their anterior end and project in all directions from between the 

 clustered $ scales. 



Scale of adult $ + circular, convex, about 2 mm. in diameter, dark greenish to 

 almost black, with brown exuviae. The body is broad pear-shaped, with the 

 abdominal segments flatly rounded and only faintly indicated at the margin. 

 The pygidium has very distinctive characters. There is an interrupted transverse 

 band of chitin slightly posterior to the vulva and one long bar on each side at right 



