Ceroplastodes. 285 
CEROPLASTODES CAJANI, dash. 
(PLATE CVIII.) 
Eriochiton cajani, Maskell, 2nd. Aus. Notes, Vol. 11. p. 61 (1891). 
a 0 ib Trans. N.Z. Inst., Vol. XXIV. p. 24 (1891). 
Ps Vol. XXIX. p. 314 (1897). 
Copano aieibs Cadeerally Warr Vol. LXI. p. 368 (1890). 
Test of adult female (jigs. 1-4) subglobular or hemispherical, rather 
longer than broad, completely enclosing the insect ; compact, glassy, brittle, 
roughened with numerous irregular waxy granules, which have a more or less 
conical form towards the margins and give to the test the appearance of being 
closely set with grains of white quartzy sand, In some examples the granules 
are spiculate. A small oval aperture at posterior extremity. After gestation 
the shrunken body of the insect is seen as a brownish patch at the anterior 
extremity of the test, the remaining cavity being filled and tinted by the pinkish 
eggs. Length 3mm. Breadth 2°25 mm. 
Adult female ove brown, broadly elliptical or subcircular, moderately convex 
above During gestation the abdomen becomes elevated until its ventral area 
assumes a position at right angles to the thorax (ig. 5), but the dorsum remains 
tumid until all the ova have been expelled. In parasitised examples the body 
retains its natural position and the derm becomes very dense and dark coloured. 
Antenne (fg. 6) relatively stout, eight-jointed, the individual joints short but 
somewhat widely separated by intersegmental tissue, though the division 
between the seventh and eighth joints is sometimes rather obscure. (This 
division has apparently been overlooked by Maskell, who describes the antenna 
as seven-jointed.) The terminal joint bears four or five stout hairs at its apex, 
and there is a stout curved bristle on the side of each of the three terminal 
joints. In some Indian examples, on Oscimum sanctum, the antenne are 
proportionately longer. Legs comparatively small, but stout and well de- 
veloped ; tibia as long as femur (without trochanter) ; tarsus about two-thirds 
the length of the tibia; ungual digitules broadly dilated; tarsal digitules 
knobbed. Under surface of abdomen with largish circular glandular pores 
arranged in transverse series along the posterior margin of each segment. 
Margin with a fringe of pointed stout conical spines in an irregular double 
series, those of the outermost series longer, and increasing in size towards the 
posterior extremity (jig. 7). Stigmatic spines single, long, slender, curved, 
sharply pointed ; often mounted on a conspicuous marginal prominence ( /zg. 8). 
Valves of anal operculum widely separated (jig. 9); incrassate ; rounded ex- 
ternally, inner edge irregularly sinuate ; two or more pointed spines near the 
apex, and one or two hairs on the inner edge. Anal ring with eight hairs, six 
of which are long and stout, the remaining two small and inconspicuous. In 
older examples the small pair of hairs is not always apparent, and is always 
difficult to demonstrate except when the retractile tube is inverted. (Maskell, 
loc. ci¢., erroneously states that the ring bears ‘very numerous hairs, having 
