Vol. V. ] [ No. L 



i.— ORIGINAL COMMUNICATION. 



Remarks on Indian scale Insects (cocciD/E), with 



DESCRIPTIONS OF NEW SPECIES. BY E. E. GREEN, 



F. E.S.j Government Entomologist, Ceylon. 



(With Plates I and II.) 



The following notes are founded upon a collection of Coccidae 

 formed by Dr. G. Watt (Reporter on Economic Products to the Gov- 

 ernment of India), chiefly during a recent tour through the Tea 

 districts of Assam and Kangra. Many of the species had not pre- 

 viously been observed in India, from which country the records of 

 Coccidae are extraordinarily meagre. 



A rich harvest awaits any one who will undertake the study of this 

 obscure but interesting group of insects throughout the Indian region. 

 The small number of species now known from India proper can 

 scarcely represent the fiftieth part of the existing species, amongst 

 which are doubtless many remarkable and beautiful forms at present 

 unknown to science. That this estimate is not exaggerated may be 

 judged from the fact that my own researches in Ceylon during the 

 past six years have resulted in raising the previous records from the 

 paltry number of 7 to at least 150 (including species in course of 

 publication). 



The late Mr. E. T. Atkinson, writing in 1886,* collects together the 

 few records of Indian Coccidae then known. I find therein the follow- 

 ing species recognized as occurring on the Indian Continent : — Cero- 

 plastes ceriferus ; Monophlebus atripennis, leachii, saundersi, bur- 

 meisteri ; Mar garo des sp. ; and Tachardia {Carterid) lacca ; — just 

 seven species ! There is besides a list of eight species noticed by 

 Dr. J. Anderson in his ' Letters to Banks (1786-89) ' ; but, as noted by 

 Mr. Atkinson, his descriptions are so meagre and imperfect that 

 they are quite unrecognizable. 



Subsequently Mr. Atkinson published a description and figuresf 

 of a new genus and species to which he gave the name Pseudopulvi- 

 naria sikkimensis. 



*' Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal', Volume LV, Part II, No. 3, 

 1886, pages 267 to 298. 



7 * Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal ', Volume LVIII, Part II, No. 1, 



1880. 



