No. 1. J Original Communication. II 



The late Mr. W. M. Maskell (in the Trans. New Zealand Institute, 

 1898), has described, under the name of Ceronema japonica, an Indian 

 tea pest received from the Indian Museum, which in many respects very 

 closely resembles the species here described. But in spite of many 

 strong points of similarity, the discrepancies are so great and impor- 

 tant that without reference to Mr. Maskell's examples (now alas 

 impossible) I am unable to reconcile them. The points of re- 

 semblance are — the median row of curling filaments on the 

 male scale: the fringe of pointed spines, and the dense group of 

 pointed stigmatic spines. The ' two longitudinal series of short 

 thick conical spines on the median dorsal region ' of Maskell's 

 Ceronema japonica correspond to the similarly situated series of 

 sunk conical spinnerets of E. these, 



Eriochiton these differs from Maskell's species in having a 

 compact test completely enclosing the adult ? . It has 8 distinct 

 joints in the antennae, while C. japonica is said to have 7-jointed 

 antennae with a false joint in the 4th. The anal ring in E. these 

 bears 6 stout hairs only. C. japonica is said to have 'several hairs/ 

 but is figured with 1 1 in each of the two rings represented. It is 

 impossible to believe that the reduplication of the anal parts as 

 described by Maskell is normal, though it is stated to have occurred 

 in all the specimens examined — both from India and Japan. I would 

 suggest that this extraordinary appearance may have been due to 

 the examples being immature, or taken just before the final ecdysis, 

 when the adult insect would be seen within the skin of the previous 

 stage. 



The species mentioned and described in the present paper raise 

 the number recorded from the Indian Continent to 37, distributed 

 amongst 14 genera, as below : — ■ 



DlASPIDINAE — 

 I. Aspidiotus—* 



aurantii, Mask. . 



. 



. 1 



artocarpi, Green . . . 



> • 



. 2 



camellia, Sign. . . . , 



. 



. 3 



dictyospermi var. arecce, Newst. , 



• 



. 4 



moorei, Green « , 



, . 



. 5 



orientalis, Newst. . . , 



t 



. 6 









