THE WOMBAT. 8 1 



their works would here be out of place, and anybody wishing 

 to turn his attention to the study of this interesting family of 

 insects will find an excellent bibliography including some 25, 

 authors in the " Transactions of the New Zealand Institute " 

 page 7-8, 1891. The only Victorian publications containing 

 notes on Coccids, so far as I know, are " The Handbook to 

 the Destructive Insects of Victoria " part I. and II ? and 

 "The Victorian Naturalist " — which contain several papers by 

 Mr. C. French, and I understand that Mr. E. H. Gurney 

 read a paper before the meeting in Sydney of the Australasian 

 Association, "on the Colouring Matter of Eriococcns eucalypti, 

 llask. and Ceroplastes rubens. Mask," which will I think be 

 published in the " Transactions " of the Association ; so that 

 the list of Victorian writers on the subject is not very long, 

 Mr. j. G. O. Tepper, of Adelaide, has contributed some very 

 useful papers on the sub-family Brachyscelinas to the Trans. 

 Roy. Soc. S.A ., and Mr. W. W. Froggatt, of Sydney, has also* 

 written a good deal of interesting matter concerning gall-coccids 

 in the Agric. Gazette of N.S.W., and some excellent papers 

 appear under his name in Proceedings Linn. Soc. N. S. Wales. 



The Coccidae live either singly or together on various- 

 plants — sometimes on the twigs and leaves ; sometimes on 

 the trunk and large branches, and a few species are sub- 

 terranean ; living on the roots of plants ; e.g. Dactylopius 

 poce, Maskell, D. affinis. Maskell and D. similans, Lidgett, 

 of this paper. They obtain their nourishment as do all 

 Homopterous insects by means of a protruding rostrum which 

 can usually be seen by the aid of an ordinary lens, between 

 the first pair of legs. There are several hollow curling bristles 

 springing from the point of the rostrum, and it is through 

 these hollow tubes that the insect obtains its food — the sap of 

 the plant. They are subject to the attacks of various parasitical 

 insects, chiefly hymenoptera, and birds occasionally feed on 

 them. 



The Coccidae belong to the " monomerous division " of 

 the Homoptera, i.e., insects, with only one joint in the tarsus 

 or fourth joint of the leg, and another distinguishing character 

 is the presence of a single claw terminating the foot. If, when 

 examining an insect, it is seen to have a single terminating 

 claw, it may at once be set down as a Coccid. The females 

 in all stages of existence are destitute of wings, and in some 

 cases apodous, e.g. Diaspidinae and Lecanidas. The males 

 are very pretty little winged flies without organs for feeding 

 or digesting food, their only duty apparently being to assist in 

 the perpetuation of their species. The adult males of many 

 species are as yet unknown, and in those species where they 

 have been observed they present a remarkable similarity ini 

 size, colour, and form. 



