350 R. Newstead: 
Dactylopius eitri needs no comment as it is known the world over as one of the most destructive 
pests to various kinds of cultivated plants and fruits. It should be noted, however, that the tobacco is, 
so far as one can gather, a new food plant. No information regarding the destructive habits of this inseet 
was forwarded with the specimens, so that one is not in a position to say anything as to the nature and 
_extent of the injury caused in this particular instance. Lecanium nicotianae must also be added to the list 
of tobacco-feeding pests. 
We may arrange the species known to occur in Madagascar as follows: 
a) Universally distributed species: 
*Aspidiotus! hederae (V all.); Mytilaspıs bechuü (Newm.); Dactylopius citri Risso. 
b) Widely distributed species in the tropical zone: 
Icerya seychellarum (Westw.)?; Dactylopius virgatus (Ck11l.). 
c) Species probably precinctive i. e. confined to the region in question: 
® Amelococcus Allaudi Marshall. 
® Tylococcus madagascariensis Newst. 
Gascardia madagascariensis Targ.-Tozz. 
Lecanium nicotianae New st. 
Compared with the coceid fauna of Mauritius? this is a very meagre list indeed and I have Hittle 
doubt that a large number of species await the discoverer in Madagascar. 
So far as I can trace no coccids have hitherto been recorded from the Comoro Islands; so that 
the discovery of Icerya seychellarum is of much interest. 
The new Aleurodes herein described is the most remarkable species I have yet seen, and although 
I have not hitherto paid special attention to this group of insects, I could not resist the temptation of 
working out the characteristics of such an interesting form. 
Family Coccidae. 
Genus Gascardia Targ.-Tozz. 
Contra. a l’Etude Gommes Laques, Indies, Madagascar. p. 83 (1893); Bull. Soc. Ent. Ital, XXXVI, p. 456 (1894). 
This monotypic genus possesses no characters in common with the lac-producing members of the 
Tachardiinae, and is undoubtedly very closely related to Ceroplastes; so closely in fact that were it not 
for the curious form of the puparium of the male‘ one would not hesitate to sink Targioni-Tozzetti’s 
genus altogether. 
In the first place, the cereous covering (test) of this insect is of precisely the same nature as that 
of Ceroplastes ceriferus and other allied species; secondly, the test of the immature female Gascardia together 
with the structural details of the insect, are in every sense characteristic of the Genus Ceroplastes, So 
exactly do they agree that it would be impossible to separate them. Unfortunately the material placed in 
my hands for verification was much too scanty to admit of a thorough examination of the structural 
characters of the old adult females; but of the young adult females there were a number of examples, so 
that it was possible to make out all the salient characters of this remarkable insect. 

! Those marked * were not taken by Dr. Voeltzkow. 
?2 Recorded also from China and New Zealand. 
° A total of 44 species have been recorded from the Island of Mauritius; but it is quite evident that a number of these 
have been introduced on imported plants as many of them have a world wide distribution. 
* If one translates Targioni-Tozzetti’s description rightly this is more or less tubular and narrowly ellipsoid, but 
truncate at the distal extremity, which latter is fitted with a lid or eperculum. 


