20 



which are scarcely apparent; segments five to eight each marked with a pair of 

 black dorsal spots, those on the sixth and seventh segments larger than the others; 

 wing-cases bordered above with black; surface thinly covered with a light yellow 

 pubescence; length, 5 mm . 



Duration of this stage, fourteen days. 



From these data it will be seen that this species passes through its 

 various stages in a somewhat shorter time than is the case with Orcus 

 austral asice. In all of its stages it is much more delicate than the last- 

 named species, and the beetles appear to be much shorter lived. On 

 the 14th of May I placed twenty adults of Orcns chalybens in one of my 

 breeding cages and kept them well supplied with specimens of Aspi- 

 diotus aurantii and Lecanium ofc<r, but no eggs were laid until about 

 two months later, or on the 25th of July; and the last beetle in this 

 cage died on the 2d of August. Specimens of Orcus australasice, 

 obtained at the same time as these and treated in the same manner, 

 were still living nearly two months after the last chalybens had died. 



On the 10th of August a larva of chalybens, only four days old, was 

 attacked by a whitish, feathery fungus which spread out on all sides 

 of its body, giving the latter the appearance of resting upon a minia- 

 ture mat of feathers. I submitted this specimen to Dr. Galloway, the 

 mycologist of this Department, by whom it was referred to Mr. J. B. 

 Ellis, a well-known authority upon fungi, who reported that this fungus 

 was either the Microcera coccc-phila, or else a species of Isaria, probably 

 the latter. The Microcera here alluded to is known to attack various 

 kinds of scale-insects in Australia, and it would be interesting to learn 

 if the spores of this fungus were brought over with the ladybirds 

 recently imported from that country; but a second letter to Dr. Gallo- 

 way upon this subject elicited the fact that the specimen in question 

 had been mislaid and could not be found. 



Novius koebelei. — Egg. — Elongate-ovate, two and a half times as broad, the sur- 

 face very scabrous; color, deep orange-red; length, 0.75 mm . Attached lengthwise to 

 the body of an Icerya, or thrust into the egg-sac of the latter. 



Time from disposition to hatching, six days. 



Larva. — First stage. — Body, including the head and legs, blood-red, the first three 

 segments each marked with a pair of subdorsal black spots, those on the first seg- 

 ment the largest; first segment bearing four long bristles, two on each side, besides 

 two shorter ones near the front end; second segment bearing a transverse pair of 

 bristles each side, of which the upper bristle is the shorter; third segment like the 

 second; segments four to nine, each bearing a single long stigmatal bristle each 

 side, which springs from a small black tubercle ; segments ten and eleven on eaeh 

 side bearing a subdorsal and a stigmatal bristle ; twelfth segment destitute of 

 bristles ; the long bristles described above are slightly longer than the transverse 

 diameter of the body, and curved upward; there are also several much shorter 

 curved bristles thinly scattered over the body, and they likewise occur on the head 

 and legs: on the under side of each femur are two long bristles; each tarsus bears 

 four rather long, knobbed bristles, resembling the digitules on the tarsi of certain 

 kinds of Coccids. Towards the end of this stage the body becomes thinly covered 

 over with a very short, white, woolly substance. 



Duration of this stage, five days. 



