COCClDaE OF UUEliNSEiT. 273 



The lac insect ( Tactiardia lacca) furnishes us with the 

 " lac " which is used for varnish, French polish and many 

 other purposes. It is imported into England upon twigs and 

 small branches of trees and is commercially known as " stick 

 lac," it is then made into " shellac," a material known to 

 almost everyone. 



Coccus Cacti, the Cochineal insect, was once almost 

 exclusively used for dyeing purposes, but since the discovery 

 of aniline dyes, it has to some extent gone out of use. It 

 is still used, however, for dyeing valuable silks and is the 

 best crimson dye for colouring sweetmeats and confectionery, 

 being quite harmless* In China a Coccid, named Ericerus 

 pe-la, secretes a pure white wax which is collected and made 

 into candles. 



Two species of Coccidce, Ex&retopus formiceticola and 

 Dactylopius Luffii, found by myself in Guernsey, are new 

 to science and up to the present they are still peculiar 

 to the island. Two species, Ripersia Tomlinii and R. 

 Europ&a, were first discovered in Guernsey, the first-named 

 by Miss Tomlin and the second by myself. As these four 

 species are so intimately connected with the island I herewith 

 give a detailed account of them and their discovery. 



Exmretopus formiceticola, Newstead. — I found numbers 

 of the females of this species during June, 1893, under 

 stones, also attached to the roots of Dactylus glomerata in 

 ants' nests near Bordeaux Harbour. The stones were just 

 on the edge of a beach, part of which had been rolled up be- 

 yond the action of the tides. On August 22nd, 1901, I found 

 a new locality for the species, on the cliffs at Pleinmont. 



The most remarkable thing about this new Coccid is that 

 it has a two-jointed anterior tarsus, a character never before 

 noted in any Coccid. A new genus, therefore, had to be 

 established to receive it. Mr. Newstead says that, " so far, 

 this is the only Coccid described as having a two-jointed 

 tarsus (and this only on the anterior legs), and it is for 

 this reason alone that I establish a new genus for it ; other- 

 wise, I should have placed it in Lichtensia, with which genus, 

 although it is not strictly conformable in its normal charac- 

 ters, it agrees more nearly than any other." Mr. Maskell 

 says " it requires, in my opinion, some very important feature 

 to make a generic character when only one species is known." 

 Surely nothing could be more important than the anomalous 

 character of the fore-legs. 



The rest of the characters of the female and all those 

 of the larva are strictly Lecanid. On comparing the larva 



G 



