100 
growers of field and garden crops. On the whole I see no reason to 
doubt that Coecidse do more injury in the tropics than elsewhere, 
although their ravages have not very frequently been recorded: and 
probably there is no tropical country whose Coccid fauna is not at the 
present time being increased by introductions. 
Having said so much. I wish to call your attention to a few facts 
which have come under my own observation, hoping to illustrate thereby 
the more important phases of the subject. 
The number and variety of neotropical Coccid* have not been suf- 
ficiently realized in the past, owing to the fragmentary nature ot our 
information concerning them. At the present time those of the West 
Indies are better known than the species inhabiting the mainland, bat 
even here the records are exceedingly imperfect. Jamaica has 61 
recorded species, but Cuba has less than half a dozen, and I can not 
discover a single record from Haiti. The Coecidse of the Bahamas are 
almost entirely unknown, although the Caicos and Turks islands have 
each produced an interesting endemic form. In the Lesser Antilles, 
thanks to Mr. C. A. Barber. Antigua has 16 records; but of the other 
islands only one has as many as half a dozen, the figures being Bar- 
bados, 7 (only 5 actually published | ; Montserrat. 1: Grenada, 3 (records 
not yet published) ; and Xevis, St. Kitts, and Dominica 1 each. Trin- 
idad has 14 species (some not fully identified), but owing to the exer- 
tions of Mr. F. AY. Urich, I shall shortly be able to add considerably 
to this figure. The Mexican list stands at the absurdly low figure of 
26, which includes 12 found by the present writer recently while trav- 
eling through that country. It will be understood how insufficient 
are the published records when I mention that not one of the species 
I found was previously known from Mexico, so far as I have been able 
to ascertain. The list from British Guiana exceeds 20, but very few 
species are known from other parts of South America. For Brazil I 
find mentioned about half a dozen, for Chile 1. for Ecuador 1. and so 
forth. 
Yet these beginnings of knowledge already indicate some interesting 
facts in geographical distribution. 
Aspidiotus articulatus. Morg., is known from Demerara, Trinidad (St, 
Ann's, on Pandanus, coll. by F. AY. Crick). Barbados. Nevis, Jamaica. 
and Mexico (Yera Cruz). It has not been detected in Antigua, where 
it must be absent or rare, else Mr. Barber would surely have found it. 
Aspidiotvs personatiis, Comst., is known from Demerara, Barbados. 
Cuba, and Jamaica. I did not find it at Yera Cruz; and what is more 
interesting, Mr. Urich, after some search, has been unable to detect it 
in Trinidad. 
These two species, where they occur, infest many kinds of cultivated 
trees and shrubs, and are quite noticeable. Up to the present time, 
neither has been detected in the United States, although if introduced 
they might probably manage to exist in the extreme South. Both prob- 
