Article beginning on page 254.
Psyche 7:254-255, 1894.

Full text (searchable PDF)
Durable link: http://psyche.entclub.org/7/7-254.html

The following unprocessed text is extracted from the PDF file, and is likely to be both incomplete and full of errors. Please consult the PDF file for the complete article.

PSYCHE.
TWO NEW WESTERN COCCIDAE.
[June 1895.
BY T. D. A. COCKERELL, AGHIC. EXP.
One day last November, when rid-
ing home from the College, I noticed,
about a hundred yards from the road,
a clump of Lycium-bush, turning yel-
low from the approach of winter.
Although most of the wild shrubs of
the neighborhood had yielded their
peculiar species of scale-insects (Coc-
cidae), I had never been able to find
any on the Lycium. Just at this
moment, however, I was so impressed
with the feeling that there ought to be
a species on Lycium, that I got clown,
tied my horse to a post, and went to
examine the above-mentioned clump.
As I had hoped, in the middle of the
clump, swarming on the stems and
twigs, was a very interesting new
species, which I now describe.
LICHTKNSI'A LYCIT, sp. nov.
$? scales numerous on the twigs and
stems, more or less gregarious.
$ reddish-brown, transversely wrinkled ; nearly covered by the white convex ovisac, which is not woolly but leathery in coil- sistency, not ribbed, slightly shiny, appear- ing as if made up of small roundish plates. 9 with ovisac 7 mm. long, 4& high, or in many individuals somewhat smaller.
Eggs pale orange. Larva brownish.
8 scale about 2 mm. long, narrow, white, semitrarisparcnt, granulose, of the ordinary form seen in the Lecaniinae,
When imma-
ture it is dark brown and subcarinate.
The above characters can all be seen
with ;I hand-lens without preparation.
STATION. LAS CRUCES, NEW MEXICO.
On boiling the insects in caustic potash the following additional points are dis- cerned by the aid of a microscope,
Q after being boiled colorless, flattened under a cover-glass it measures 4& mm.
long, 4 mm. wide.
Antennae %jointed, 3 longest and about
as long as 44-5. 5 a little longer than 4. 4 about as long as 8, or slightly longer. 8 as long as 2, or slightly longer. 6 a little longer than 7. Formula* 354 (821) 67.
Joint 2 with a conspicuously long hair;
joint 5 with a rather long hair. Legs well- developed and fairly large; tarsus, exclu- sive of claw, about as long as or slightly longer than third joint of antenna. Coxa with two Ii~Gre. Trochanter with two hairs, one much longer than the other. Femur
very little longer than tibia, tibia consider- ably longer than tarsus. Femur with one, and tibia with two weak bristles on the
inner aide. Claw almost straight, fairly stout, the usual digituleg well-developed, slender though not filiform; digitulcs of claw extending considerably beyond its tip, but tarsal digitnles extending beyond those of claw. All four digitules well-knobbed. Rostra1 loop very short. Margin with
rather stnall, stout, blunt (almost truncate) --
*The antenna1 formula is constructed by et~utneratiug the joints in the order of their lengths, beginning with the longest, and bracketing together those of equal length.



================================================================================

June 18qs.l PSYCHE. -255
spines. Anal plates appearing curved: sub- unate, but on pressure flattening out to a more triangular form, with the outer sides meeting at less than a right angle. Ano- genital ring with six hairs. The peculiar plates, with the anogenital ring- between, are figured herewith, being difficult to describe in a satisfactory manner. The
disposition of the seven bristles on each plate is to be noted; also the striae nidialing from the ring.
Lichtensiu viburni (Lick MS.)
Signoret, 1873, was until last year the
only known species of its genus. It
was first found at Montpellier, France,
but was recorded from England by Mr.
Douglas in 1887. I have received
specimens from Mr. R. Newstead,
which were found on ivy at Llandaff,
Wales, by Mr. B. Tornlin. Just
twenty years after the discovery of the
first species, I found at Vera Cruz,
Mexico, a most beautiful species with
a yellow ovisac (Lichtensia Zzteu
Ckll.), which at the time of its descrip- tion (Ann. Mag. N. H ,July 1893) was
regarded as an aberrant Pulvinaria.
Subsequent studies showed that it must
be regarded as a Lichtensia, though
widely departing from the type of that
genus.
Quite lately I have received yet
another species from Japan (coll.
Takahashi, corn. L. 0. Howard)
which will be elsewhere described as
Lichtensia dubia.
The genus thus appears to consist of
four species so far known, inhabiting
widely distant localities. It is by no
means certain, however, that we have
a natural germs, consisting of species
derived from a common stock exhibit-
ing the generic characters. The
possibility cannot be forgotten, that
what we call Lichtensia merely corn-
prises several independent derivatives
from the general Pulvinaria stock, in
which case the peculiar distribution
need not cause surprise.
L. lycz'i is from Las Cruces, N. M.,
3,800 feet alt. ; on a Lycium which
Prof. E. 0. Wooton informs me is
almost certainly L.. Torreyi, Gray.
$! bright crimson, pyrifortn. Antennae
minute, hardly longer than broad, jointless, subtruncate, with about five stiff bristles at the end. The antennae are about twice as far from each other as from the edge of the body, and about as far from each other
as from the mouth-parts. Mouth-parts
brownish. Caudal portion brown, cylindri- cal, produced, divided a little before its tnid- die into two conical processes,-the lobes,- each bearing a few inconspicuous short hut stout spines. Anal ring between these
processes, with four (two pairs) of sfont s$ines. Derm with very small double pores. The females, no bigger than ordinary
females of Dins-pis, are gregariously massed on the bark in a hard dirty-while secretion, the scales not being- separable. On boiling in soda, the insects turn the liquid brown. Hab. On live oak, Mountain View,
California, 1895 (coll. Ehrhoin).
This singular insect differs from C.
quercus Comstock, thc only Ccro-
coccub l~ithei to known, by the shape
of the 9, the character of the anal ring (if Coinstocl~'~ figure is correct), the shortness of the spines on caudal lobes, and the totally different external ap-
pearancc.




================================================================================