Habitat—On Celmisia sp., Southern Alps, Canterbury.
Differs from the European R. gnidii in size, colour, and habitat, that species living on the roots of grass, while the New Zealand insect is arboreal. There are also differences in the foot and in the arrangement of the spines and hairs.
It is possible that this insect may, in its latest stage, construct a sac: in that case, it would belong to Eriococcus.
59. Rhizococcus fossor, Maskell.
N.Z. Trans., Vol. XVI., 1883, p. 136.
([Plate XVI.], Fig. 2.)
Female naked in all stages, but the adult usually buried in a pit.
Male pupa enclosed in a white, elongated, cottony sac, which is about 1/20in. long.
Adult female greenish-yellow in colour, sometimes brown, stationary; sometimes resting on the leaf, usually partly enclosed in a circular pit; almost circular in outline, flat beneath and slightly convex above; length, about 1/15in. In the last stage, after gestation, it becomes dark-brown. The cephalic part is smooth; the remainder segmented. The abdomen ends in two very small anal tubercles, which are nevertheless somewhat conspicuous on account of their brown colour. Between them there protrudes a long thick pencil of white cotton. Antennæ short, with six joints, the last joint bearing several long hairs. Feet very small; the femur rather thick; the tibia is shorter than the tarsus by about one-third; the four digitules are long fine hairs. The anal tubercles have not terminal setæ; anal ring inconspicuous. A row of a few conical spines, set far apart, runs round the edge of the body, but none elsewhere, nor any circular spinnerets. There is no sign of a sac in any stage.