Adult male about 1/20in. long; brown, covered when newly hatched with white meal. Body rather thick; abdominal spike short. Antennæ of ten joints, hairy; the last eight joints equal to each other. Feet slender, hairy; upper digitules long, fine; lower digitules short.
Habitat—On Panax, Rubus, Coprosma, Pittosporum, Piper excelsum, &c.; throughout the Islands: also frequently on fruit-trees.
A species more nearly resembling the ordinary "mealy bug," D. adonidum, than any other in New Zealand; but differing in colour, in the absence of long marginal appendages, and in the form of the foot and antennæ.
63. Dactylopius poæ, Maskell.
N.Z. Trans., Vol. XI., 1878, p. 220.
([Plate XVIII.], Fig. 1.)
Adult female pink, covered with thin white meal; slightly elongated, sometimes globular; flat beneath, convex above; segmented, the segments indistinct. Length reaching about 1/10in. Antennæ of eight joints, very short. Feet normal, very short; upper digitules short, lower digitules absent (?). Anal tubercles extremely small and inconspicuous; each has three conical spines, but no hairs. Anogenital ring large, with six hairs. On the dorsum are numbers of small circular spinnerets.
Adult male unknown.
Habitat—On the common tussock grass, Poa anceps (australis?), Mount Grey Downs and Port Hills, Canterbury; either just above the ground, or more often an inch or two below the surface.
A species clearly distinct in form and habit.