Habitat—On Dysoxylon spectabile (Kohe-kohe), Wellington; Hawke's Bay; Auckland.
The large white puparia of this insect do much to spoil the appearance of Dysoxylon, one of the most showy-leafed plants in New Zealand.
24. Chionaspis minor, Maskell.
N.Z. Trans., Vol. XVII., 1884, p. 33.
([Plate VI.], Fig. 4.)
Female puparium white, small, not more than 1/15in. in length, usually less; it is narrower and less pyriform than is usual in the genus, and is often bent in the middle; pellicles yellow.
Male puparium white, narrow, elongated, carinated, about 1/30in. in length.
Adult female elongated; segmented, but not deeply; colour, dark-brown. Abdomen ending in six small lobes, of which the two median—the largest—are closely contiguous. Between them and the next pair is a spine; then beyond the second pair another spine, a space, and a third pair of very small lobes; after a long space there is another spine. Five groups of spinnerets: uppermost group with twelve to fourteen orifices; upper pair, fourteen to seventeen; lower pair, eighteen to twenty-four: many single spinnerets.
Adult male not known.
Habitat—On Parsonsia, Hawke's Bay; on Rhipogonum scandens (supplejack), Wellington; Canterbury; Otago.