An Account of the Insects Noxious to Agriculture and Plants in New Zealand / The Scale Insects (Coccididae)

by William Miles Maskell

Test of adult female flat, nearly circular, thin, waxy, greyish-coloured; fringe inconspicuous or sometimes absent. No perforations or rows of air-cells. Diameter, about ¹/₇in.

The fringe is more conspicuous in the test of the second stage.

Test of male elongated, narrow, flat beneath, slightly convex above, white, glassy, thin and brittle, with a conspicuous fringe of which the segments are truncato-triangular. The test is divided into tessellations, the median row of which is quadrangular, with two series of pentagonal divisions between it and the fringe. Near the abdominal extremity a transverse narrow slit cuts the test in two, leaving a small segment at the extreme end apparently separate. Length of the test about ¹/₁₄in.

Adult female filling the test, but shrivelling after gestation; colour brownish or grey. Antennæ of six joints, the third being the longest, and, as is commonly the case in the genus, often appearing like two. On the last joint a few long hairs. Foot normal; the upper digitules are fine hairs, the lower pair only a little broader. Anal ring and lobes normal.

In the second stage the usual wavy edge is conspicuous; the test is thin, glassy, with normal fringe. Antennæ and feet normal. The insect is somewhat thick, with yellowish colour.

Young insect normal.

Adult male yellowish-red in colour, about ¹/₂₅in. in length, exclusive of the wings. General form normal. Antennæ long, with ten joints, all long and equal, except the two first, which are very short: all the joints have several hairs. Legs normal, but the tibiæ are very long and slender, and only a little thickened at the tip; tarsi somewhat thick; digitules fine hairs. Abdominal spike long, and very slightly curved.

Habitat—On Plagianthus, Cyathea, &c.; Hawke's Bay.

This insect resembles, to the naked eye, somewhat nearly Ctenochiton perforatus, but the female differs in the absence of the curious perforations in the test of that species, and in the shorter and thicker antennæ, with also more long hairs on the last joint. The test of the male is also different.