ALBERT

Description: In 1950 I received from Mr. D. Hille Ris Lambers a strange Pseudococcid from Java which had been collected by Mr. F. W. Rappard, a senior forestry officer, who regularly collects aphids for Mr. Hille Ris Lambers on his tours of duty. As this insect was a coccid, it was transmitted to me for examination. Its appearance is quite abnormal; the shape of its body reminds one almost of a large mite (fig. 4). The 6-segmented antennae have a dense vestiture of fine hairs, with exception of the 2 first segments which are very short. A tuft of 5 very long setae is present on the top of each of the anal lobes. The ungual digitules are extremely large and very flat. It was only after close study that the insect was recognized as a Pseudococcid.\nIt has 2 pairs of ostioles in the usual position, a circulus on the ventral side of the second abdominal segment, and a few trilocular pores on both sides of the body.\nAs I suspected an abnormal mode of living, I asked Mr. Hille Ris Lambers to write to Java for further particulars, and more material. To comply with this request Mr. Rappard has collected abundant material and communicated his field notes on these insects, which he calls "ant-riders" from their peculiar habit of climbing upon the black ants by which they are closely attended, as soon as these ants are disturbed, to have themselves transported in this way.\nThe material at hand contains 3 different instars which seem to represent first and second stage larvae, and immature adult females. Of the latter stage only 3 specimens are available. Eggs or embryos were not observed in these specimens, but in one of them the oviduct and its exterior opening (one segment behind the posterior ostioles) is faintly visible in the chitinous

Description: In the taxonomy of Coccoidea or scale insects much confusion is due to an insufficient knowledge of the type species of several genera. Especially our knowledge of some of the older genera is very incomplete, as the descriptions of their type species are extremely short and superficial from the modern point of view. The type specimens, on which the original descriptions of the genera were based, are distributed over several museums in all parts of the world; in some cases type material is no longer in existence, and as far as available it is seldom lent to persons in foreign countries. In consequence of this we have often to rely on the original description, as the type material is not available for examination.\nSignoret (Essai sur les Cochenilles, 1868-1876) was one of the first to describe the microscopical details of the genera and species which he introduced. He boiled his specimens in a solution of caustic potash to make microscopical preparations of the chitinous parts and did not hesitate to prepare even unique specimens ("que nous n\'avons pas h\xc3\xa9sit\xc3\xa9 \xc3\xa0 sacrifier dans l\'int\xc3\xa9r\xc3\xaat de la science, tout en conservant les pr\xc3\xa9parations bonnes \xc3\xa0 consulter, pensant qu\'elles seraient ainsi plus utiles qu\'une masse informe attach\xc3\xa9e \xc3\xa0 un \xc3\xa9pingle et qui ne peut pr\xc3\xa9senter aucun caract\xc3\xa8re que l\'on puisse \xc3\xa9num\xc3\xa9rer"). In many cases, however, his descriptions are not detailed enough for the needs of present taxonomy. As the number of described species has increased greatly since Signoret\'s time, it has become necessary to pay attention to several minute details which were formerly of no importance to separate the species then known.\nIn consequence of the superficial descriptions by earlier authors the concepts of several genera are rather vague. Ferris has emphasized that in order