This is a variable insect in size, colour, edge of abdomen, and spinnerets. On the bark of _Pittosporum eugenioide_ a variety has the extremity of the second pellicle richly floriated, other features remaining as above. It has not been thought advisable to erect all these varieties into different species.
The male pupa, in its earlier state, is elongated, segmented, and may be mistaken for a female of _Mytilaspis drimydis_; but differs in its greyish-yellow colour, and also in the form of the puparium.
Habitat--On _Atherosperma Novæ Zælandiæ_; _Astelia cunninghamii_; _Coprosma_, sp. var.; _Pittosporum eugenioide_, &c.; Wellington; Canterbury; Hawke's Bay; Otago; Nelson; Auckland.
The puparia of this insect are frequently covered by a species of torulaceous (?) fungus which spreads over the leaf they are on in a thin, brown sheet.
27. Fiorinia grossulariæ, Maskell. N.Z. Trans., Vol. XVI., 1883, p. 123.
Female puparium irregularly oval, being formed chiefly by the second pellicle, with a narrow edge of fibrous secretion; length, about 1/20in.
Adult female elongated; segmented; the cephalic end slightly prolonged into a compressed cylinder. Segments bearing at the edge three sharp spines. The edge of the abdominal segment is much broken by serrations, and ends in two broadish median lobes, with two smaller lobes on each side. Several sharp, long spines are set in pairs along the serrated edge. Five groups of spinnerets, the three upper forming a continuous arch. Colour of insect, dark-grey.
Habitat--On gooseberries, Amberley, Canterbury.
28. Fiorinia minima, Maskell. N.Z. Trans., Vol. XVI., 1883, p. 122.
Female puparium flat, elongated, oval; length, about 1/36in. First pellicle, comparatively large; the second almost fills the puparium.
Male puparium rather longer than that of the female, but much narrower; carinated.
Adult female elongated; segmented; colour, pink. The abdominal segment somewhat long, the edge broken by a number of deepish curvilinear serrations, and ending in two inconspicuous median lobes, with three others, much smaller, on each side. From the serrations spring some hairs. There are five groups of spinnerets, but the three upper ones, almost or quite conjoined, form a nearly-continuous arch, containing forty to fifty orifices; the two lower groups have fifteen to twenty. There are several single spinnerets. The adult insect, before gestation, nearly fills the space covered by the second pellicle; after gestation it shrinks up into very small compass at the cephalic end of the puparium.