[J] Speaking of Coccids only; _Kermaphis pini_ is equally, if not more, destructive.
A sketch of Ctenochiton enclosing a parasitic pupa, and of the perfect fly, will be found in Plate xxiii. In a work like this the generic and specific characters of these parasites need not be given: they do not seem to differ much from hymenopterous and dipterous insects of other countries.
Another mode by which the too rapid increase of Coccids is checked is by the attacks of vegetable parasites--fungoid growths which permeate the whole body of the insect, and soon kill it. As far as experience in New Zealand extends as yet the genera _Ctenochiton_, _Lecanium_, and probably _Eriochiton_ are the only ones so attacked. On certain plants in the forests, notably Hedycarya and Coprosma, circular spots may be commonly found on the under side of the leaves: some dark-brown, somewhat convex, some bright yellow and often quite globular. In spring, examination of a young larva of _Ctenochiton viridis_--a species very common on the above plants--will frequently show, either within the insect, or on its waxy test, or between the test and the insect, minute specks, which under a high power of the microscope, prove to resemble the filaments composing the brown or the yellow spots just mentioned. On turning over one of the brown fungi, or on pulling it to pieces, the dead body of a young _Ctenochiton_ or _Lecanium_ larva will always be found in the middle. Apparently this brown fungus does not attack any but young larvæ; but the bright yellow fungus will be found filling the bodies also of the females in the second stage, and the globular portion of the fungus will stand out above them. These fungi are not of the same genus as _Empusa_, the fungus which so frequently kills the house-fly; but they seem to act in much the same way within the insect.
Probably a good many of the _Lecanodiaspidæ_ are preyed on and destroyed by these fungoid parasites, of which figures are given in Plate xxiii.