Adult male doubtful; very minute and difficult to detect. Antennæ apparently short and tibiæ large.
Habitat--On _Cordyline australis_ and _C. indivisa_, _Phormium_, _Gahnia_, _Astelia_, _Eucalyptus_, &c., throughout the islands; but the chief habitat seems to be _C. australis_ (the common cabbage-tree), on which it is often very abundant.
This species may at first sight be mistaken for _Fiorinia stricta_, described below, which also infests Cordyline and Phormium; but, on inspection, it will be seen that the puparium of the Mytilaspis is much whiter, and the pellicles yellow, those of _F. stricta_ being black. An examination of the second pellicles of the two species will, of course, at once distinguish them.
14. Mytilaspis drimydis, Maskell. N.Z. Trans., Vol. XI., 1878, p. 196. (Plate V., Fig. 3.)
Female puparium elongated, often straight, sometimes curved; colour, dirty-white or brown; pellicles at one end; length, about 1/12in.
Adult female dull-red in colour, elongated, not very distinctly segmented. Abdomen ending in a number of small lobes, of which the four median are the largest; several fine hairs between the lobes; no groups of spinnerets, but a very great number of single ones, which are scattered on the segments as far up as the rostrum. Many of these protrude as short thick tubes with serrated or fringed extremities. On the cephalic segment are a few spiny hairs and two rudimentary antennæ.
Adult male red in colour; antennæ of ten joints; tarsi somewhat large. Both antennæ and feet have numerous hairs. Digitules, fine.
Habitat--On _Drimys colorata_, Water of Leith, Dunedin, from which it has spread to other native plants.
15. Mytilaspis epiphytidis, Maskell. N.Z. Trans., Vol. XVII., 1884, p. 21. (Plate V., Fig. 2.)
Female puparium flat, pyriform, brown in colour, thin; length, about 1/11in.
Male puparium narrower than that of the female, and a good deal darker, being sometimes almost black; length, about 1/20in.; not carinated.
Adult female dark-grey in colour, elongated, segmented. Abdomen ending in two median lobes; along the edge several deepish curvilinear incisions, between which are some strong spines. Five groups of spinnerets: lower pair with fourteen to sixteen orifices; upper pair, twelve to sixteen; uppermost group, four to six.