Art. II.—Further Coccid Notes: with Description of New Species from New Zealand, Australia, Sandwich Islands, and elsewhere, and Remarks upon many Species already reported. By W. M. Maskell, Registrar of the New Zealand University, Corr. Mem. Roy. Soc. of South Australia. [Read before the Wellington Philosophical Society, 14th November, 1894.] Plates I.–VII. I Find it necessary to make some remarks concerning the principle upon which I have acted for several years with regard to the erection of new species, the comparison of varieties, or the identification of species already known; because, in the course of correspondence with different other students of Coccids, as well as in their published writings, it seems that they accept canons of procedure which do not recommend themselves to me as sufficient. In the first place, I may say that the bent of my inclination is towards the restriction of the number of species rather than towards their extension. Looking upon classification as a means to an end, I consider that the very first, and probably only, requisites for it are clearness and convenience. For this reason, neither the fancied claims of priority, nor the desire to uphold some preconceived theory, nor even the wish to be the publisher to the world of some new-thing, ought to weigh with us at all. Personally, I disclaim any position but that which some people nowadays affect to despise—the position of a classifier, the laying-down of a stratum of facts upon which, some day, when we really do reach the stage of being able to say we know something, theories and doctrines may be built up. Therefore my aim is first at clearness and convenience; and with this object a careful avoidance of needless subdivision seems necessary. It is better, when a specimen is observed, to see how closely it approaches to some known form than to search for points upon which it may be separated—better to look upon a few distinguishable features, if possible, as only variable characters (making the specimen a “variety”) than to cumber science with a new “species” as if these features were of real organic importance. I know, and every student of Coccids knows, that external appearance of an insect may alter frequently, from being cramped for room or from having much free space: therefore I would lay small stress upon mere size. Take the genus Lecanium: there are a number of so-called species which have been set up by different authors almost, if not quite, entirely on account of their varying size: climate,