Test of adult female brown, hard, horny-looking, convex, slightly elongated, open beneath, loosely attached to twigs by the edges; at the top is the pellicle of the second stage, which is flat, and gives the test the appearance of an overturned basket, of which the pellicle is the foot. Length of test about 1/15in. Remains of the thin white test of the second stage may sometimes be seen on the pellicle. Test of the male small, white, glassy, elongated, convex. The young insect, extremely minute, naked and active, is flat, oval, brown, or rather reddish, usually found at the tips of young shoots or on leaves. The antennæ have six joints; on the last joint are several hairs, amongst which is one excessively long, slightly knobbed. Foot normal; the joints hairy; upper digitules fine knobbed hairs, lower pair a little broader. In the second stage the female is scarcely altered: the antennæ and feet remain as before; but there is a test, white, waxy, very thin, covering the dorsal surface, and extending a little beyond the edge in an irregular fringe. On the edge also are a number of protruding spinneret tubes, glassy, white, cylindrical, either curved or straight: a few of these tubes protrude on the surface of the back. Adult female dark-brown in colour, filling the test; convex above, flat beneath. Rostrum comparatively large; mentum probably monomerous. Antennæ short, thick, atrophied; seven-jointed, but the joints are much confused; on the last joint some hairs. Feet absent. Four rows of rather large spinnerets radiate from the median region of the dorsum to the edge, and along these, on the lower side of the test, are corresponding narrow lines of white cottony secretion. This insect is viviparous, the young being sheltered awhile by the mother, whose under-side becomes concave during gestation. Adult male dark-red; length, about 1/40in. Antennæ of ten joints, of which the two first are very short; the third much longer and expanded at the end; the fourth more than twice as long as the third; the remainder about equal in length to the third, but thicker and rounder, being almost moniliform. All but the first two joints bear hairs. Foot normal; digitules fine hairs. Habitat--On _Metrosideros robusta_ (Rata), Milford Sound; Bluff Harbour. On _M. tomentosa_ (Pohutukawa), Auckland. A peculiar species, easily identifiable by the presence of the second pellicle on the female test. Genus: CTENOCHITON, Maskell. N.Z. Trans., Vol. XI., 1878, p. 208. Test of female waxy, with a single fringe of tooth-like, more or less broad, segments round the edge. Test of male waxy or glassy, with similar fringe. The edge of the body, in the second stage of the female, usually presents a wavy appearance, formed by a series of reentering curves. This is perhaps most conspicuous in _Ct. perforatus_.