In the Genus _Ripersia_ the species have a world-wide range; they are curious wrinkled naked coccids, but are sometimes more or less enveloped in a white covering; they lead an underground existence on the roots of grass and plants: a single species is recorded by Maskell from S. Australia on the roots of a _Leptospermum_. The curious _Antonina australis_ is an underground coccid which infests the roots of the Nut-grass, _Cyperus rotundus_, and was described by Green (Pro. Linn. Soc. N.S.W. 1904) from specimens obtained in the Hunter River district, N.S.W., where it was so plentiful that in the dry seasons it killed a great deal of this sedge. The adult female is a rounded black smooth shining creature about ⅛ of an inch in diameter, enveloped in a coat of white woolly secretion, from which it can be easily removed. The legs and antennae are aborted, but the segmental divisions of the abdomen remain, and the tip is produced into two irregular roughened tubercles, joined at the base with a tuft of stout bristle-like hairs. [Illustration: Plate XXXVI.--HOMOPTERA. Family COCCIDAE. 1. _Tachardia australis_ (Froggatt). On Melaleuca. 2. _Tachardia australis_ (Froggatt). Male and female tests. 3. _Tachardia australis_ (Froggatt). Female coccid. 4. _Tachardia decorella_ (Maskell). On Eucalyptus. 5. _Tachardia decorella_ (Maskell). Female in test. 6. _Tachardia decorella_ (Maskell). Female exposed. 7. _Tachardia decorella_ (Maskell). Larva.] [Illustration: _Plate XXXVI.--HOMOPTERA._] The Sub-family TACHARDIINAE contains a number of remarkable species, some of considerable commercial value on account of the resinous secretion they encrust themselves with; this secretion is known as lac, and is used for making varnish. The typical female is an irregular wrinkled fleshy mass with a pair of tubular appendages on the back. These appendages were supposed at one time to be used for producing the lac, but Green considers them to be breathing structures. Five species are described from Australia, of which _Tachardia australis_ is so thickly encrusted with reddish brown lac, that it might be of some commercial value in the future; it is very plentiful upon Melaleuca bushes near Maryborough, Queensland, but was described by me from specimens obtained on a small shrub, _Beyeria viscosa_, at Gunnedah, N.S.W. _T. decorella_ is enclosed in a very dainty, flattened, ribbed, cushion-like mass of dull slate-coloured lac; it is found on a number of different trees, among them the water gums (_Eugenia smithii_); and I have also found it on the desert cypress (_Callitris_) in the interior. [Illustration: =Fig. 168.=--_Antonina australis_ (Green). The Nut-grass Coccid. 1. Nut-grass showing coccid upon the roots. 2. Adult female coccid removed from enveloping cover (enlarged).]