THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



253 



Like the Long Scale (Aspidiotus Gloverii), it has probably been 

 imported into this country, and but recently, as I can find no record of 

 its having been found in Florida several years back. It is now just begin- 

 ning to become common. 



ITS FOOD PLANT. 



M. Signoret, " Essai sur le Cochinelles," gives its food plants in 

 Europe as the myrtle, common holly and wormwood. In Florida I have 

 found it on the myrtle, orange, fig and oleander. Prof. J. H. Comstock, 

 on his recent tour to Florida, told me he had found it also on the gall- 

 berry (Ilex glaber.) 



The Scale, fig. 25. when fully matured, averages from .10 to .14 of an 

 inch in length, by from .06 to .oS in width, and is highly arched. On the 

 top it is tesselated with seven well-defined, oval, 

 elevated checkers, three on each side, nearly round, 

 the seventh, at posterior end, being more or less 

 triangular. At first, the color is whitish, resembling 

 wax, with which it is similar in consistency, being 

 soft and pliable. As it reaches maturity it becomes 

 pinkish with a slight yellowish tint in depressions ; 

 just before the young hatch, it becomes of a globular 

 form, and the top changes to a dark brown. 



The summer-brood of young hatch in from ten to 

 twenty days after the eggs have been laid. The 

 female is flattened, oval, resembling in shape the 

 wood-louse, only not so convex. It is pale yellowish, | 

 with a brownish tint on back ; antennae six-jointed ; 

 in the posterior end is a deep triangular-shaped in- ^< 

 dentation, from the centre of which protrudes a $ 

 fleshy tubercle, reaching to outeredge, and from each 

 corner of the notch on either side of the tubercles 

 issues a long filament nearly as long as the insect, p; g . 35 _ 

 with a short hair on each side. 



These crawl round for two or three days after hatching, searching for 

 a suitable place to insert their beak. After inserting their beak they be- 

 come stationary, and there soon after begins to form over them a waxy 

 secretion in the form of small white globules, which is quite plainly visible 

 in a few days in the form of small, white, round, elevated spots surround- 



