﻿The sexes of Coccus are so dissimilar, that nothing but rear- 

 ing them from the parent would convince any one of their 

 identity. The male is small but winged, sometimes liaving 

 ten eyes : it is deprived of a proboscis, but is capable of loco- 

 motion: the female is often ten times as large, immovable, 

 formed like a scale or fleshy, and clothed with cotton, having a 

 longish proboscis ; and so great a variety is there in the struc- 

 ture of the species, that Sig. Costa has proposed 3 genera, and 

 1 doubt not many more will be necessary when the group is 

 investigated. The oeconomy of the valuable Cochineal insect 

 being well known, I shall prefer giving the history of C. Ace- 

 7is, with which ]VIr. \\'estwood has favoured me, together 

 with males of the insect. 



" My specimens of this species," he says, "have been ob- 

 tained from a young plant of Acer Pseudo-plat anus., growing in 

 a very confined situation at Kensington. The males make their 

 appearance in the winged state in the month ol' May, when the 

 impregnation of the female takes place in the singular manner 

 described by Reaumur (v. 4). The males on emerging from 

 their singular cocoons escape backwards, iJie wings being ex- 

 tended flatly over the head. By the end of June the females 

 have attained their full gravid size, and on lifting up their bo- 

 dies, their whole interior is occupied by white flowery-like mat- 

 ter, in which the minute young are to be observed, of the size 

 of a small dot. In this state they are hexapod and antennife- 

 rous, active, and furnisheti with '2 elongated anal seta". Bv 

 the end of July the young cjuit the body of their parent, and 

 ascend to the extremity ot the young branches ; there they 

 affix themselves, gradually increasing in size, and losing tlie 

 anal setaj as well as their former activity. In this state they re- 

 main through the winter, without any diversity of apjiearance 

 indicative of the sexes, and it is not until the following April 

 that this is first perceived by the further increased growth of 

 the females, and by the males assuming the pupa state. The 

 female when full grown has the appearance of a large shining 

 warty excrescence, without any trace of segments. They are 

 much infested by Chalcidideous parasites, several species of 

 which belong to a tlistinct genus, intermediate between En- 

 a/rtus and Euluphus, which I have describeil uniler the name 

 of Coccop/ia<j,us." 



As the Cocci generally kill the plants on which they live, 

 those that infest the vine, pine-apple, &c. do great mischief in 

 liot-houses, where congenial heat, and the absence probably of 

 those parasites which in the native countries of those {plants 

 kee|) them in check, contribute to their rapid proj)agation, if 

 j)roper care be not taken to destroy them when they first make 

 their a|)pearance. 



Turrilis glabra, Smooth Tower-Mustaril, was coinimnii- 

 cated by W. \V. ISaunilers, Esq. from Wimbledon. 



