TRIBE FIOBINIINI 369 



the exuvia. This exuvia retains the antennae of this stage as 

 minute rigid structures at its cephalic end. The caudal part of 

 the first exuvia is placed over the cephalic part of the second, 

 which in all species of this tribe serves as a puparium for enclosing 

 the adult female. The skin of the second nymphal female is very 

 large and in most species is almost as large as the entire scale. 

 The wax is represented in addition to what covers the second 

 exuvia by a narrow peripheral band and the puparium seems to 

 constitute the entire scale. The puparium is fastened to the first 

 exuvia and is covered by a thin sheet of wax to which it adheres. 

 The wax of the scale is very thin, a transparent colorless layer, 

 and the color of the adult scale is due to the color of the exuvia 

 and not to the color of the secretionary part of the scale as in 

 most other Diaspidinae. The ventral scale like the dorsal scale 

 is very thin and colorless. It forms a continuous sheet of wax 

 completely closing the scale in some species and is interrupted 

 on the meson or discontinuous in others. 



The exuvia of the females of the second nymphal stage or the 

 puparium is much larger than the body of the adult female which 

 it encloses. The cuticle is tough and the pygidium and its caudal 

 end is well developed. The body of the adult female occupies the 

 caudal two-thirds or one-half of the puparium, but when the female 

 begins to deposit eggs, which from the necessity of the case are 

 placed in the caudal end of the puparium, her body is forced into 

 the cephalic part of the puparium. The absence of genacerores 

 in the species forming galls would suggest that they are probably 

 ovoviviparous, but nothing is known as to their development. 



The scale of the male is elongate, about three times as long 

 as the broadest part. The sides are parallel or subparallel or 

 sometimes they very gradually diverge caudad and near the caudal 

 end after reaching their greatest divergence they converge sud- 

 denly and form a bluntly rounded caudal end, producing a scale 

 similar in general form to those of many male Diaspidini. The 

 dorsal surface of the scale may be flat or slightly convex externally, 

 sometimes with a slight mesal carina or slightly tricarinate. The 

 scale is frequently white or opaque white and the single exposed 

 exuvia is yellowish. The males, as in the males of certain species 

 of Diaspidini, are gregarious and several may be found collected 

 together in a small area. They are sometimes more or less con- 

 cealed by a filamentous or flocculent excretion of wax or the 

 portion of the leaf to which they are attached may be coated with 

 a mass of whitish powdery wax. 



