172 THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 



many cooks spoil the broth,' seems true in this case, for during the 

 last week only two cells have been added." 



A fortnight afterwards we read : — " The hornets have progressed 

 steadily, and bid fair to prosper and multiply upon the rafters. 

 There are now two communities, at the first of which the females 

 have laid eggs in the centre cells, which are furnished with a goodly 

 store of spiders and insects, upon which the young hornets must 

 subsist until old enough to venture forth into the wide world." 



The next chronicle reads : — " Our families of hornets seem to 

 have settled down to life's business very quietly. The limit of 

 numbers to a nest seems about sixteen. The first nest is about 

 the size of a large teacup, and for some weeks has not increased, 

 the insects appearing to have ceased adding cells." 



"Some time ago we took a large mud (hornet's) nest out of the 

 chimney and laid it on the box on the verandah. Very soon a 

 large hornet, of another sort to that which built the nest, took 

 possession, and began adding cells thereto. It would complete 

 one cell with the exception of a small hole at one end, and then 

 deposit in it an egg, after which the hole was soon closed up. 

 After building some half-dozen cells the busy one came to grief. 

 It evidently wished to moisten some of the clay with which to 

 build, and went to the tank for water. By some means it fell in 

 and was drowned. The most remarkable thing about this 

 incident was that there was never more than the one insect 

 engaged. That it worked without any mate I am quite convinced, 

 as both my wife (who has been deeply interested in these insects) 

 and I watched the nest very closely." 



NOTES ON SOME VICTORIAN COCCIM:, OR SCALE 

 INSECTS.— Part ii. 



By C. French, F.L.S. 



(Read before the Field Naturalists' Club of Victoria, i^t/i 



February, 1893.^ 



The Pupa. — Here the first distinctions between the sexes may be 

 noted, and these are principally observable in the cocoons, or 

 puparia, rather than in the insect itself — at least to outward 

 appearance. The male pupa is, in all cases — even in those where 

 the female is naked — enclosed in some kind of covering. In the 

 Diaspidinse the pupariam is formed partly of fibrous secretion and 

 partly of discarded skin ; only as the full-grown male emerges 

 from it as a fly, and does not remain on the plant, there can be 

 only one such skin — that of the larva ; consequently it is easy to 

 distinguish the male puparia from the shields of the adult females 

 by the presence of only one discarded pellicle instead of two. In 

 the Lecanidinse and the Coccidinse the male puparia are dis- 



