﻿304 POMONA COLLEGE JOURNAL OF ENTOMOLOGY 



are very active and, like other young bugs, appear to be mostly anteiuue and 

 leet. Tliey do not venture out from under the flocculent covering for several 

 (lavs, and before they do they have assumed a partial mealy coat resembling 

 considerably the parent. The antenn;e are six-jointed in the female and 

 i^even-jointed in the male larvre." 



"On the fourteenth of April a single gravid female was placed in the 

 laboratory on a Coleus plant. Since that time two generations have been 

 reared from the one specimen. This would make about two months for each 

 generation, but, where the temperature is like that maintained in a conserva- 

 tory, this period is shorted two weeks. We may say then that in general 

 the time required for development is from six to eight weeks." 



"The youni; grow very slowly for the first two or three weeks and 

 the gri)\yth is very uneven. Should one look at them for the first time when 

 three or four weeks olil he would declare that they could not all belong 

 to the same brood, as there is such a great difference in their size. The 

 difference is maintained from this on, so that it is impossible to tell where one 

 generation begins and the other ends. There will be all sizes, from the 

 ones just hatching to the female forming a wooll\- mass. About half of the 

 brood are regular enough, however, so that one can, with a little care, 

 trace the generation through its development." 



"When the mealy bugs become about a third grown, perhaps one out 

 of every eight or ten will be seen to travel off a little apart from the rest 

 and begin to construct a light fluffy cocoon around itself. It is the young- 

 male preparing for his transformation to the winged state. The material 

 of which the cocoon is constructed is similar to that used by the female in 

 covering her eggs, except that the thread is finer and more downy. The 

 cocoon is oblong in shape, being from one to two mm. in length and half 

 as thick. The construction is alike throughout, with no hard portions except 

 the cast off skin which is left behind. The transformation is very rapid, 

 taking as nearly as I can ascertain, only three or four days, or a week 

 at most, when the two-winged male comes forth with quite a difference 

 in appearance from what it possessed before. The males are very delicate 

 and slender, measuring less than a millimeter in length and with an expanse 

 of wings from 2 to 3 mm. The flight is slow and steady, and although 

 they are so very minute, when one has become acquainted with their ap- 

 pearance on the wing, he will readily recognize them and can easily catch 

 them by a quick thrust of the open hand. The body is an olive brown, and is 

 more or less flecked with the mealy covering. At the extremity of the abdo- 

 men arc the two white anal filaments nearly as long as the body itself. 

 The wings are milkv white, extremely fragile, and with only the two customary 

 \eins. There are now ten segments to the antennte instead of seven. The 

 nil uth ])arts are either wanting or arc very rudimentary. Perhaps the most 

 intere-tini; change i^ in the placing of the eyes. On the top is a ii.air nf 

 l;irge dark red e\es with a lighter ring of red around them. ( )n the un<ler 

 side (if the hearl. separated nearly as far as they can lie from the ones 



