THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 329 
introduced us to each other. The young Coccus first treads 
the stage of active life in the character of a minute hexapod 
spider: it is of a reddish brown colour, and appears a spider 
in ali things except in the number of legs; a spider ought to 
possess eight. I do not doubt that in this state it is often 
denominated the “red spider,” and treated with nostrums 
originally devised for the destruction of that mischievous 
mite. The young Cocci, which Mr. Gratton and I examined, 
were obtained from the seeds of the whitethorn; and I am 
bound to confess that we allowed them to escape without 
being able to supply a “ missing link” in their biography, 
which should have united their active spider-life to their 
vegetative existence: we examined them as spiders again 
and.again ; we obtained minute scales from the same locali- 
ties only a few days afterwards; but we never found any 
direct evidence that the one had been transformed into the 
other. I feel very confident that the authorities correctly 
assert that these spider-like creatures anchor themselves in 
the rind of the twig by means of their sap-sucking rostrum ; 
but I never witnessed the operation. A very few days 
elapsed between the escape of the insects from the eggs and 
their reappearance as little scales or shells tightly fixed on 
the rind of the twig, and, of course, perfectly immovable: 
the rostrum is, doubtless, the instrument by which this 
anchorage is effected. ‘This rostrum, or piercing organ, 
appears to come from the very centre of the stomach, but 
the appearance is not real: the rostrum is, without doubt, 
a portion of the head, like the mouth of all other insects; 
but the fore part of the head, and in consequence the mouth, 
of the scale-insect, is bent under the breast until the mouth 
is brought into the situation described: this arrangement can 
only be observed by lifting up the scale-like creature and 
laying it on its back. At first all these infant Cocci are 
alike in size and shape: they look just like a parcel of tiny 
tortoises fixed to the rind, and sometimes to the leaves. Like 
most other insects the.Cocci are males and females ; neither 
in their spider-life nor in the first few days of their scale-life 
have I been able to distinguish the sexes; but after these 
first few days there is an obvious difference in size; the 
females grow rapidly, but the males do not change: they 
arrive at their full stature very speedily, and a very small 
