90 Farmers’ Bulletin 1257. 
THE FLORIDA WAX SCALE. 
The Florida wax scale * (fig. 11), when not obscured by sooty mold 
or other foreign matter, is pure white, often with a pinkish shade 
imparted to it by the red color of the insect beneath. When seen 
against the deep green of the mango leaf or stem, it is a beautiful 
object. The full-grown female is an eighth of an inch or less in 
length, oval in general outline, but presenting an angular appear- 
ance, due to the dome-shaped masses of wax on the back. Of these 
there is one large, rounded, central dome, surrounded by six or eight 
KiG, 11.—The Florida wax scale: Adult and young scales on mango leaf, 
lesser ones, placed in a circle about the margin of the scale and sep- 
arated from the central dome by a depression. 
The eggs are dark red and many are clustered beneath an adult 
female. The pale-brown crawlers show a preference for the leaves, 
where they collect, especially along the midrib on the undersurface. 
The young larve are star-shaped and even more beautiful than the 
adults. Three or four months are required for growth, and there are 
three principal broods of crawlers, which appear during April and 
May, July and August, and October and November. 
8 Ceroplastes floridensis Comst. 
