220 SCALE-INSECTS, BARK-LICE, MEALY-BUGS. 
“It is at this time more than one-quarter of an inch in length, 
and appears as a white, fluffy mass, with an oval, brown head, 
which is in reality the scale itself, though forming less than half 
the length of the apparent creature. The female at this time 
feeds ravenously, pumping sap continually in such quantity that 
there is a constant excretion of honey-dew, which drips to the 
ground below. The enormous number of eggs, from 1,000 to 
2,000, are also matured and forced into the fluffy mass. They 
are brown, exceedingly minute, held together by the waxy fibers 
surrounding them, and become so numerous as to force the in- 
sect from the twig upon which it rests, until it remains at- 
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Fic. 180a—Pulvinaria sianmerabilia Rathv.: a, female scales in autumn—natural 
size; b, dorsal view; c, do; ventral view—enlarged. After Fobres. 
tached only by its beak and by the adhesive character of the 
excretion. The eggs begin to hatch about the middle of June 
and continue until well into July, forming a young larva which 
is quite deep orange in color. It is about the beginning of July 
that the great mass of the eggs seems to hatch, and at that time 
infested twigs and leaves will be literally swarming with thou- 
sands upon thousands of the little creatures. In two or three 
days they fix themselves along the ribs of the leaf, or, more rarely, 
on young twigs, and begin to feed and increase in size. The 
formation of the scale begins immediately ,and not until about 
_ three weeks ‘thereafter do we have the first moult or change of 
the skin. The waxy secretion or scale then increases in thick- 
ness and the difference between the sexes becomes noticeable. 
‘The males grow more slender and soon cease to increase in size, 
