OF THE STATE ENTOMOLOGIST. 83 



members budding out, and the delicate larval skin being gradually 

 loosened and detached; when, very soon after, the third molt takes 

 place, and the winged insect retreats from the hind end of his little 

 tenement and seeks his dissimilar mate, who is by nature forever de- 

 barred from enjoying the same aerial liberty. 



The male covering differs essentially, therefore, from that of the 

 female, not only in being of much smaller size, but in lacking the 

 medial scale. The anal shield seldom exceeds twice the length of the 

 larval scale, while in the female it sometimes extends six or seven 

 times the length of the larval and medial scales together. It is, 

 perhaps, a little more truncated behind and straighter than in the 

 female, of finer texture, and of lighter and brighter color; otherwise, 

 it has the same form (Fig. 31, g). I have found it quite abundantly 

 both on the upper and under sides of the leaves, especially along the 

 midrib ; and though it is also found associated with the scales of the 

 other sex, alike on the more succulent and the harder twigs, espe- 

 cially when thickly covered, yet the* leaves seem to be its natural 

 dwelling-place. The female, on the contrary — in that part of the 

 country, at least, where there is but one annual brood — seldom settles 

 on these deciduous organs; were she to do so, there would be no 

 security for her eggs, which would drop with the leaf to the ground 

 and perish. How wonderful must be that power which guides the 

 new-born atoms, and allows the short-lived male to wander on to the 

 succulent leaf, while it wisely prompts the female to remain on the 

 more permanent twig! Nor is the wonder diminished in the least, 

 whether we believe the power to be direct Irom the Supreme and 

 Infinite, or — after finding that it is fallible, and that the female some- 

 times commits the fatcx pas of settling on the deciduous leaf and 

 fruit, while the male often settles on the twigs — indirect through 

 inheritance and congenital habit! The respective actions being by 

 no means constant, the instinct prompting them can not claim infalli- 

 bility, and may be accounted for on the principles of heredity, as 

 there is a constant weeding out of all such females who chance to 

 depart from those actions required to perpetuate their kind. 



THE MALE LOUSE. 



Though, from analogy, all authors have felt that the male of this 

 bark-louse must have an existence, yet he has never heretofore been 

 discovered or described. During the latter part of June and fore part 

 of July I succeeded in rearing quite a number from scales from Mr. 

 Palmer's orchard, and the ventral and dorsal figures which I have 

 made (Fig. 31, a I) will convey a correct idea of this interesting little 

 being. The wings appear whitish, and under a high magnifying 

 power are seen to be covered with infinitesimally small hooks or 

 bristles (e). The general color of the body is pale purplish-brown — 

 not unlike the color of the shield which protected him — and, like the 



