35 



The general appearance of the insect, however, is strikingly dissimilar, 

 owing to the waxy excretions from the ventral plate of the adult 

 female insect. These are ribbed, or fluted, from whence the insect 

 takes its name, and become the receptacle of a vast number of eggs, a 

 single female being the possible parent of more than a thousand young. 

 The waxy material constituting the egg sac issues from countless pores 

 on the under side of the body, especially along the posterior and 

 lateral edges. As this secretion accumulates the body is lifted, so 

 that ultimately the insect appears to be standing* almost on its head, 

 or nearly at right angles to the bark. The eggs are laid in the waxy 

 secretion as it is formed, the waxy fluted mass often becoming from 

 two to two and one-half times as long as the insect itself. The 3'oung 

 are of reddish color, very active, and spread b}^ their own efl'orts 

 and by the agency of the winds, 

 birds, and other insects. The 

 female insect is, for the most 

 part, a reddish orange, more 

 or less spotted with white or 

 lemon. 



The early stages of the male 

 are similar to the correspond- 

 ing stages of the female. Be- 

 fore appearing as an adult, the 

 male insect secretes itself in 

 some crack in the bark, or in 

 the ground, and exudes a waxy 

 covering, which forms a sort of 

 cocoon, in which the transfor- 

 mations are undergone, first into 

 the pupa and then into the adult 

 insect. The winged male (fig. 

 28) is rather large for a coccid, and has a reddish body with smoky 

 wings. 



The rate of growth of the fluted scale is comparatively slow, and it 

 does not normally have more than three generations annualh' . This 

 insect is quite active, the female traveling and moving about very 

 freely nearl}' up to the time when she finally settles for egg-laj^ing. 

 The male is active up to the time when it settles down to make its 

 cocoon. 



The fluted scale exudes a great quantity of honeydew, and trees 

 badly attacked by it are covered with the sooty fungus, characteristic 

 of the black scale and the white ^j. 



The remedy for this scale insect is alwa3^s and emphatically to secure 

 at once its natural and efficient enemy, the JVovins cardinalis. Where 

 this insect can not readily be secured, the scale may be kept in check by 



Fig. 29. — Novius cardinalis, Australian ladj-bird ene- 

 my of the fluted scale : a, ladybird larvae feeding 

 on adult female and egg sac; b, pupa; c, adult lady- 

 bird; rf, orange twig, showing scale and ladybirds — 

 natural size (author's illustration). 



