COCCID^E. 227 



colour is of varying crimson shades, but after death the colour is 

 invariably chestnut-brown. 



The antennae are variable, and may be composed of six, seven, or 

 eight joints. It is, however, possible that eight is the typical number, 

 but two or more joints may be so fused together as to lose all trace of 

 segmentation. 



It is also considered that parasites have a peculiar influence in 

 determining the form of the scales. 



The insect not only varies in colour during the period of parturi- 

 tion, but even more so during the period of fecundation. Hence the 

 variety of form in the two stages has given an endless number of 

 specific synonyms, and coccidologists and general entomologists must 

 be grateful to Newstead for placing them all under one species. 



With regard to the life-history of this species, I found that the 

 larva? of insects from sycamore hatched out, in confinement, on May 

 25th. This was in Cheshire, and the 

 specimens having been kept in a warm 

 room, it is possible that this was rather 

 early. 



The larvae move about quite promis- 

 cuously for a time on leaves and shoots, 

 but early in the autumn they all betake 

 themselves to the shoots and moult. 

 They pass the winter in a comatose p . g 2Hm _ Male " o/ Lecanium . 

 state, and the sexes assert themselves in SffJ^fi ZEZX* 

 early spring ; but there is generally a 



preponderance of females, and in some cases males cannot be 

 found. 



In Cheshire Newstead found that males hatch about the end of 

 April or beginning of May, but in Northumberland I found, after 

 keeping puparia for two days in a cool room, that males appeared on 

 May 23 in 1901. Allowance must be made for the lateness of the 

 north, but it would seem as if twenty clays to a month elapses from 

 the appearance of the males to hatching of the larvae. The student 

 will be well repaid by following out the life-history of a Lecanium, as 

 it is in some respects a typical example of how variable in point of 

 time larval development and emergence may be. 



Newstead thus describes the male (fig. 214): "Pale crimson, with 

 the head, thoracic bands, and apodema crimson-black ; abdomen, legs, 



