24G 



G.UIPOLA A^B THE COFFEE EEGIOXS. [Part YII. 



Until she has nearly reached her full size, she still possesses 

 the power of locomotion, and her six legs are easily distinguish- 

 able in the under surface of her corpulent body; but at no 

 period of her existence has she wings. It is about the time of her 

 obtaining full size that impregnation takes place (Reaumur has 

 described the singular manner in which this occurs, Mem., torn. 

 iv.), after which the scale becomes somewhat more conical, as- 

 sumes a darker colour, and at length is permanently fixed to the 

 surface of the plant, by means of a cottony substance interposed 

 between it and the vegetable cuticle to which it adheres. The 

 scale, when full grown, exactly resembles in miniature the hat of 

 a Cornish miner, there being a narrow rim at the base, which 

 gives increased surface of attachment. It is about ^ inch in 

 diameter, by about yV deep, and it appears perfectly smooth to 

 the naked eye, but it is in reality studded over with a multitude 

 of very minute warts, giving it a dotted appearance ; it is entirely 

 destitute of hairs, except the margin, which is ciliated. The 

 number of eggs contained in one of the scales is enormous, 

 amounting in a single one to 691. The esrsrs are of an oblong 

 shape, of a pale flesh colour, and perfectly smooth. A few 

 small yellowish maggots are sometimes found with the eggs ; 

 these are the larvee ^ of insects, the eggs of which have been 

 deposited in the female while the scale was soft. They escape 

 when mature by cutting a small round hole in the dorsum of the 

 scale. 



It is not till after this pest has been on an estate for two or 

 three years that it shows itself to an alarming extent. During 

 the first year, a few only of the ripe scales are seen scattered 

 over the bushes, generally on the younger shoots ; but that 

 year's crop does not suffer much, and the appearance of the 

 tree is little altered. The second year, however, brings a 

 change for the worse ; if the young shoots and the underside of 

 the leaves be now examined, the scales will be found to have 

 become much more numerous, and with them appear a multitude 

 of white specks, which are the young scales in a more or less 

 forward state. The clusters of berries now assume a black 

 sooty look, and a great number of them fall off before coming 



1 Of the parasitic Clialcididino, 

 many genera of which are Avell 

 knoAAni to deposit their eggs in the 

 soft Coccus, viz. : Encystus, Cocco- 

 phagus, Pteromulus, Mesosehi, Ago- 



nioneurus ; besides Aphidius, a 

 minutely sized genus of Ichneu- 

 monidtB. ]\rost, if not all, these 

 s-enera ai-e Singhalese. 



