SCALE-INSECTS. 13 



The males are thus so small and rapid in their movements 

 that it is difficult in most cases to find them in a free state. 

 The usual way to procure them is by hatching them from the 

 pupse. In their course of life they pass through four stages, as 

 do the females viz. : 1, the egg ; 2, the larva ; 3, the pupa ; 

 4, the full-grown insect. 



1. The egg is, as far as can be made out, precisely the same 

 as that of the female, though Dr. Signoret believes that in one 

 or two species there may perhaps be minute differences. 



2. The larva is, as stated above, similar to that of the 

 female. 



3. The pupa. Here the first distinctions between the sexes 

 may be noted, and these are principally observable in the 

 cocoons or puparia, rather than in the insect itself at least to 

 outward appearance. The male pupa is, in all cases even in 

 those where the female pupa is naked enclosed in some kind 

 of covering. In the Diaspidince the puparium is formed partly 

 of fibrous secretion and partly of discarded skin ; only, as the 

 full-grown male emerges from it as a fly, and does not remain 

 on the plant, there can be only one such skin that of the 

 larva ; consequently it is easy to distinguish the male puparia 

 from the shields of the adult females by the presence of only 

 one discarded pellicle instead of two. In the Lecanidince and 

 the Coccidina the male puparia are distinguishable usually by a 

 narrower and more cylindrical form than those of the females, 

 where these latter are covered ; in the naked species the males 

 are generally in white waxy or cottony cocoons. 



Examination of the pupse in these coverings will generally 

 show more or less developed processes on the back and sides, 

 which are so evidently the rudiments of the future wings that 

 the presence of a male is not doubtful. In other respects the 

 male pupse are not always to be distinguished from the females. 



3. The full-grown male has been described above. It is 

 usually easy to procure specimens, provided the pupse are ob- 

 tained. If any of these, in their coverings, are put into pill- 

 boxes with glass tops, or any place where light reaches them, 

 they will generally produce the full-grown insect sometimes in 

 a few days, sometimes after several weeks. The time of year 

 for this seems very variable. Males emerge from the puparia 

 apparently indifferently (in New Zealand) in summer or winter. 



