38 CEEOPLASTES. 



The formation of the cereous test of the female 

 may be gathered by a study of the figures on PL XLII. 

 In the earliest stages the body is covered with a thick 

 coat of dark crimson wax (fig. 12), which is divided 

 into eight marginal plates and one large dorsal plate ; 

 the latter has a large central elliptic boss of snow-white 

 wax, and each of the marginal plates a central square 

 appendage of the same snow-white cereous matter, 

 while the anterior plate has three narrow appendages 

 and the posterior plate possesses two. After this stage 

 is reached a change evidently takes place in the insect, 

 and it is probably furnished with a new set of secreting 

 organs, as the wax which is subsequently secreted not 

 only takes a new form, but is of a beautiful pinkish- 

 white (fig. Ha). After the formation of the marginal 

 plates a quantity of wax is secreted on the dor sum, 

 which raises the test in front considerably, giving it a 

 somewhat limpet-like form. In such examples one can 

 clearly dee the wax which was first secreted by the 

 larva, the snow-white appendages with the dark 

 crimson portion surrounding them being incorporated 

 into the Avax which was subsequently secreted, forming, 

 as it were, large central nuclei. But as the insects 

 advance to maturity the test becomes highly convex 

 (figs, la, Ic), and, although the white appendages of 

 the larva with the surrounding crimson parts are still 

 traceable, they become much smaller, and sometimes 

 are entirely wanting. At parturition the body of the 

 female gradually shrinks, as in Lecanium and Vinsonia, 

 and the insect becomes a hollow hemisphere, filled, as 

 in Lecanium, with egg's. 



7 Oo 



I believe that the only known male of this rather 

 extensive genus is that of Ceroplastes ceriferus. The 

 specimens were collected by Miss L. E. Tomlin during a 

 visit to Madras in 1892-3, and I think that an abstract 

 from my original account of the insects may not be 

 without interest.* The specimens were found on a 

 "low bushy shrub (Asclepiadrom) growing in sandy 



* "Indian Museum Notes/ vol. iii (5), p. 21. 



